On Aug. 19, 2016, Major League Soccer set up shop at CHS Field to announce Minnesota United's entry into the league the following season. With it came the promise of bigger (and arguably better) features than the previous NASL digs. Despite calling the beloved National Sports Center MNUFC's home, a new stadium promised to be state-of-the-art. Rather than being one of the few stable clubs in the teetering second-division landscape, it would join a single-entity framework that had found its footing.



Most impactful on the sporting side, the bigger operating budget promised more flashy player acquisitions. On the day of the announcement, sporting director Manny Lagos acknowledged the importance of Designated Players, telling the media they'd be added to “help make us competitive from the start.”



For the ensuing 19 months, however, Minnesota didn't have a single DP on its roster. Some targets (like Nicolás Benedetti) were either priced out or...