Four months and 100 suggestions later, Minnesota's women's soccer team has a name: Minnesota Aurora FC.
Minnesota Women's Soccer revealed the name Thursday along with a crest that invokes the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis.
The club is community-owned, and the group of 3,080 owners is made up mostly of people who made a $100 minimum investment, the team president, Andrea Yoch, has said. The owners submitted more than 100 suggested names in mid-September. The team's founders cut the list to 16, and more rounds of votes narrowed it down to three finalists: Arctic Minnesota, Minnesota Foxfire FC and Minnesota Aurora FC.
"We are excited to share the team name and brand with the community after months of work and voting," team designer and co-founder Allie Reinke said. "It's been a wonderfully collaborative process with community input that helped create this final brand, and is something that our community owners overwhelmingly loved."
The team's crest shows an aurora and the North Star. The team's primary colors are midnight blue and aurora teal.
Minnesota Aurora FC will be part of a preprofessional amateur women's soccer league, the United Soccer League Women's League (USL W-League), that will begin play in May. Minnesota is one of the eight original franchises. It is hoped the league will become a pipeline to the National Women's Soccer League, the United States' top pro league.
Minnesota Aurora FC's head coach will be Nicole Lukic, the team announced last month. Lukic is also director of operations at Twin Cities Rush Soccer Club, a youth soccer organization.
