Minnesota United coach Adrian Heath appreciates the approach of Bill McGuire, the majority owner of the Major League Soccer expansion franchise.

“He is very up front, tells you as it is, doesn’t sugar coat stuff, and I much prefer that,” said Heath in his first year directing the Loons. “I like knowing what he is feeling.”

In a wide-ranging interview Thursday, McGuire said construction of Allianz Field is “chugging along” in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood. The former UnitedHealth Group CEO also shared details on the club’s ownership structure, including the Pohlad family, which own the Twins, and Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, among many others.

McGuire — who has owned United since 2013 when it was in soccer’s lower leagues — also discussed United’s struggles in the team’s debut season, its lack of the high-priced, high-expectation Designated Player, and the organic nature of the growing crowds at its temporary home, TCF Bank Stadium. Related Articles Houston Dynamo scores twice in 2nd half to tie Minnesota United

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The club is 6-13-4 in its first MLS season, 10th in the 11-team Western Conference, with 11 games to play.

How does the ownership structure work?

“There are a dozen or maybe 13 (parties). … They have varied levels of participation. The group, particularly early on, evolved to what was about a half dozen, who all have a substantial amount of investment in that. Those (undisclosed) individuals form a board that review major decisions.

What are examples of their decisions?

We look at things like capital structure … big contracts that commit money. It’s the way a partnership normally works.

Does this group have mostly Minnesota ties?

They are all Minnesota-tied, and they are all virtually Minnesota domicile. One of the things that we have tried to do is keep it local. … When you have that many people, you don’t have maybe a traditional majority, but you have somebody who has more than others, but we try to approach it that everybody is equal regardless.

Given the capital investment that the group has committed — about $200 million for Allianz Field and $100 million for the MLS franchise fee — how do you view the results on the field?

I think they have been very mixed. It’s hard to judge and be circumspect about it because it’s so easy to quickly get critical, and I promise you I can get quickly critical. You have some games at the beginning of the year, and you just look awful.

(The Loons gave up a dismal 18 goals during a 0-3-1 opening month of March.)

On the other hand, you put a team together in a very short order, on a limited budget, and you start out playing teams that have five, six times the salary who are very experienced and together with good teams, so you lose some games.

Then you come back and you gel a little bit and you bring your players together and through March you have a run and you look great and you are beating great teams.Then all of a sudden somebody is hurt and four guys disappear for a month or two it seems like on national team duty and then you go out and you play a team of, a good team, with half rookies and some other guys and you don’t look so good. …

I say mixed. I think we are much better than the (6-13-4) record indicates. There has been a number of games that we could have or probably should have either won or tied, especially in sort of that midseason. We have played well. We gave Toronto everything they could take and as probably as good as they’ve seen and should have won that game.

(Toronto, who has the best record in MLS, needed a late goal to edge the Loons 3-2 on May 13.)

I think we’ve been disappointed in the spottiness of some players. … I think there have been a few times, for whatever reason, we didn’t seem to be focused and in the game. It’s so hard to calculate the impact of this inconsistent roster, between some injuries and the national team call-ups when you are this thin. I mean you know we’re thin.

With that said, I think we also feel good about a core group that’s emerging that we can build on and we add to. Ultimately, I think building that way is the best way to do it. We’ve actually had some great play.

Ibson has been an absolute star. … He is really good. He should have been in the all-star game (vs. Real Madrid in Chicago on Aug. 2).

(Christian) Ramirez, I think, has surprised everybody. He, early on, missed a lot of goals. He could have 20 goals right now. He has been — a lot of people said he’s not going to do it. The kid is obviously a goal scorer. He’s been good (and is tied for eighth in league with 11 goals).

(Francisco) Calvo has been very good. (Sam) Cronin has been very good. (Jerome) Thiesson has been very good. (Marc) Burch was good, and then he gets hurt. Brent Kallman has been, I think, very good. He’s going to be a stud at that position and then he gets hurt.

And then you sort of go down the list.

Early, first year, it’s like the beginning of the movie “Hoosiers” with Gene Hackman (who plays an Indiana high school basketball coach with a thin roster). He is giving a little speech and he says, “The boys and I are getting to know each other.” There are some guys over here, and another guy wanting to do this, and (Hackman’s) trying to explain to the overzealous families and fans. ‘The boys are getting to know each other.’ We are doing a little bit of that.

Besides the remodeled locker rooms and players’ lounge introduced at the National Sports Center in Blaine this spring, what are the pieces you are still looking to add?

We are working on the outdoor fields (behind the stadium). We are exploring some outdoor artificial turf … and are exploring doing some things indoors. There is a good start up there so far.

(McGuire transitions to talking about Ethan Finlay, a former U.S. men’s national team player and MLS all-star whom the Loons acquired from Columbus on Wednesday.)

It’s just a building process. Ethan Finlay, there is a solid player who wants to be here. A Minnesota kid (who was born in Duluth and grew up in Wisconsin).

United gave Columbus the equivalent of about $300,000 to execute the deal with the Crew for Finlay. Did the Finlay move reach board level?

No. It’s not at all like that. We are talking big things.

Like a Designated Player?

Not even necessarily a DP. If I said, ‘Look, guys, let’s bring Cristiano Ronaldo.’ That we’d talk about. (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic. If we were (looking at Carlos) Vela (the first DP for Los Angeles FC, next year’s MLS expansion franchise). That is the kind of thing that we’d talk about because it’s going to impact your major structure and impact everything that you might do.

How do you view the club’s progression to DPs on the roster?

I’m not one that’s enamored with the term ‘DP’ because I think it undermines the value of a lot of other players. That is sort of an arbitrary financial term (a salary above $480,000). I hear people say, ‘When are you going to get a DP?’ What does that mean? … I don’t know how to really answer. I think right now it gets thrown around as, ‘When are you going to spend $5 million on a player?’ I can’t answer that.

No team that has gone and gotten a big-name, expensive player has ended up necessarily doing as well as they might think. It takes more than one, so I think we have to look at it in the context of all the players and filling that out, which is why you want, across the board, to be good. ‘

But we will certainly have (DPs) at some point. We certainly will.

How do you view your relationship with Heath, and how he’s performed in the short term?

We have a good relationship. I think Adrian has a good relationship with everybody. I think he is a very good coach, obviously a legendary player (mainly with Everton in the English Premier League). He is, I use the term, ‘good on lots of levels.’ He’s passionate. He wants to be here. He cares about the community. He cares about the fans. He cares about his players. He cares about building it and doing it the right way and doing things that are good for the players and the fans that watch. Those are all good attributes, and he works hard. I think he is what we hoped we’d get.

When Heath was hired last winter, he talked about a three-year plan to start contending in the Western Conference. Does that mesh with your goals?

I think speaking to the fact that it takes two or three years to build your roster properly and get all pieces where you are bringing the players in and you are finding players, you are anticipating all of that stuff. I think that’s reasonable. Everybody expects them to do well and that we are a competitive team every game — not next year, not in three years but now. …

How do you review the results from the Scandinavia scouting and player signings, and how that can improve?

Regardless of what people think on a lot of the people we brought in, they came in with a very short window of seeing them and not necessarily playing. We were figuring out who was going to fit, who’s going to adapt. I think we would have liked to have more time with any player, and that is one of the things we will do. We will build up. We will look at a lot of people. You also have to fill it within what you are trying to do. It’s easy to stand outside and throw rocks and stones … You have to put it in the context of all the activities you have going on.

It’s no hidden thing that some of the players that we brought from Scandinavia have done better than others (Norwegian center back Vadim Demidov, United’s highest paid player at $550,000 who was bought down below the DP level, has played in only three games this year.) Some have had some unfortunate things that they weren’t able to show us everything they could be. (Goalie John) Alvbage didn’t necessarily get a chance, and he gets hurt pretty early and the other guy (Bobby Shuttleworth) comes in and plays pretty well. …

(On midfielder Rasmus Schuller, coaches) say he is technically very, very gifted. He got injuries about the time that he was starting to gel in. We don’t know yet. What we need now is for him to be playing. He is a young guy. He should be playing. (The Loons loaned the Finnish midfielder this week to Helsinki for the rest of 2017.)

With increases in the past three home games, what are your impressions of the crowds?

Good, getting better. Early on, I think there was a little bit of weather. I thought the opening-day crowd (for the 6-1 loss to Atlanta on March 12) was good, but if it wasn’t 22 degrees and snowing and all that, we might have had 10,000 more people (above the announced crowd of 35,043). We’ve had a couple of wet games, cold games, and a couple that we weren’t playing that well, and that makes it tough.

More than the number, I’ve been really impressed with the enthusiasm and how people are just into it. People are coming that haven’t been to the sport before and say, ‘wow, this is sort of fun.’

None of it is contrived. No offense to other sports, but you don’t have people out there saying ‘raise your right hand, raise your left hand, say these words.’ It is totally organic, and it comes from the people. I think it’s great to see the people on each of the long sides, picking up and doing the same thing as the supporters are doing (behind the East goal at TCF Bank Stadium). Just the thing of standing up and waving your scarf on a corner kick, nobody does that. That just got invented here, so to speak. Those are great things.

When you win, and (fans sing the Oasis song) ‘Wonderwall.’ I can’t believe so many people know the words to that song. We just have to give the more chances to sing it. I think it’s been good.

Most want to see more wins and most want to see a new stadium. Me, too.”