Quinn attended St. Olaf where he was a hockey player and went on to coach women's hockey there. He was hired for his first job at the MN Thunder back in 2005 as Community Relations Coordinator. From there he moved to the MN Timberwolves as a ticket sales representative, and left as an account executive a year later. Dana then moved to the Minnesota Wild as an account executive. He says he enjoyed his job and was planning on being there for a while.  He had dreamed of working for the Wild for many years. Last fall Manny Lagos, team president for the Thunder, called Quinn and asked if he would come back to work for the Thunder to start a sales department.

Dana said, "It's a small world. My old boss at the Timberwolves is now the western representative to Major League Soccer. Manny had called him and asked if he knew of someone who might be a good candidate to start a sales department for the Thunder. He recommended me."

Quinn said starting up hasn't been easy. "My first day on the job was the day of Copa Minnesota, (November 11th). We actually didn't start hiring a staff until January. We now have 3 full time sales people and 1 service person", said Quinn. "And we plan on hiring 2 more in the next 6 months."

Quinn stated that as of the first week of April, the Thunder had surpassed their season ticket sales for all of last year. They had 60 new season ticket holders and 70% of the season ticket holders from last year have renewed their ticket orders. He also commented that the team will continue their emphasis on season tickets sales until the beginning of the season, May 4th. Then they will work on marketing single games and shorter season ticket sales, including 8 game, 7 game, and 6 game packages.

He added that historically, 60% of all ticket sales have been to walk up buyers. The Thunder are acknowledging that and focusing on building that group up. "The marketing plan will be to get the energy going, 3 days before, 2 days before, 1 day before. You're going to hear a lot of radio ads and see a lot of TV ads building that particular game up. We'll be targeting those people who are thinking about it in the 72 hours prior to the game."   

The new Director of Ticket Sales said, "It will truly start happening when there's smoke. When we get something happening on the field. When the fans are talking about it. It's hard to sell something people haven't seen yet. With that said, all things point to a good 2008 with an awesome 2009." He went on to say that this isn't about short term but instead the team is looking long term.  "This isn't a three month plan. This isn't a 6 month plan. This is a 3 year, 5 year, 10 year plan. We know things may be a bit rough in 2008 because quite frankly things haven't gone great on the field the last couple of years. We all know that, there's no secret there. But we have new ownership, a new plan in the front office and that's being reflected in season ticket sales already. Now, if the team goes out and plays well and the marketing goes well, which it already is, and if the fans have a great time at the games, which they will, then 2008 into 2009 is going to be an awesome time to be part of the organization from a fan standpoint, from a front office standpoint and from a team standpoint."

Dana Quinn is also excited to start collecting data using databases to build information on who is buying tickets. Tracking this data is crucial to future ticket sales and is something that the Thunder haven't done previously. "We're identifying a base to grow off of. That was the biggest challenge we faced this off-season. Not knowing who our season ticket holders are. Where are they coming from? How many are out there? By building that baseline, which we're doing now, it gives us something to work towards and exceed in the future."

Quinn went on to explain that most major sports leagues have "league representatives" who go from team to team as a liaison and share what's working and what's not working to the benefit of all the clubs.  This is the first year Major League Soccer will have league reps, according to Quinn. League reps are "crucial to the growth of a league," he said. He added that the Thunders' long term goal is to get other USL clubs to start working together to collect and share this data to the benefit and growth of first division soccer in the U.S. "They're moving in that direction", He said. "You can see that in the League Ownership meetings. But it's still a big challenge because some teams just don't want to share their information. With the MLS franchising out their teams, they are required to share that information. But with the USL, having each team privately owned and operated, they don't have to share anything."

But for now Quinn is content to build ticket sales for the Thunder. He makes the point emphatically, and optimistically, that there is still a month to go before the start of the season. Meaning, there's still plenty of time for Quinn and his staff to sell more season tickets before the May opener.