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Major League Soccer Commissioner, Don Garber, was asked about expansion teams in a recent interview. When asked about how big in the league could get, Garber responded saying that with Minnesota United FC and Atlanta United joining the league in 2017 and LAFC set to join in 2018, the league is on a good track.
But then he said something that caught our eye.
Garber stated that Atlanta and Minnesota are doing well at selling season tickets (which in fairness, we do not dispute). Atlanta has sold “over 20,000” tickets and Minnesota was around 15,000.
#MLS commissioner, @thesoccerdon, estimates #MNUFC has sold 15,000 season tickets. Anyone else surprised at that number? pic.twitter.com/jGnBiWlEVl
— E Pluribus Loonum (@EPluribusLoonum) December 9, 2016
Considering the last season ticket sales number was around 8,000 sold, we took that statement to our followers, and there seems to be a consensus that it is a bit of an exaggeration.
@EPluribusLoonum @thesoccerdon Yes, solely based on how @MNUFC is still pushing the #ItascaSociety, which tells me they aren't over 11,842.
— Kyle Henning (@kylehenning) December 9, 2016
The team started the “Itasca Society” for the first 11,000+ season ticket holders as a nod to the many lakes in this great state (and to help conserve the loon population...really a great cause). I know that I have still received emails about the Society, so it just seems strange to me that we would be above that number all of a sudden.
Maybe the Soccer Don knows something that we don’t, and we would be ecstatic if that was the case. The last season ticket estimate of 8,000 did come in late September, and a lot can happen in two months (and with MLS preseason starting in less than that and two players on our roster, I hope a lot can happen in a short period of time). Maybe Garber’s number isn’t that far off.
We will follow up as more information is available.