Newman Savoring This Title : Soccer: Ordeal after Sockers’ ninth title gives the coach a big reason to enjoy another MSL championship this time around.

It was as though Coach Ron Newman had found some of his youth after the Sockers won their 10th championship in 11 years by defeating the Dallas Sidekicks, 8-2, in Game 6 of the MSL finals Tuesday.

“Yesterday it felt like I had won my first one,” Newman said Wednesday. “Those early championships were such a high. But then later they just turned more into a feeling of relief from all the pressure and tension, all the sleepless nights hoping you don’t make any mistakes. People think you just put down names on a lineup card, but there’s so much more than that. But yesterday I was so excited . . . I just couldn’t realize why.”

The reason wasn’t really that far off. Last May the club won its ninth championship and the next morning a story appeared in the San Diego Union pointing out the imminent demise of the franchise.

The article would have been correct if Newman didn’t spend June working toward the rebirth of the club.

“Maybe that’s what it was,” Newman said. “I just felt really exhilarated with this championship.”

Although the Sockers appear secure, there still are some trouble spots in the league. The most noteworthy is St. Louis, where transfer of ownership of the Storm from Milan Mandaric to a group headed by Dr. Abe Hawatmeh, a St. Louis urologist, has bogged down.

So precarious is the franchise, the situation was blamed by Commissioner Earl Foreman for his absence from the Sports Arena Tuesday. In Foreman’s stead, deputy commissioner John Borozzi awarded the championship trophy.

It was the first time in Foreman’s term as commissioner that someone else handed out the awards.

“It was partly league business (in St. Louis) and partly a stomach that couldn’t take another four-hour flight,” Foreman said.

Foreman was in St. Louis on Monday and met with another group of interested owners other than those assembled by Hawatmeh, who now appear to be on the periphery.

Everyone in the Storm front office has been laid off for more than a month except one receptionist to answer the telephone.

It is a situation reminiscent of the past two summers when teams spent their off-seasons in turmoil instead of selling tickets and sponsorships.

With the Hawatmeh group put off by Mandaric’s price, reported to be $750,000, hope is waning.

“I don’t see this thing being settled,” said a club source who asked for anonymity. “There is no urgency. We had the April 15 deadline, then it got pushed back to April 30, and now there is no deadline. We averaged over 10,000 fans last year, but we’ll be lucky to draw half that much because of all the momentum we’ve lost (by closing down at season’s end). They missed out on a good opportunity to cash in by dragging this out, a very good opportunity.

“It just doesn’t look good here.”

All is not gloom this year. One team that annually teeters on collapse, the Wichita Wings, already has signed three players for the coming season: midfielder Kim Roentved, forward Dale Ervine and goalie Kris Peat.

His stomach willing, Foreman will fly to the West Coast tomorrow to talk to Mandaric, who runs his business out of San Jose. He then might swing down to San Diego and rendezvous with the Ruiz family of Tijuana.

The Ruizes were interested in buying the Sockers when the franchise was available last summer. They have recently asked Foreman to put them in touch with some arena contractors, and Foreman said they are mulling the possibility of building an arena in Tijuana and eventually buying an expansion team.

“They keep telling me, ‘Don’t underestimate Tijuana,’ ” Foreman said.

The border city’s population is a constant source of debate with most experts agreeing that it hovers between 1.5 and 2 million.

Sockers managing general partner Oscar Ancira said he was unaware of the Ruiz plan.

There are more immediate expansion matters to address. Foreman still has not heard a final decision from the Riches, who are seeking to put either an MSL or National Professional Soccer League franchise in Buffalo next season.

Foreman said he hopes to hear from the Riches “in a week to 10 days.”

Expansion efforts also are going down to the wire in Charlotte.

“We have a willing owner there and a facility,” Foreman said of Charlotte. “But the problem is trying to work out business terms between the two. So if that’s on a burner at all, it’s on a back burner.”

Also unresolved are letters of credit, though time could heal that problem as owners simply wait until June 30 to roll over their current $350,000 letters.

“A lot of this stuff should be cleared up within the next two weeks,” Foreman said. “That’s when we would have to have all this settled. We’re waiting to pull everything together at one time.”

That’s exactly what Newman hopes will happen. He doesn’t want to deal with another Save Our Sockers campaign. He doesn’t want to host season-ticket telethons. He doesn’t want to bang the drum looking for new owners.

“I’m hoping that we can have a proper summer this time,” he said, “so we can sit back and gloat about our success and feel good about it.

“That would be great.”