Stars announce April 7 home opener at Metrodome

BLAINE, Minn. (Dec. 12, 2011) — The Minnesota Stars will kick off the 2012 season indoors in a match that pits the 2011 North American Soccer League champions against the league’s 2011 regular season champions, the Carolina RailHawks. The teams will square off in downtown Minneapolis at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 7, 2012.

The Stars’ home opener pits them against a RailHawks team with whom they’ve developed a competitive rivalry over the past two seasons. The RailHawks knocked the Stars out of the playoffs in 2010, and the Stars returned the favor by beating Carolina in the 2011 NASL semifinals.

“We want to be front-and-center in the Twin Cities’ sports scene, and opening our season at the Metrodome against a great team like Carolina will give new fans a great first stepping stone into our team and the NASL,” Stars CEO Djorn Buchholz said. “We’re excited to be bringing the pro game back to downtown after the sport had success there earlier in the decade.”

The Stars will release ticket information for the game in January. The opener at the Metrodome will be included as a flex ticket in all season ticket packages.

The 2012 home opener will be the first home game the Stars have played outside NSC Stadium in Blaine, Minn. The Minnesota Strikers of the original NASL played home games at the stadium in 1984, and the Minnesota Thunder used the game for regular season openers and select US Open Cup matches from 2003 to 2005. A 2007 exhibition game at the Metrodome between the Thunder and Los Angeles Galaxy drew more than 22,000 fans.

The NASL announced a full slate of home openers for all eight clubs in the league. The three other games on the April 7 opening weekend feature the Atlanta Silverbacks hosting the expansion San Antonio Scorpions FC, playoff runners-up Fort Lauderdale Strikers hosting FC Edmonton and the Puerto Rico Islanders—winners of the 2011 CFU Caribbean Club Championship—hosting FC Tampa Bay.

The San Antonio Scorpions FC will play their inaugural home game on Sunday April 15 against the Puerto Rico Islanders. FC Tampa Bay and the Carolina RailHawks will also open at home the second weekend of the season, on Saturday April 14. FC Edmonton will play its home opener the following Sunday, April 22, against the Minnesota Stars.

The 25-week NASL regular season, in which each team plays the seven other NASL teams four times for a total of 28 games, will conclude the weekend of Sept 22-23. The playoff format for 2012 remains unchanged from last season with the top six finishers at the end of the regular season qualifying for the playoffs. The top two teams will receive quarterfinal round byes, while the other four teams will play against each other in a pair of single leg quarterfinals the weekend of Sept 29-30. Those winners will advance to the semifinal series which will be contested over two legs against the top two finishers in the regular season. The NASL Championship Series will be a two leg affair beginning the weekend of October 20-21 with the final leg taking place the weekend of October 27-28.