Two More Indoor Soccer Teams Go Out of Business
The Major Indoor Soccer League, which lost two more franchises Friday to reduce its membership to seven teams, will begin discussions next week to determine the future of the league, Commissioner Bill Kentling said.
The Tacoma Stars and Chicago Sting--which failed to post a $400,000 letter of credit by Friday’s deadline--joined the recently terminated St. Louis Steamers and Minnesota Strikers, which ended operations two weeks ago.
The San Diego Sockers, who also failed to post the letter of credit, were on the verge of going under after the team’s principal owner withdrew his offer to buy the club out of bankruptcy after Tacoma and Chicago folded.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Peter Bowie granted the Sockers at least another 48 hours of life Friday by issuing a preliminary injunction barring the MISL from terminating the franchise.
“While it may become a moot issue next week if the league folds, there appears to be . . . no great inequity or burden on the league to continue honoring San Diego’s franchise agreement,” Bowie said.
“Today’s actions were a major setback for us,” Kentling said. “The six, and the commissioner, will step back from this for the weekend, assess the damage and begin to come up with some creative thoughts regarding the proper course for the future of the Major Indoor Soccer League.”
The loss of the four, and possibly five, teams is the most the league has ever absorbed in one year. The league lost three teams after the 1981-82 season and again after 1983-84. Three North American Soccer League teams played during the 1982-83 season but withdrew to rejoin the now-defunct NASL the next year.
The Lazers had not announced plans to fold, but a source close to the team said that decision could be forthcoming.
Said Lazer President Jim Buss: “We have not folded. On Monday the owners will get together and the decision will be made then.”
The Lazers have played six seasons in the MISL, finishing with the worst record three times. Last season the team, under the guidance of first-year Coach Keith Tozer--made it to the playoffs for the first time in three years, but was swept in the first round by the Kansas City Comets.
The team struggled at the gate, drawing a league-low average of 5,385. The Lazers declined to reveal financial losses over the six seasons but after the 1985-86 season, team owner Jerry Buss revealed the team was losing an estimated $500,000 per season.
Neither Jerry Buss nor Tozer could be reached for comment.
Kentling, who will meet with team directors next week via conference call beginning Monday, would not answer whether he felt the owners would decide to continue or fold the league.
“There is no way I can answer that because I can’t look into the hearts and minds of the six other people who are putting up their money to do that,” Kentling said. But I know that in every case of the (owners), clearly the thought is toward ‘How can we do it properly?’ not ‘How do we terminate?”
The league has been ailing since mid-Feburary, when it announced it needed a reduction of the salary cap from $1.275 million to $898,000 or it would go out of business.
The players’ union and the MISL agreed to a $900,000 cap five minutes before a owner-imposed deadline April 15, but it apparently couldn’t save the floundering teams.
Minnesota, which claimed average losses of nearly $1 million a year for the last four years, could not find new ownership.
St. Louis, which once averaged 17,000 fans but drew less than one-third that number for much of last season, was terminated during the league meetings by Kentling, who claimed the team failed to maintain an active franchise.
Chicago, after two seasons of declining attendance, withdrew Friday, saying it was unable to find new investors or owners.
Tacoma, which had been seeing attendance increases and on-field improvements, said it could only sell 500 season tickets for next year.
San Diego’s problems stemmed from its filing for Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code last month after the owners discovered $1 million in new debt since they purchased the club last year.
Managing general partner Ron Fowler had bid to purchase the club out of bankruptcy court, but pulled out.
Kentling said that during the salary cap negotiations he intimated he believed that the league would return 9 to 11 franchises in 1988-89, and said Friday morning he felt the league would have at least eight teams next season.
