United Soccer Leagues Honor Thunder at AOM

Published on November 13, 2002 under USL First Division (USL-1)
Minnesota Thunder News Release


BLAINE, Minn. (November 13, 2002) -- The Minnesota Thunder walked away with three of the top awards presented by the United Soccer Leagues (USL) at this past weekend's annual operations meeting in Clearwater, Fla.

Former Thunder star Tony Sanneh was inducted into the USL Hall of Fame, Thunder director of sales and marketing TJ Varecka accepted the A-League's Marketing Excellence Award and Thunder president and general manager Jim Froslid was named the A-League's Executive of the Year.

Sanneh is among the first group of players inducted into the USL Hall of Fame. His award was accepted by Thunder head coach Buzz Lagos, who discovered the US World Cup team star on a St. Paul Academy soccer field when Tony was 10 years old. Sanneh went on to star for the Thunder and Milwaukee Rampage in the A- League, DC United in Major League Soccer and now plays for FC Nurenburg in the German Bundesliga.

The Thunder marketing campaign, designed by Brainerd- based advertising agency Russell & Herder and implemented by Varecka, was honored as the league's most creative and effective plan. The "Do You Hear Thunder" campaign, which generated a 10 percent increase in the team's 2002 attendance, was featured in a number of national publications, on the Fox Sports World halftime show and on the cover of the Minneapolis Star Tribune's business page.

Froslid, 35, has directed the Thunder to its three most successful financial years in the team's nine- year professional history since joining the club in 2000. The Arden Hills, Minn.- native has served two years on the A-League's executive committee, and was elected to a three-year term over the weekend.

USL CHANGES POINT SYSTEM

United Soccer Leagues announced Friday that it has changed its point system for league games to the international standard of three points for a win and one point for a tie, eliminating the use of the bonus point.

"I have always been one of the biggest supporters of using a scoring system that encourages and rewards attacking soccer in North America, but I feel that we have reached a point where we can use the standard international system," said USL President Francisco Marcos. "This decision was based on input from many sources, ranking from coaches to team executives to fans. We even looked at statistics. The same numbers, however, could actually be used to demonstrate both sides of the fence, so the determining factor was the personal input we received."

The Thunder was among the league leaders in accumulating an extra point for scoring three goals in a game.

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USL First Division Stories from November 13, 2002


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