MSL NOTEBOOK / JOHN GEIS : Owners Don’t Delay in Making ’92 Plans

Ever read Calvin and Hobbes? Remember when Calvin invented a transmogrifier? It looks like he’s at it again, this time turning National Hockey League owners into the buffoons who used to run the Major Soccer League.

While National Hockey League moguls sit around dumbfounded while their players strike, the MSL already is planning for the 1992-93 season.

That’s an upset, considering that MSL owners gave themselves only two months to prepare for the current season.

This past week, Tacoma’s ownership said it would post its letter of credit for the coming season by the April 15 deadline, and Dr. Abe Hawatmeh, a St. Louis urologist who is in the process of obtaining majority ownership of the St. Louis Storm, said Friday he will post that franchise’s letter on April 15.

Tacoma and St. Louis were the only two question marks. Owners here and in Baltimore, Cleveland, Wichita and Dallas already said they planned to meet the deadline during February owners’ meetings.

Tacoma earlier had wavered because of another year of poor attendance. The reversal came because Stan Naccarato, hired midway through the season, has convinced ownership he can turn around the franchise given a full off-season to market the club.

“We have a chance to get back to where we were (when we were drawing 15,000 per game),” Naccarato said. “I really believe we can sell indoor soccer here.”

St. Louis is in the middle of an ownership transfer. Hawatmeh is putting together a group that will take over the team from founder Milan Mandaric, a San Jose businessman who said in 1988 when he bought the expansion team that he would sell it after three seasons.

“We’re going to be back,” Hawatmeh said. “There’s no doubt about that. The only thing that is not done yet is the structure of the franchise--who owns how much.”

The Storm led all MSL teams in attendance this season, averaging 10,269 per game. That’s up 24.3% from last season’s total of 7,772.

The Sockers were second with an average gate of 9,348, up 23.1% from the 1990-91 average of 7,192. That’s the Sockers’ highest figure in five years.

Tacoma was the only franchise with a decline (-14.1%), going from 5,499 to 4,821.

Other clubs’ attendance figures are as follows: Wichita up 26.4% from 6,309 to 8,569, Baltimore up 9.4% from 7,434 to 8,206, Cleveland up 34.2% from 4,640 to 7,056, and Dallas up 1.3% from 6,920 to 7,010.

It should be noted that Cleveland ignored the disarray the rest of the league was in last summer and continued its sales effort throughout the off-season, and also that Dallas did not have an owner until 70 days before opening day.

Overall leaguewide attendance was up 19% from 1990-91.

So what’s planned for next year?

No expansion is set yet, but MSL officials are confident Buffalo will join. Owners of the NHL Sabres already have hired a general manager for a proposed indoor soccer team that will play in either the MSL or NPSL.

Beyond that, things get even hazier.

Sockers owner Oscar Ancira insists he would like to limit expansion to one team, fearing a diluted talent pool should two or more enter.

Tacoma’s Naccarato doesn’t buy that argument.

“That’ll come up every time you talk about expansion,” he said. “You just have to do it.”

Naccarato would like to see expansion into the Pacific Northwest so the Tacoma Stars can build a regional rivalry. That’s not likely.

Nevertheless, the Stars are drawing plans to play some 1992-93 home games in other Pacific Northwest cities to spark interest in the MSL from Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

In the past, expansion into Canada has been deemed impossible because of strained relations with the Canadian Soccer Federation. But MSL Commissioner Earl Foreman said that has changed and that the new leadership at the U.S. Soccer Federation is paving the way.

“The point is we’re willing to face up to them,” Foreman said about the CSF. “And now with Alan (Rothenberg, the second-year USSF president), we have good auspices.”

Elsewhere on the expansion front, East Coast attorney Rick Harrow, who is said to have been instrumental in Orlando gaining a National Basketball Assn. franchise, has been retained by the MSL to study a future course of action for expansion.

“I’m really impressed by him,” Naccarato said. “He has some good ideas and he knows a lot of people.”

Harrow, predictably, had nothing but good things to say about the MSL.

“I’ve talked to a number of people already,” said Harrow, who also teaches at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass. “And I think the future of the league is exceedingly bright for three reasons. One, there’s a certain inertia that goes along with being established for 14 years. Secondly, their approach is very market-sensitive, and third, with the World Cup coming in 1994 and bringing renewed emphasis to outdoor soccer, indoor soccer should be impacted as well.”

Harrow stressed he is in the beginning stages of his work.

MSL Minutae

When the Sockers open their semifinal series against the Baltimore Blast on Wednesday (7:35 p.m. at the Sports Arena), it will be the fourth postseason series between the two old rivals, but the first coming in a round other than the finals. The Sockers have beat the Blast in four championship series, and are 15-8 against them in playoff games. . . . The Sockers and Blast first met in the playoffs in 1983, which was the first year the Sockers jumped from the North American Soccer League into the then MISL. The Sockers won the series in the fifth and final game in front of a sell-out crowd of 12,948 as Ade Coker kicked the winning goal in a 3-1 victory. . . . This season the Sockers were 5-1 against the Blast.

Socker defender Kevin Crow finished second in the league in blocked shots with 82. Dallas’ Wes McLeod had 91. . . . Socker forward Paul Wright finished third in the MSL in goals scored with 50. Cleveland’s Hector Marinaro scored 53 and Dallas’ David Doyle had 51. . . . Sockers defender Ben Collins, who missed the last three weeks of the season after undergoing surgery on his right knee to repair a tear in the lateral cartilage and remove a loose piece of the articular cartilage, said the knee still swells whenever he puts any pressure on it and that he still expects to miss the playoffs. Collins said he will try to jog later this week, and if the knee responds well, he might be ready for the later stages of the championship series should the Sockers get that far.

No, no, no, Socker midfielder Tim Wittman did not extend his streak of scoring at least one short-handed goal in consecutive seasons to seven, as reported Sunday. Wittman went the entire season without a short-handed goal, ending his streak at seven seasons. It also was the first time the Sockers failed to notch at least one short-handed goal in a season.

A familiar name has surfaced in efforts to expand into Los Angeles--Wulfrano Ruiz, the Tijuana businessman who fronted a group that tried purchasing the Sockers last summer. If it works out, it won’t be until the 1993-94 season. . . . Cleveland has been chosen as the site of next season’s All-Star Game, which for the first time in several years will be held on a Friday. . . . As part of its agreement with the MSL, SportsChannel America will televise six playoff games. Commissioner Earl Foreman said owners have decided to use all six telecasts on the championship series. Foreman also said he has held preliminary talks with SportsChannel concerning added MSL coverage should the NHL strike continue. But when reached for confirmation, a SportsChannel spokesman didn’t seem to realize the NHL was even on strike. When asked about the possibility of expanded MSL coverage to replace lost NHL games, the spokesperson said, “What do you mean?” When told of the NHL strike, she said, “Oh, we’re showing replays.” When asked if those replays would be replaced by live MSL playoff games, she said, “We plan on showing six MSL playoff games.”