MINNEAPOLIS — With tens of thousands of people visiting the Minnesota State Fair over the course of 12 days, local women's sports teams are using the Great Minnesota Get-Together as an opportunity to connect with fans and potential players.
Inside Fan Central off of Dan Patch Drive and Underwood Street, six Minnesota sports teams set up stands: Minnesota Aurora FC, Minnesota Roller Derby, the Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota United FC, the Minnesota Vixen and the St. Paul Saints. The Minnesota Vikings have their own building next to Fan Central and the Minnesota Twins also have their own stand at the fair.
For the Aurora, Minnesota Roller Derby and the Vixen, being at the State Fair provides a chance to connect with fans, spread awareness about their teams and even recruit potential players.
"It's been really fun to interact with fans and like, get to meet the community owners and people who came to the games," 2022 Minnesota Aurora FC defender Makenzie Langdok said. "So it's been really fun to actually be able to have conversations with them as opposed to just small talk after games."
At the fair, Langdok said the people who have come to their stand have been a mix of people who haven't heard of the team and those who have heard of them but don't know much.
"It's been cool to kind of educate people on the new way to support women's soccer in Minnesota. And then you have people who have come out to games and have the merch and are looking for the new stuff," she said, "and so it's been all over the board, but it's been super cool."
Coming off of the team's spectacular inaugural season, which saw them go 11-0-1 and reach the USL W League Final, the Minnesota Aurora debuted the team's official mascot during a parade at the State Fair, Rory the Aurorasaurus.
"I love Rory, she's great," Langdok said. "It's been super fun. It's been cool to have like a face for Aurora and I think people have really liked it."
For the St. Michael native, the most rewarding part of playing for the Aurora was giving youth soccer players someone to look up to.
"I don't think we could have imagined how this was going to take off and the support that we got this summer and excited for next season," Langdok added.
'We love being that role model for all these little girls'
Laura Brown, the owner and president of the Vixen, which is the state's top professional women's football team, told KARE 11 that she can't believe the number of people who have congratulated the team on their recent championship run. During her time at the fair this year, she said there have been a lot of girls who see the team and see that they too can play football.
"We love being that role model for all these little girls that come in, their eyes get big and they get a huge smile and they get a little vixen tattoo and it's probably one of my favorite things about the fair, is interacting with the little girls that see that this could be a possibility in their future," Brown said.
While finding new players is great, Brown said fan engagement is her favorite thing about having a stand at the State Fair, especially with long-time fans.
"It's always fun to see the people who've been at games and to be able to have that one-on-one interaction with them and they can talk about their fan experience," she said, "and so that's a lot of fun."
Wide receiver Jackie Radford said the State Fair has been awesome and said she's looking forward to getting more fans.
"It's been great. Lots of people interested, checking us out, which is good because we need exposure," the Rookie of the Year said.
The Minnesota Vixen will hold tryouts for next season on Oct. 1 and Oct. 8, click or tap here for more information.
'If you like full-contact sports, you're gonna like roller derby'
Minnesota Roller Derby, which starts its 19th season on Nov. 12, is a roller derby league based in St. Paul and has played at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium since 2005. The league is a part of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association.
At the State Fair, Riot Earp, who plays on the team's new skaters team, the WindChill, told KARE 11 that "it's really great to like connect with new people and bring in new fans and hopefully new skaters."
For people who may not know much about the sport, she explained that flat-track roller derby features five players and a "jammer" on each team. The jammer scores points by passing the opposing team so players work to stop the opponent's jammer while making chances for their own jammer to score. "It's full contact. It's high speed," Earp added. "It's really crazy and but it's super fun to play and super fun to watch.
For more information about joining Minnesota Roller Derby as a player or an official, click or tap here.
"It's a really great spectator sport. So we have really great production value at our bouts," she said. "It's super crazy. If you like full-contact sports, you're gonna like roller derby. We play on rollerskates, it's always fun."
Women's teams connect with fans at Minnesota State Fair
Watch more from the Minnesota State Fair
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