Major Arena Soccer League 2
Second Division of the MASL Indoor Soccer Pyramid
Minnesota Blizzard will start play in 2024-25 Major Arena Soccer League 2 season
After an absence of more than three decades, professional indoor soccer is returning to the Twin Cities.
Major Arena Soccer League 2 has approved the Minnesota Blizzard FC as the league’s newest team. The Blizzard will be playing their home matches in St. Paul at the 5,000 seat Warner Coliseum on the State Fairgrounds.
The team is owned by local businessman Chad Hendricks, a Twin Cities native who went to the University of Minnesota for engineering and also later got a degree in accounting from Rasmussen College. He is the founder and owner of Clear Choice Consulting in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
The Twin Cities has been without pro indoor soccer since the Minnesota Strikers played their final season at Met Center in 1988 in the original Major Indoor Soccer League.
“I go back to, as a kid in the 1980s, we had the Minnesota Strikers with Tino Lettieri and Hector Marinaro and Coach Alan Merrick,” Hendricks recalled. “My Dad and I used to go to all the games, and like so many, fell in love with the action, the high scoring. I have a strong passion for the sport. I was hooked after my first game.”
Hendricks played high school soccer at Wayzata, a western suburb of the Twin Cities, and remains active in the sport as both a player and long time coach. The Blizzard is an expansion on other amateur teams managed by Hendricks. The teams that laid the foundation for the Blizzard were the Wolverines FC, The Storm and most recently Lakeville United. These teams play in the two Minnesota amateur soccer associations, Minnesota Amateur Soccer League and Minnesota Recreational Soccer League.
“Chad is all about excellence in everything he does which makes the Blizzard a great addition for MASL 2,” Commissioner Chris Economides said. “As a highly successful business person and lifelong soccer enthusiast, he fully understands what it takes and is fully committed to making the Blizzard a model M2 franchise.”
Hendricks said the Blizzard will be a year-round operation, with on outdoor team set to launch later this summer in the National Premier Soccer League.
The Blizzard join the Wisconsin Conquerors as new franchises for the 2024-25 season, and will be immediate geographic rivals. The two teams will be about two and a half hours apart. The Blizzard’s new home has also served as an ice hockey hub for high school and college games for decades.
For more information on the Blizzard visit mnblizzardfc.com, or email them at info@mnblizzardfc.com. Fans can follow the team on social media:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mnblizzardfc.bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mnblizzardfc/