On the surface, the announcement sounded like everything lower league fans hate about the American game. Local club has a track record of success, grows organically in a city, develops a reputation for getting results, then another club from a different league gobbles them up. It’s a tale as old as time or at least the last 100 years in American soccer. We call it soccer warz, but we could also call it the norm.

The announcement in question was that Rochester FC, a USL2/USLW club, had acquired Med City. Med City, founded in 2017, had played 6 seasons in the NPSL and qualified for the playoffs in half of them. The club was coming off what most would consider its most successful season. Med City finished the 2023 campaign 6-2-4 in the regular season and made it to the Regional Semifinals in the NPSL playoffs before exiting. It also won the inaugural Minnesota Super Cup, a state competition between “pre-professional and semi-pro clubs in Minnesota.” So for many, the acquisition came as a surprise.

But according to Dr. Rafael Sierra, Vice President/Owner of Rochester FC, the acquisition was in motion for most of the offseason. “We've been talking to Frank [Spaeth] now for a couple of months. Frank has been the mastermind behind Med City over the last seven years and we were really impressed with what he had done with the club.” Spaeth’s work was of such quality that part of the acquisition included adding him to the current staff at RFC as Gameday Operations Manager. Sierra spoke highly of the former Med City owner repeatedly as he discussed the acquisition. “What Frank has done for the soccer community in the last seven years…he's really brought a lot of supporters to his club and all of those things have not gone unrecognized by the soccer community. For us, it's important to have Frank involved with this club. He is an important piece of this puzzle.”

Growth Potential in the Real World

Dominic Bisogno, former contributor with Protagonist Soccer and current Sun Post Sports Editor, pointed out that the two clubs had plenty of connective tissue between them, including players and staff, making integration pretty seamless. But what Med City didn’t have was a path to grow beyond its league. “The NPSL is going to continue to struggle to grow out of what it already has, especially now that the UPSL has really covered the lower-level, lower-budget, teams in the state. Med City didn’t really have an option to move, they can't move up.” A confluence of factors has really shifted the soccer scene in Minnesota. First, the UPSL has shown significant growth in the state over the last few years, particularly with smaller clubs, which Bisogno highlighted. Secondly, USL League Two has also become a major player in the preprofessional market in the state, focusing on the better-financed and bigger amateur clubs. Finally, and paired with the previous point, the NPSL has lost many of those types of clubs to the USL. For clubs wanting to grow to a semi-pro or professional level, the USL system has plenty of potential, with League One and Championship above its rapidly growing pre-professional League Two. With Rochester FC already a USL club, “this clearly has been the answer to that question, to merge with the team that's already taken that spot, and try to create a collectively better project.”

Dan Hoedman, co-founder of MPLS City (which used to play in the NPSL and now in USL League Two), sees the move as making sense for several reasons. “Rochester isn't a huge town and so to me it seems like this is a good thing for them. I think more people in soccer should work together…often times, the default is to start something new, rather than work with who's already there.” That sentiment was mirrored in Sierra’s comments on the acquisition. “We live in a community of about 125,000 people. With two high-level pre professional soccer clubs, it's really hard to support both…So I think it's a good thing for the community. It's a good thing for youth development to be able to have one club where they can look up to. And then eventually, if the plans go as we envision them in the next few years, become a professional club.”

The two clubs faced each other in the Rochester Cup. *This image and the cover image courtesy of Louis Livingston-Garcia and fiftyfive.one*

While both clubs have grown into their own in the city of Rochester, MN, there are certain growth limitations within the small town if the clubs intend to expand. As Hoedeman put it, “it's not a huge city. So joining forces they’re going to be better together than separately. Two clubs fighting for sponsors, two clubs fighting for fans, two clubs fighting for players - if they can find a happy working relationship, I think they can do some big things.” Bisogno sees the situation similarly, given the expertise of the two clubs, Rochester FC “seems like a pretty solid operation since leaving the UPSL and the idea that they're going to have the resources and the know-how of Med City joining forces with them, that certainly feels like a recipe for some success. I think that it makes sense for these two teams to come together and put their resources together.”

The More Things Change

When Protagonist was founded in late 2018, the NPSL North was one of the shining examples of amateur soccer success in the country. Minneapolis City, Med City, and Duluth FC were the big three in the North. Now, six years later, just one of those clubs remains in the NPSL. And, if anything, that may be the real lesson to take from this story. Bisogno nailed it as we discussed the Rochester acquisition. “This move says more about the NPSL than it does the USL…it reflects the continued shift and transformation of that conference and the league’s presence here.” The NPSL is no longer the premier amateur league in Minnesota and most of the midwest. For smaller clubs, the UPSL or local/regional leagues are a better option. For the larger clubs, the USL has become the destination league.

Rochester’s acquisition and absorption of Med City was a move that made sense for two clubs in a small city in Minnesota and while keyboard warriors may read their axe-grinding into the announcement, the reality is that it made financial, geographic, and logistic sense for both clubs. This was not a hostile takeover but a combination of two organizations to grow the sport in Rochester.

- Dan Vaughn