ST. PAUL, Minn. - As CEO of Minnesota United FC Chris Wright doesn’t have too many bad days. However, when his home country of England’s lost to Croatia in last week’s semifinals at the World Cup, Wright was down in the dumps a bit.
“I had (England Head coach Derek) Southgate here at Super Bowl and I got really vested in his program and what he was trying to do”, says Wright. “He laid a lot of stuff out that night and so I was all-in and I felt so bad, but I knew that we were going to have problems with Croatia, actually.”
Wright recognized the tactical problems posed by Croatia because despite spending the last 26-years climbing the ranks with the Timberwolves and Lynx, his roots are in soccer. That made his move to the fledgling Loons more logical than it may have appeared to outsiders.
“I have a lot of experience in a lot of different disciplines that allowed me to walk in to a job like the one I have here and really do it with a lot of intense passion, to build something that is really special in the global game of soccer," Wright explained. "So, I’m really excited about the fact that my history sort of led me to this opportunity at the tail-end of my career. So, I can give it my all and try to build something very special for the people of Minnesota, and the people of sport, and MN UFC.”
While the Loons haven’t enjoyed the type of success on the pitch that Wright and United ownership envisioned at the start of the season, that hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm where their core customers are concerned. The sweet spot includes a notoriously elusive group that EVERY business is trying to target.
“The millennial audience is flocking to us and the reason for that is a lot of them did play the game”, Wright reasons. “Their parents had them play soccer years ago because of the cardiovascular benefit to having the kid run around, it’s a cheap sport, etcetera, etcetera. Now they’re adults, they have their own kids and those kids are now playing the game, and millennials are now driving this engine that we now have, and for all intensive purposes, are in a lot of the stadiums around the country, supporting the national team and taking their kids to games.”
At a time when baseball is struggling with pace of play and drawing kids, and football is dealing with concussions and a decline in participation, soccer is booming. The popularity of the sports is especially strong among those who grew-up playing the game and have now reached the work force.
“Sixty-two percent of our audience is between the ages of 18 and 35”, says Wright. “And when you rattle-off those numbers and you see the growth curve of different sports, we believe that we’re right on the front-end of a massive growth curve for our sport in this country.”
The team was already engaged in building a privately funded stadium in the Midway area of St. Paul when Wright took-over as CEO of MN United FC last October. The club has already sold its allotment of 14,500 season tickets, leaving the organization in a rather unique marketing position.
“What we’re spending a lot of time on right now is not necessarily how we sell those last 5,000 seats because we know they’re going to go”, says Wright. “It’s really how do we create an atmosphere outside of the stadium so that the other five, six, ten thousand people who want to be inside the stadium, but can’t be inside the stadium, have some level of game day experience around the stadium itself. That’s watching on big screen TV’s or whatever it may be, we’re sort of planning all that even as we speak so, very excited about the growth there as we’re heading down a really, really good path.”
As for the Loon's on-the-field product, the club recently added two prominent international players and promises the off-season will bring more changes to the roster.
“We’ve already changed 25% of our starting lineup to make sure that we’re competitive by the time that we open up at Allianz Field in 2019, says Wright. “So, with two more transfer windows to go I’m sure that the team will be very competitive next year with some of the talent that we’re planning on bringing in.”
A huge fan of TED talk influencer and best-selling author Simon Sinek, Wright quotes his guru when he says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. With that in mind, Wright has MN United FC clearly focused on what he says will the final act in his sports business career.
“We’ve got to build a sustainable business model so that we can grow the team and make sure that the team is competitive and make sure that our owners, in some way, shape of form, are given the opportunity to enjoy this investment, which is substantial, in a great stadium, in a great state, with great fans," Wright explains. "So, all of that is the challenge of it all but we are well down the path to making that happen in a very positive way.”