Face to face: Dan Hoedeman
How important has the club’s ethos been in light of recent events in the city?
Nobody, least of all us, expected anything that 2020 has brought. Despite everything that has happened, we find ourselves in a place to help. It starts simply. We don’t treat fans like “Brand Ambassadors” or revenue streams to be maximised. When we take action, we take it as a club: players, staff, fans, all together. So when COVID-19 hit, our fans lined up to help.
How has the club’s work laid a foundation for the most vulnerable in these communities prior to recent events?
On the one hand, we’re just a soccer club. On the other hand, there is power in bringing people together across generations, ethnicities, and socio-economic classes in a positive environment where we are working toward a common goal. Our part was small, the fans did the hard work, but we helped to raise awareness, raise money, and that makes a difference. We want to do more, and I know that we will. Right now, it’s a lot of small steps. But we are moving in the right direction. Our fans share that desire to make a difference. We’ve had donations for our food drive, over100 volunteers sign up for a pop-up pantry, and vocal support in spreading the word. It’s been overwhelming, and shows what a group of regular people can achieve if they work together.
How have lower-league clubs such as yourselves been affected by the coronavirus crisis?
Our season was cancelled, and our U.S. Open Cup first-round match was postponed a week before we were to leave, so we paid all of the expenses like indoor training facilities, hotels and kit, and then didn’t play the game.
We were lucky though. We offered refunds to our supporters for their season ticket, and less than 2 per cent of our members took the refund. The rest turned it into a donation. Many of our players donated money as well. And, by dumb luck, we had done a kit launch before COVID that was really successful. The people carried the club through, and we’ll be back stronger in 2021. Not all clubs are that lucky. Some have a higher cost structure, others don’t have the supporters we do, and still others have owners whose other businesses, which make the soccer club possible, are badly impacted. Clubs lose a lot of money every year even when they’re playing.
How does the restrictive structure of the US league system, with no promotion or relegation, affect the club’s ambition?
We believe that promotion and relegation would make a massive difference in US soccer, but while that remains a pipe dream what drives us forward are the things we haven’t done at this level. For example, we may have won the conference, but we haven’t won the post-season tournament. We have a crazy history with the U.S. Open Cup and are keen to make our mark on that stage as well. That said, there does come a point when you get a little wistful about what could be. There is no real pyramid here so the leagues are all fractured and there are a number of clubs we want to play regularly, and who we know want to play against us, but we’re in different leagues. It’s a ridiculous situation. It holds us all back.
Could you describe the context of the club’s place in the NPSL?
The league is broken into geographically close conferences of teams. We play in the North Conference, which makes up teams from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and western Wisconsin. The top two finishers in conference move on to the regional play-offs. The Midwest region has clubs from Indiana, eastern Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and upstate New York. The regional winners (there are four regions) have a knockout tournament to determine the national champion. We’ve won the North Conference the past two seasons. There are and have been fantastic clubs in the league. Especially the past two seasons where we have seen professional outfits like New York Cosmos, Miami FC, Detroit City FC and Chattanooga FC. It’s especially heartening to see how we have done given our people-powered club and only Minnesota-based player approach. We went toe-to-toe with the big guns and showed we belong.