The real problem that no one wants to talk about in amateur soccer is the fact that the whole system exists because of unpaid labor. Without exploiting the bodies of young men and women, the entire pyramid collapses. Most clubs don’t have the bank accounts to bear the weight of a living wage payroll for the players that fill their rosters and justify the system with buzzwords like “development” and “path to pro”. Even some lower level professional clubs fill the back ends of their benches with players on amateur contracts (read unpaid). It’s a problem, one that no one is trying to fix.

Enter Minneapolis City.

Today, the club announced that it’s launching an “NIL Collective for City players.” Effectively the club will begin paying players through the proceeds of their new line of merchandise Minnesota Made. When Minnesota Made products are purchased, 20% of the purchase goes into an NIL collective account that will pay out quarterly to MPLS City players who opt-in to the program. While Protagonist Soccer cannot verify that it’s the first of its kind, it is certainly the first one of its scale we’re aware of. As the announcement phrased it, it’s a “great way to support local guys working hard to get to the next level.”

Even if you aren’t aware what NIL stands for (Name, Image and Likeness), you’ve heard of this type of program. It’s how college players across the country are finally getting paid by the universities that have long benefited from their talent. And while some college coaches have spoken out against it, as they sign multi-million dollar contracts, players are finally getting a piece of the pie.

Dan Hoedeman of MPLS City spoke with Protagonist about the new program and its goals. “It was one of those great 'what if?' moments. A small group of us were riffing together in our basement dungeon world headquarters space, reviewing some t-shirt, hat, and hoodie designs and talking about how our players were all ‘Minnesota Made’ when Sarah Schreier, who has been with the club since the beginning, asked if there was an NIL play here where proceeds of a ‘Minnesota Made’ line could support our ‘Minnesota Made’ players. Then Tyler Birschbach, another old hand, said he knew a guy. That guy happened to be an attorney at Fredrikson & Byron who was leading a Sports and NIL Clinic with the University of Minnesota Law School. And before you knew it, we realized that we had something here.”

The program is built as a collective rather than an individual deal, so proceeds will be pooled and split evenly between players. The important requirement will be that players have to opt-in to the deal. “The opt-in is basically a contract, and it outlines what they do and what we do to give an explicit structure to this effort--which ensures that the NCAA can look at this and it's all above board. The attorneys are finalizing the paperwork now and we'll get that to the players, which makes sense timing-wise and they're starting to arrive at training camp as their school years come to a close.”

Hoedeman highlights that involving legal specialists was a must, given the concerns around collegiate eligibility. “As I told the attorneys, ‘I want to find a way to get some financial rewards to the players. But I really don't want to end up on the front page of the Star Tribune for losing 30 guys their college eligibility because I screwed it up.’”

For people to support this program, they simply need to purchase Minnesota Made. The first product in the line is a hoodie, but MPLS City plans to “roll out additional items, both general items that support the player collective and individual items that can support a specific player.” If we know anything about MPLS City, it’s that this line of merchandise will look great.

“The idea is that as the club grows, and our revenue from merchandise (a massive source of our revenue) grows, the players' payouts grow too so we're all in this together.”

- Dan Vaughn