Stars-McGuire Press Conference

Holding a press conference at 3PM on a Thursday doesn’t seem the best recipe for fan turnout, but you couldn’t tell by looking around the room at Brit’s today. A few dozen familiar faces from the Dark Clouds and other supporters were on hand as well as the press as you can see from KSTP’s video embedded above.

Dark Clouds prepared and delivered customized “executive tote bags” for the new owners. The bags included a Dark Clouds scarf, hot nuts, and Surly, which McGuire seemed more excited about than the custom Stars 2012 home kit that David Downs brought him. So, while it remains to be seen how big of a soccer fan McGuire is, at least we know he’s on the same team where it counts, as a Surly fan. Co-owner, Nicholas Rogers, later also tweeted the Dark Clouds a thank you for the tote bag along with a picture.

While Brian Quarstad and others (Strib) have reported most of the announcements made at the event, there was one additional bit of new information from McGuire’s remarks: Manny will be back. McGuire said, “I think for sure we have Manny who’s gonna be with us from years to come,” before indicating that he also expected that Djorn would return.

There were several news cameras including KSTP as obvious above and Brave New Media, also as seen in the video above. MPR also was in attendance and it is safe to assume that several other outlets were on hand as well. Dark Clouds were represented well and I’m guessing that any coverage from the event will reflect that. So, if you were there, look for yourself on the news tonight.

All in all, everybody in the room got how exciting this was for the teams and the fans. It’s been a long hard road over the last few years, and Downs reflected that when he pointed out that the league had met with “everyone and anyone that would listen to us and give us guidance” in the search for a club owner. Djorn hit the nail on the head though when he called the event “one of, if not the most, exciting day in the history of Minnesota Soccer.”

The Stars front office said that 15-20 people had already put down deposits on season tickets before the press conference started. It’s a good start, but we still have a long way to go to get to the 10,000 per game attendance that McGuire set as a target in 2013. We need to show the new owners that we’re serious about turning out to support the team! If you haven’t made the $50 deposit on next year’s tickets yet, get on the phone tomorrow morning and call the team at (763) 792-7355 or order on the Stars’ website. Better yet, go ahead and spray that link around on the Twitters and the Facebook. For every 50 deposits made before 5PM Friday, November 16th one will be drawn to get their season ticket free.