[MLS] Major League Soccer clubs launched academy programs to foster the development of youth players. Now the league has started an academy ... for ticket salesmen.

As the first ticket sales academy owned and operated by a U.S. pro league in the United States, the MLS National Sales Center will recruit and train ticket sales representatives and feature a 45-day curriculum consisting of classroom instruction and hands-on field work to prepare individuals for ticket sales positions with MLS clubs.

The program headed by MLS's Bryant Pfeiffer will be based in Blaine, Minn., and run in collaboration with the National Sports Center, which operates the Division II NSC Minnesota Stars.

Students will develop ticket sales strategies and conduct sales campaigns on behalf of MLS clubs, international events managed by Soccer United Marketing and NSC Minnesota, which replaced the Thunder as the Twin Cities D2 representative in 2010.

“MLS has a young sales force and too few entry-level employees are receiving the adequate sales training needed to be difference makers,” said Paul Mott, head of club services for MLS. “This program will become a ‘best practices’ laboratory, from which we can distribute interesting video, templates and tips in the area of sales culture, training, motivation and team building as a supplemental benefit to clubs in addition to access to trained and motivated salespeople.”

Pfeiffer, a member of MLS's Club Services department for the past three years, spent 14 years with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves in a number of sales positions prior to joining MLS.