What prompted the founding of Lansing Common? Is there a person who can say they started the club, or has it been a group effort?
It’s been a group effort from the beginning, and that’s an important part of our story. When we gathered our community in November 2019 after Lansing Ignite folded, we wanted to know if this was something people wanted and we heard a resounding yes. From day one we’ve been committed to this being a group effort because we saw with Lansing Ignite what happens when one person is in charge and is not accountable to the community. It’s been a group effort, led by our 7-member board, but we’ve worked with our community all along the way and will continue to do that going forward. There’s a ton of people who have put time and effort into making Lansing Common what it is, and that’s what we think makes it special.

What inspired the name? Also, we love the colors and balance of your crest - what influenced those elements?
Common is the root of the word community. Throughout our branding process, it became evident that community is the most important value of our club so we wanted our name to reflect that in some way.

The colors reflect our club values as well. The intense Red-Orange reflects the passion we had to keep men’s soccer alive in Lansing. Brown reflects the warmth and safety of a caring community. The turquoise was added as a touch of good fortune that all lower league soccer teams need to make it. The decision that the club symbol would be the robin was actually a separate discussion, but in the end, fit perfectly with what our process said our colors should be..

Back in the safe, pre-covid days, Lansing Common had their first meeting.

You've joined the Midwest Premier League - there are some great clubs there, who are you most looking forward to playing?
We’re really looking forward to going up against clubs like Lk. St. Clair, Livonia City, and others who share our passion and commitment to community-based soccer. There’s a lot of great clubs in the league, including some we’d love to play but probably won’t get to for a while because of the divisional structure of the league.

Covid pending, what level of support are you expecting to come out for a match? How financially dependent is the club on having fans come to a game or two?
We budgeted so that we’re not financially dependent on single-game ticket sales, but we have sold a lot of season ticket memberships so obviously, we’re really hopeful that people who have purchased those will be able to attend games. We’ve said previously that we think we can get 500+ to come out for a match, and if we’re doing a good job sticking to our mission, that’s probably a pretty modest goal.

Several clubs created custom roasts this year, Lansing Common got up a little early to get the worm though…

Do you have a women's squad or a youth organization; aside from running a men's team, are you promoting soccer in any other way throughout the community?
At this point, we just have the men’s team competing in the MWPL. Many of us have been supporters of Lansing United for years and will continue to support their women’s team which competes in UWS. We’re currently working on building relationships with some of the existing adult and youth soccer organizations in the Lansing area. One of our priorities in promoting soccer within the community is providing opportunities and eliminating many of the barriers to participation that currently exist, especially in youth soccer. We’re still working out what that looks like for us, but that’s where our focus will be.

What will define success for the club in 2021?
There’s so much that goes into this for us. We’ve said we want to be a community organization that happens to run a soccer team, so building strong relationships throughout our community, and contributing to Mid-Michigan’s recovery efforts after this past year has to be high on the list.

Success on the field means putting a team on the field that represents our community and that people here are proud to support. If we do that and give people an experience that they feel connected to, we’ll see the results in attendance numbers and all that.

Lastly, we’re all new to running a soccer club, so gaining the experience of operating a full season, paying attention to how things are going, and learning from what works and what doesn’t is incredibly important. That’s how we make sure this continues to grow into a sustainable club that truly contributes to strengthening the Lansing area.

Learn more about Lansing Common FC HERE

Follow manager Josh Oakley and Lansing Common Football Club in 2021