NWSL, USL Super League or NSL? Minnesota Aurora FC Are Set on Going Pro | OneFootball

With dreams of a 32-team league, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has lofty expansion ambitions. But so, too, do USL-W’s Minnesota Aurora FC.

“Our board believes that we can be the size of the [32-team] NFL, there is nothing that stands in the way of us doing that, other than having access to top talent,” said NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman earlier this month at U.S. Soccer’s SheBelieves Summit. The league currently has 14 teams, with two more set to join in 2026.

This was certainly music to Minnesota Aurora’s ears. The pre-professional side, which was founded in 2021, had withdrawn its 2024 bid to become an NWSL 2026 expansion side, citing the need to build a “healthy and sustainable organization.”

The team has now put those words into action with the unprecedented hire of a chief of staff who will work year-round to build out the necessary infrastructure to help carry the team into its professional iteration.

“Reality really hit us this summer when we did have to pull out of our NWSL bid,” says Allie Schmidt, co-founder and interim president of Minnesota Aurora. “It gave us the chance to step back and say, okay, we’re not going pro immediately, let’s reassess from a business perspective, from a fan perspective, from a player perspective, and figure out what we really need. The biggest thing that came out of that was we needed a leader in place who understood both the people side of things, and with the soccer IQ within the landscape already to help us make that next jump.”

For this role, the club would need the perfect person—one who understood that people are at the heart of what Aurora FC are, one with unrelenting passion, and one with an extensive résumé of success. Enter: Saara Hassoun.

With almost two years of experience with NWSL side NJ/NY Gotham FC, including the team’s 2023 championship run, Hassoun’s depth and breadth of experience in managing soccer operations along with prior consulting experience and educational background were only part of the reason Aurora wanted to bring her into the fold. Most of all, Aurora see Hassoun as a visionary who sees what the future could hold for a club that is already breaking records in the lower level leagues.

After working as Gotham FC's chief of staff, Hassoun is now tasked with bringing Aurora FC to a professional level. / Mike Egerton/PA Images/Getty Images

“For me, the story with Aurora and my relationship with Aurora started in 2021, and I have genuinely been a fan of this team since they announced that they were coming on the scene,” Hassoun says. “I think even from their initial announcement, it was so clear how intentional they were being about positioning themselves, even though they are a pre-professional team, in being as professional as possible. I was immediately hooked.”

The Twin Cities-based team is a community-owned entity with more than 5,000 investors across 19 countries. The club averages more than 5,000 fans per game—a number that comes close to several NWSL teams—at TCO Stadium in Eagan, Minn., and has never lost a match in the regular season of the UWL-W.

In 2022, Hassoun had her first brush with Aurora, providing consulting services through her firm, HT Sports Consulting, to enhance player well-being through data-driven insights and athlete-first methodologies. Her work ultimately led to the hiring of a mental skills coach for the team.

“I’ve always admired [Aurora] so when I was looking for the next step in my career, it felt very kismet that at the same time, Aurora posted this chief of staff role,” Hassoun says. “It’s not a super common role in the professional sports world. We created the role at Gotham from scratch, and at the time I was the only chief of staff in U.S. professional soccer.”

Now, Hassoun will use that unique experience to help Aurora realize their goals, including building a strong base of operations and strategies to rival that of NWSL teams, an opportunity that Hassoun could not pass up.

Hyper-focused on the Short Term As a Long Term Strategy

With the USL-W season set to kick off May 4 and run though the league final in mid-July, Hassoun will have to hit the ground running. Aurora play in the Central Conference’s Heartland Division alongside five other teams, all competing for spots in the postseason playoffs alongside all 93 teams across 15 divisions. The clubs feature players with professional aspirations, including many college athletes and international players looking for a competitive league during offseason breaks.

Although the season is short, the work does not stop at the final whistle. Hassoun’s role is not about finding immediate success, but creating a sustainable culture both on and off the field that will set the club up for its eventual second try at a bid to turn pro.

“It’s an opportunity to influence every piece of the business, including optimizing our revenue streams, our processes and procedures, our operational standards, our staff and how we prioritize our work,” Hassoun says. “The overarching theme for my role and Aurora in general is how do we create the absolute strongest, most solid base of operations for where we are now so as we grow, which is our goal and intention, that we can make sure everything is tightened up and we can attract the investors we need to be able to take on that next step.”

Aurora FC withdrew their previous NWSL expansion bid to focus on building a stronger case in the coming years. / Courtesy of Minnesota Aurora FC

For Hassoun, being hyper-focused on each individual step and piece of the puzzle is a strategy for long-term stability throughout a period of explosive growth in women’s soccer. If the team can remain solid in the next few years, it provides the setup for success in Year 5, 10 and beyond.

During her time at Gotham FC, Hassoun learned just what it takes to set a team up for continued success. After a bottom-of-the-table finish in 2022, the NJ/NY side was desperate to turn it around. Hassoun, who joined the club at the beginning of the 2023 season, was instrumental in building out the operational side.

Working directly with club general manager Yael Averbuch West, Hassoun helped hire nearly a dozen new roles across various departments including operations, medical and performance. With a refreshed roster and new coach, the club’s revamped front office played its part in steering the club to its first-ever NWSL championship.

In hiring for these roles, Hassoun looked at not only the candidates’ backgrounds in women’s soccer, but their other experience as well, with particular emphasis on people with experience working in startups.

“I want someone who is comfortable with the way we do things changing and having to pivot quickly, having to fail fast, figure out why we failed and do something different, and who feels comfortable in uncertainty,” Hassoun says. “A lot of that translates directly into the type of work we need to do at Aurora. We are going to need to expand, hire really talented people, but we’re going to have to find out how to be really strategic and intentional with what those roles are and who those people are.”

Attracting the Right Investors and Finding the Right Home

When Racing Louisville entered the NWSL in 2021, the team did so at a bargain, reportedly paying less than $2 million for a franchise spot in '20. In '23, Bay FC smashed the expansion fee record with a $53-million entrance, and in '25, Denver’s NWSL bid came in at a whopping $110 million.

With growing interest in women’s professional soccer, prospective clubs are having to not only explain to the NWSL why their cities could be the site of further growth for the league, but pony up significant cash to do so. This is where Aurora got caught up in their first bid, but with an eye towards the future, the club is looking to establish itself as a true contender, attracting more investors and building belief in the product that is already there.

“Obviously the team was really disappointed when they had to withdraw their bid—it’s not a secret that we just did not have the investment that we needed to be able to do the project in the way that we needed to do it,” says Hassoun. “We are now in a phase where we have an opportunity to learn from that process, which is part of why this [chief of staff] role was created. They realized that they needed someone to help get everybody on the same page and create a strategic path forward.”

The club averages more than 5,000 fans per game at TCO Stadium in Eagan, Minn. / Courtesy of Minnesota Aurora FC

In doing so, the organization has expanded its sights not only to the NWSL, but to the newly formed USL Super League as well as the Canadian Northern Super League (NSL) as possible professional opportunities.

“Ultimately, it does come down to attracting and finding the right investors,” Hassoun says. “This team cannot make the move it needs to make without the funding to do it, and that’s not a secret, but I think there is also a commitment to finding the right investor because what makes this team so special, and what I’ve loved about it from day one, is its commitment to its values. Especially in today’s climate, the inclusivity that this team is built on is so important.”

Whether it's the NWSL, USL Super League or NSL, Aurora know they offer investors an exceptional opportunity to invest in an organization that already has not only community backing and a track record of success on the pitch, but is building out the infrastructure so that when the opportunity to turn professional finally comes, the club will be uniquely ready.

“At the end of the day, our goal is to become a professional team,” Schmidt says. “However, what professional is can be a lot of different things, and [Hassoun] can come in and really help us establish what the best case for Aurora as a professional team means. Everything is on the table, and we’re so incredibly excited for Saara to join us.”