While the mind-boggling championship drought that spans multiple generations rages on among Minnesota’s pro men’s teams, on the women’s side, banners and parades have been much more common.
With pro women’s basketball, hockey and soccer teams like the Lynx, Frost and Aurora, respectively, winning games and fans in the Twin Cities, Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold wanted in on the fun — and another dozen-plus events each winter and spring at Grand Casino Arena.
Enter Major League Volleyball and a team that will begin play in downtown St. Paul in 2027.
At a press conference inside the arena lobby on Tuesday, Leipold and others gushed about the Twin Cities as a volleyball market, noting that the state had 17,000 registered youth volleyball players this season, placing it in the top five nationally.
“We’ve been working on an opportunity to get involved in women’s sports for a couple years now,” Leipold said. “This opportunity is one that we have spent a lot of time and due diligence looking at, which is the best opportunity for us.”
Major League Volleyball will have eight teams for the coming season, and it will expand to at least 11 by the time the Minnesota team comes onboard in January 2027. Between now and then, there will be a reveal of the team’s logo, colors and name, and a collegiate draft in the spring, when the St. Paul team will begin to put its roster together.
Last Friday, a competing group, League One Volleyball, announced that a Minnesota franchise also will begin play in the Twin Cities in January 2027. That team’s home venue has not been announced.
Currently, Atlanta and Omaha have teams in both pro volleyball leagues.
“We spent a lot of time on determining which league was best for our skill set, and what value we as an organization bring to which league,” Leipold said. “We felt like our skill set is our knowledge of our market, our ability to sell tickets, our ability to sell sponsorship. You know, that’s what we do. That’s who we are.”
Among the speakers at the press conference was Sarah Wilhite-Parsons, an outside hitter for the league’s Omaha Supernovas and a former Gophers star. She was the Big Ten Player of the Year in 2016 following her run as two-time Minnesota player of the year at Eden Prairie High School.
Until just recently, top tier volleyball options beyond American college were almost exclusively overseas, and Wilhite-Parsons played professionally for seven years in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Japan and Brazil before signing with a U.S.-based league.
“It’s surreal to be up here, hearing about a professional team coming to my hometown,” she said.
Leipold added that he was hoping to avoid charges of tampering from the league so soon into his tenure as an owner, but he would love to have Wilhite-Parsons play in Minnesota someday.
Team officials acknowledged the MVL season, which runs from January to May, comes at a time that is already busy for the arena, home to the NHL’s Wild, PWHL’s Frost, and state prep tournaments for girls hockey, wrestling and boys hockey, as well as concerts and other events.
“We will likely have weekends where we’ll have afternoon volleyball and maybe (evening) hockey games,” Leipold said. “It’s being done in other markets. It can happen. It’ll be one of our challenges to make it work.”
According to league officials on hand, current MVL teams average about 4,000 fans a game, with Omaha routinely drawing closer to 10,000. Minnesota is aiming for around 8,000 on average, and was quick to promote the website that has been established for season ticket deposits: MLVMinnesota.com.