See You At The Game

PJ Fleck Learns that Flava Flav is about to give him a mayonnaise bath after the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers won the Duke's Mayo Bowl in January, 2025. It sure seemed to matter to Coach Fleck.

A couple of weeks back someone about my age (43) lamented that no Minnesota team had won anything in our lifetimes. I pointed out counter-factuals: 4 WNBA titles, 2 Walter Cups, National Championships across sports and divisions, Sweet Sixteens and Final Fours, 13 Bowl Game wins for Gopher football out of 22, and 9 in a row. Surely we can at least acknowledge that there’s been some winning?

Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore in 2017 at the parade for the Minnesota Lynx's 4th WNBA Championship in 7 seasons.

So they offered an amendment: “No Important Minnesota team has won anything in our lifetimes.” I pressed for definition of the word important: “NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB. Only top-level matters to me.”

I reminded them we were alive in 1987 and 1991. “But we were kids then.”

I may have been a kid but I remember every game of the 1991 World Series as if they happened yesterday.

I don’t claim our state hasn’t produced a bevy of clunkers, but I find that perspective a little sad. The childhood joy has always seemed to me like the main point of spending so much of our time and treasure to watch adults play a game.

Pre-game at Grand Casino Arena, St. Paul, MN for the Minnesota Frost vs.Toronto Sceptres

Today my family was at our first Minnesota Frost game, the last regular season home game for the playoff-bound Frost hosting the Toronto Sceptres. Toronto is still fighting with Ottawa for the last remaining playoff spot. Fight they did, and they came away with a 2-0 upset victory.

During the 1^st Period, a fan (a prominent one, based on crowd reaction) was invited on screen to “pick the winning cartoon snowmobile”. But the “game” appeared to glitch, and was replaced by a personalized message to the fan from Frost star Taylor Heise, “your high school linemate” thanking for their support, naming them Fan of the Year, and announcing they would be going to the 2026 PWHL Draft together in June.

8,900 people applauded as the stunned fan ineffectually wiped tears from their face with leather Carhartt mittens.

Game action in the 2nd Period with Toronto leading 1-0 on a power play goal. Minnesota's excellent power play unit was stifled by strong goaltending from Raygan Kirk.

In that moment the comment came back to me. Why do we choose this? How do we define what wins matter, what counts as important? There are many kinds of fanhood; gatekeeping them is mostly counter-productive.

Take the person from my anecdote. Like many Americans they have internalized that only the Big Four men’s pro leagues matter. The money backs it up: they, plus the Premier League in England, are the 5 largest revenue pro sports leagues in the world. There is little point to arguing over this; people like what they like, and the subconscious desire for belonging and acceptance is mutually reinforcing with advertising dollars.

But if I could go back, I would tell them about Taylor Heise’s high school linemate. I would tell them about an arena vibing with newness; league, teams, and fans alike still trying to create their identity and purpose. From that, the almost tactile sense that everyone knows they are participating collectively in the beginning of something destined for greatness. What was happening here mattered to them, all of it.

It mattered to the kids in the crowd, the girls hockey teams there in their matching jerseys dancing, so excited to be on camera. And it mattered to my 6 year old son too, who saw first-hand that the Wild aren’t the only team in town and that there isn’t truly “girl’s stuff” and “guys stuff”, just a kind of childlike joy we all spend our lives chasing. Plus purple is his second-favorite color, so he likes his new shirt.

The 8U and 10U girls teams that played between the 2nd and 3rd Period; the player experiencing their first in-stadium interview expressed their dream as "Be the first girl to play in the NHL."

Compared to a few years ago, I just don’t value errorless, mechanical, best-in-class performance as much as the uniqueness, culture, and fanbase around the team. Skills, stats, and on-field excellence will never lose appeal, and they are important as targets to inspire; yet without something behind the field, they lack soul.

Pity to you if you can source your joy only from near-perfection. Plenty of awful things would have happened to many teams if not for the coordinated efforts of the communities around them. The fans rallying to save a team from folding or moving are generally not doing so with teams experiencing success on the field.

Even then it’s often not enough, especially in the United States where teams hold cities and states hostage for tax dollars.

I stake my position that what happens in the stands, the tailgate lots, and the community at large around a team matters as much as the product on the field. Go ahead, ask a someone in St. Paul what community means to them in April, 2026. The fans earn the team, the team earns the fans. There is joy to be found all over at the match, watching at the bar, or on the Discord server. 

And good news! Wherever you are, there are probably teams with communities waiting to welcome more. It’s now possible to not only follow, but legitimately contribute a team and people you care about who you have never met, in a place you’ve never been. Consider trying something new, especially something local; consider opening your mind to the local USL League Two team or the summer wooden bat league; you get to decide what matters.

In 2026 I’m keeping myself sane by going to the game. Pretty much any game. I encourage you to think about doing it too. You never know what you might find matters to you.

See you at the game.