Jonathan Lintner

@JonathanLintner

The Minneapolis Star Tribune on Wednesday caught up with the man who, "It is due in no small part to his effort that Minnesota has a pro soccer team today," wrote reporter Jon Marthaler.

Starting Aug. 4, Djorn Buchholz will be working as the Louisville City Football Club's first president, taking on a new challenge with the local United Soccer Leagues Professional Division franchise.

Before heading to Major League Soccer for a half season with Sporting Kansas City, Buccholz took a league-owned Minnesota Stars team heading toward folding, just like the state's previous franchise, the Minnesota Thunder, had years beforehand. He saved them on a shoestring budget.

Louisville City FC has to build its own season ticket holder base. The club is starting from scratch in terms of sponsorships. It will share Louisville Slugger Field and pay the Triple-A Bats a modest fee to play there.

Buchholz, though, shares team owner Wayne Estopinal's dream of seeing MLS soccer in Louisville.

"It seems like the right move," he told the Star Tribune of moving here. "I think this club has got aspirations to go to MLS. Building a team from scratch is something I've never done before; I've helped resurrect a team, and taken over a team, but this seems like a challenging opportunity for me. Long term, I want to be potentially running an MLS team."

Buchholz played up sharing a stadium with the Bats in the Minneapolis article, pointing out that it's downtown, just as he'd hoped Minnesota could one day build. He also noted that compared to the clubs there, Louisville City FC has "the resources we need to create a club that's going to be top-notch."

"… You're walking into a market where there isn't an expectation for what pro soccer is," Buchholz said. "There's no preconceived expectations, so being able to create an experience for people that they didn't expect and that goes above and beyond what they were expecting to experience, that's one of the most exciting things about Louisville."

IN THE C-J

Recruiting reporter Steve Jones ran down the list of 10 prospects the University of Louisville's basketball team is targeting closely in recruiting, including Trinity High School's emerging star, Raymond Spalding, among them. The University of Kentucky's list will be published today. (http://cjky.it/1lWP65F)

U of L basketball coach Rick Pitino was a gold mine of information Wednesday in his summer catchup press conference, talking about everything from Russ Smith's NBA deal to his season tickets to Miami Marlins baseball games. The Courier-Journal has the full video online. (http://cjky.it/1sBQjVD)

UK beat writer Kyle Tucker ran down the list of former Cats playing in the Orlando Summer League. It's highlighted by a breakout debut by Nerlens Noel, who despite a strong 2014 NBA draft, could be in play for rookie of the year honors. (http://cjky.it/1r9jmj3)

AROUND THE WEB

Texas A&M rolled out an announcement Wednesday about the largest video screen in college football coming to the Aggies' Kyle Field for the 2014 season. It measures 47 feet high and 163 feet wide – otherwise known as roughly half the size of Churchill Downs' Big Board. (http://bit.ly/1k9eOEk)

A soccer and Southeastern Conference fan this week mocked up uniforms for the nation's best football league for if, one day, they decided to all play futbol together. Though the SEC doesn't sponsor men's soccer, the kits are sharp, decorated with a hometown company. UK's features Lexmark. (http://bit.ly/1jguyuf)

Syracuse's athletic department is breaking its contract with IMG believing it could make millions of dollars more for its multimedia rights, just like UK did in signing with JMI Sports last month for $215 million over 15 years. (http://bit.ly/1qnwdwE)

Jonathan Lintner can be reached at (502) 582-4199. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanLintner.