MSL Not Panicking Over Stars’ Demise

The Tacoma Stars, rebuked in their efforts to obtain a loan from the Major Soccer League, folded Friday.

The Stars have been in financial difficulty for several years. The club’s owners spearheaded the effort to lower the salary cap to $570,000 last year--threatening to fold if the other six teams and the players’ union did not agree.

But the concession was not enough. This past season the Stars could not meet all their financial obligations to the league, according to two sources, one of whom said the club did not pay as much as $50,000 in dues.

“It was a situation where the owners just said enough’s enough,” said Stan Naccarato, Tacoma vice president. “We had asked for some more concessions and other things regarding the money we owed, but we were rebuked. . . . As for the meetings next week, the owners just didn’t want to go through the embarrassment of going to the meetings on Tuesday. The guys had had it.”

Commissioner Earl Foreman appeared unconcerned with losing a franchise despite the fact the league is trying to put the best face forward in its unofficial race with the National Professional Soccer League to expand to Buffalo.

“We now have a strong, solid core of owners we can build on,” Foreman said. “And we still have high hopes that Buffalo will come in.”

Jim May, hired by Buffalo sports moguls to choose a league, did not return a phone call.

Sockers owner Oscar Ancira Jr. also did not laent the Stars’ demise.

“I think this is addition by subtraction. It was obvious Tacoma (was in poor financial health). A lot of people, especially you reporters, kept asking, ‘Why are they still in the league?’ Let’s just scratch this one out and concentrate on the good ones,” Ancira said.

“If I thought losing Tacoma was going to directly impact the MSL, I would have already closed it up.”

But Tacoma’s failure also casts a shadow over negotiations to sell the St. Louis Storm. Milan Mandaric, who bought the Storm as an expansion team three years ago, intends to sell it. There are two St. Louis groups who have negotiated with Mandaric, but so far no deal.

Again, Foreman gave no sign of panic.

“I’m very confident that the St. Louis deal will be put together shortly,” he said.

The Stars have been in the league since 1983 and once were considered one of the strongest franchises, drawing crowds upward of 20,000.