From winning games to drawing fans, Aurora keep exceeding wildest expectations

By 2 p.m., as temperatures hovered in the upper 80s, fans began parking in far-flung lots and marching or running toward the TCO Performance Center.

They were two hours early for the Minnesota Aurora's final regular-season game, which was hardly pivotal because the Aurora had already clinched their division title.

A few of the many fans wearing Aurora gear tried to crash the media gate, claiming they had credentials. They did not.

This is how far the Aurora have come in the past couple of years — from quaint idea to beer-garden concept to gate-crashing phenomenon.

The franchise is younger than the cheese molding in the back of your refrigerator, yet the Aurora just completed a second consecutive undefeated regular season, and again led the USL W League in attendance.

Saturday, the Aurora overcame a sluggish start to beat Chicago City FC 7-0 at TCO, in front of another official sellout. On Independence Day weekend, in high heat, in a stadium with no shade, with the St. Paul Saints and Minnesota United playing home games later, they announced an attendance of 6,987.

The crowd arrived early and most fans stayed until the end of the game, even though the Aurora ended any suspense early in the second half. An hour after the game ended, there were still Aurora players in uniform, signing autographs in the heat.

"Credit to our players, who show up day in and day out and put in the work," Aurora coach Nicole Lukic said. "They love this game more than most that I know."

Lukic, the league's reigning Coach of the Year, will win the award again unless voters find this level of success tiresome. Her team didn't score until late in the first half. She adjusted her team's offensive structure and midfield strategy, and they dominated the rest of the way.

When the team founders were scrawling ideas on bar napkins, they would have been foolhardy to envision this level of success, let alone arriving this quickly.

The crowd was filled with little girls and teenage girls and former teenage girls. And plenty of men, displaying the kind of intensity we associate with Vikings fans in a crowded bar. After each goal, the PA announcer would call out the scorer's first name, and the crowd would respond with her surname.

They have had a lot of practice at that this season. And last.

The Aurora have drawn so well to TCO — the Vikings' practice field in Eagan — that they expanded their capacity for games from about 6,000 to 6,987 for this season, the new figure representing a record for any non-Vikings event held at TCO.

They have lost one game in franchise history — last year's title game, in overtime, at TCO. They will begin this year's playoffs at Flint, Mich., on Thursday, hoping that there will be more reasons for fans to run toward their gates in the summer heat.

"We have the best fans in the league," Lukic said.

Most people in sports say that. Lukic has evidence.

Catherine "Cat" Rapp scored a goal with each foot early in the second half. She grew up in Colorado and recently finished her freshman season at Florida International. She is playing alongside her sisters, Rami and Elizabeth.

Asked about her two seasons with the Aurora, she said: "They've been incredible. I was so looking forward to coming back here, from the second I left. I was obviously looking forward to my college season, but there's something so special about playing here. All the staff, all the coaches, all the players, the fans, every single person has just made this experience so incredible."

Rapp had to play in the heat, so she appreciated those who showed, and stayed. "It's incredible to know we have this support, for us and women's sports in general, and to know that even a preprofessional team can have this much of an impact," she said. "Everybody loves it so much, and I take it as a great honor to get to play here."