Minnesota has a brand-new professional sports team that will be playing starting this winter.

As the popularity of women's sports continues to grow rapidly, with leagues like the WNBA in basketball and PWHL in hockey, professional volleyball is the next sport to make a home in Minnesota.

Minnesota's team, the Minnesota Forge, was officially unveiled this week. The name and branding for this team being revealed is the next step toward Minnesota's team competing in Major League Volleyball, a fairly new league that is continuing to grow and expand.

Minnesota has a strong legacy in professional women's sports, with the Frost and Lynx being contending teams with league championships, so the bar is high as this new team gets ready to compete.

Here's everything you need to know before the Minnesota Forge compete this winter.

While there wasn't a name or any branding announced yet, Minnesotans got news that we'd be getting a professional women's volleyball team in late 2025. Well, actually, two pro volleyball teams.

Major League Volleyball (MLV) shared plans for a team to play at Grand Casino Arena starting in 2027. That then-unnamed team would become the Minnesota Forge.

Around the same timeframe, a different pro women's league called League One Volleyball - LOVB (pronounced LOVE) shared that a Minnesota team would be forming within their league. This team will play at the Maturi Pavilion on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Their inaugural season also gets going this winter.

Between the two competing leagues, MLV's landing Grand Casino Arena as the home for Minnesota's team is a huge leg-up on the competition, giving them a premier pro sports stage to play on.

The team unveiled on Wednesday (August 12) that the name, logo, and branding are "created to represent the strength, ambition, and collective spirit of a state ready to help shape the future of women’s professional volleyball."