MSL Seats Too Empty in Playoffs

After increasing attendance by more than 19% during the regular season, the MSL is experiencing some definite problems in that area now that the playoffs have started.

In San Diego, crowds of 5,599 and 5,621 showed up for Games 1 and 2. Only 4,148 were on hand Tuesday in Baltimore for Game 3, all of which made the 7,474 who turned out in Dallas for Game 1 of the other semifinal look like a legitimate throng.

“It stinks,” said Oscar Ancira, Sockers managing general partner, when asked for his opinion on the matter. “Everyone tells me it’s normal (for attendance to slip in the first round of the playoffs), but I refuse to accept that.”

Blast owner Ed Hale told the Baltimore Sun that the problem stems from competing with the opening of baseball season and the competition for fans.

“We have to recognize that this is an indoor sport and it’s outdoors time,” Hale told the Sun. “We have to start this season earlier and end it earlier. We have to be finished before baseball starts.”

But it was Hale who, not even a year and a half ago, suggested that the season begin Dec. 26 rather than late October as it does now. That was Hale’s way of fixing the attendance problem the league experiences every December when ticket sales drop sharply.

It also should be noted that the season isn’t getting any shorter--just last week owners announced they will expand the number of games from 40 to 44. That will add at least two weeks to the schedule, which already is spread over 24 weeks.

If Hale, Ancira and the MSL’s other owners really want to find a solution, they might want to start listening to their coaches.

Socker Coach Ron Newman and assistant Erich Geyer propose that the league do away with the seven-game semifinals and trim it to either five games or three games.

“It’s almost like people coming late to the first quarter,” Newman said about the bad attendance in the early games. “They stay away from the first game because they know there’s two more later in the week that will decide things. This best of seven in the semifinals, the league isn’t quite ready for that.”

Added Geyer, “I’d like to see a best of five or a best of three in the semifinals. Then you’d see fans pouring in wherever you go. It would be awesome, much more competitive than it is now. Each game would mean more.”

Kevin Crow played Game 3 despite a sprained right ankle and a deep contusion to his left ankle, injuries that weren’t noticeable on the field.

Crow (6-1, 175) not only started Game 3, he pushed and shoved Blast forward Jean Harbor (6-1, 195) all night, effectively negating the Blast’s most potent offensive weapon.

Despite feeling pain every time he passed the ball, Crow was able to put it out of his mind when he wound up to take what turned out to be the winning shot five minutes into overtime of the 5-4 victory.

“Kevin was walking on egg shells with those injuries,” Newman said. “It’s not easy when you’re in that kind of condition to keep your toe down and your ankle locked. But Kevin must have had plenty of confidence in the wrap job that Bill Taylor did.”

Taylor was accepting no credit, and instead pointed to Crow.

“His foot was black and blue well into the arch,” Taylor said. “But some people can get out there and do it.”

In his nine seasons, Crow has never missed a playoff game and now has played in 104 consecutively.

“That’s why Kevin Crow is Kevin Crow,” Geyer said. “How long he has been playing without missing a playoff game is a record that’s just incredible.”

Last year, during the championship season, Ben Collins decided to play with two sprained ankles and ended up winning the series’ Most Valuable Player award.

This year, however, an operation to repair ligament damage in a knee is keeping Collins off the field. Nevertheless, Collins will fly to Baltimore today to be with his teammates during Games 4 and 5.

“I just felt he should be there with his teammates,” Ancira said. “He’s been part of the team the whole season.”

The April 15 deadline for teams to file letters of credit for next season came and went without any word on who is in and who is out, though owners of all seven teams previously stated they would file.

Commissioner Earl Foreman chose an appropriate metaphor to describe the situation.

“It’s like filing your taxes,” he said. “People really don’t start to get serious about it until the last minute.”

Still, the last minute has passed and there is no word from the league office.

“I can’t even tell you,” Foreman said when asked who had filed on time. “I just haven’t gotten a chance to check with (league attorney) Bob Carlson in New York, and all the letters go through his office.”

MSL Minutae

The Blast have tied two of the semifinals’ first three games after going to a sixth-attacker late in the fourth quarter and have lost both games in overtime. “We need to be careful in our special teams situations,” said Blast Coach Kenny Cooper. “And one area we definitely need to improve in is overtime.” . . . Socker midfielder Tim Wittman, who earlier in the season shaved his head and is letting his hair grow back now, has a new nickname: Chia Pet.