MISL Officially Welcomes Sockers, Stars Back

The Sockers and the Tacoma Stars, as expected, were formally accepted as members of the Major Indoor Soccer League Thursday, bringing the total number of teams in the league to seven.

It was considered a formality that both franchises would be approved by the league.

The Sockers were bought by San Diego businessman Ron Fowler in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The Stars’ franchise was re-started by a group of local businessmen headed by Jim Manza. Friday, that group received the go-ahead from the State of Washington Securities Commission.

“We had a conference call, and everything went well,” said Ron Cady, Socker president. “Tacoma and San Diego were accepted officially into the league.”

Cady also said that MISL Commissioner Bill Kentling informed the owners Thursday that he had been to Cleveland to discuss the possibility of re-starting a franchise in that city. The Cleveland Force folded two weeks ago.

“There’s supposedly a group there trying to put something together,” Cady said. “They have until next Friday (Aug. 12) to see if they can make it work. If so, we’ll have eight teams.”

Cady said the league has made Aug. 12 the deadline for each team to post its $400,000 letter of credit for next season.

“By then, we’ll know if we have seven or maybe even eight teams for next season,” Cady said.

The other teams in the league will be Baltimore, Dallas, Kansas City, Los Angeles and Wichita. They will play a 48-game schedule, down from 56 last season.

Chicago, Minnesota and St. Louis also folded franchises in the off-season and are not expected back for 1988-89.