Diagnosis Is Mixed for Sockers, MSL : Indoor soccer: The situation appears to be improving in San Diego. However, the rest of the league is showing weak points.

While the financial ground beneath the Sockers solidifies, the rest of the Major Soccer League appears to be quaking.

A group led by Walfrano Ruiz--a Tijuana businessman who used to own a soccer team in the Mexican second division--on Wednesday formally petitioned to buy the Sockers.

There now are two parties poised to take control of the team after June 30, the date outgoing owner Ron Fowler said he will stop funding the franchise.

MSL directors must choose between the Ruiz bid and a group headed by Oscar Ancira Jr. and his father Oscar Ancira Sr., owners of a local frozen food company. The vote will be conducted Friday during a conference call to address several matters.

Besides the Sockers’ situation, the agenda will cover the likely collapse of the Wichita Wings, the future of the Tacoma Stars, and the possibility of granting an expansion team to a group in Dallas.

In Wichita, Wings owners announced late Tuesday that they would go through with plans to fold the team if 5,000 season tickets are not sold by Friday.

It was hoped that if the Wings collected more than 4,000 orders, which would be the most in the league, the directors would reconsider their position.

“No ifs ands or buts about it,” said Roy Turner, Wings president. “It looks bleak. I understand the situation, but I’m very sad.”

The Wings still are some 1,200 shy of their goal.

In Tacoma, the Stars have extended to July 30, not June 30, as originally reported, a deadline to sell 4,000 season tickets or close. But by extending that deadline they have told the league they will not meet Sunday’s deadline of filing the required $500,000 letter of credit.

Stars publicist Bob Walz said the ramifications of missing the closer deadline had not been considered.

Commissioner Foreman said the board of directors would discuss whether it was a problem during the conference call.

In Dallas, where the Sidekicks folded at the end of the past season, word came Wednesday that a group hoping to get an expansion team would make an announcement. That did not happen. Foreman was in Dallas and met with the group for the first time and said he would meet with it again today.

Expansion to Buffalo will not be discussed during the conference call.

Foreman has spent several months rounding up investors there, but on Wednesday the group headed by Seymour Knox, owner of the NHL Sabres, announced it would wait until the 1992-93 season to enter indoor soccer. What league it will petition, the MSL or the low-budget National Professional Soccer League, has not been determined.

It is this kind of uncertainty Ancira Jr. hopes will be a thing of the past if his application is accepted.

“It seems to be like this every year,” he said. “No one knows what is going to happen until the very last day. It’s kind of difficult and it’s one of the things we want to avoid in the future.”

Ancira said he might reconsider his bid if fewer than eight teams remain. And with the announcements from Buffalo and Wichita, it appears eight teams will be the most the MSL could field for the coming season.

Already committed are Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Kansas City. The Sockers, Dallas and Tacoma would make eight.

Said Foreman, “We’re just going to have to wait and see what happens.”