Soccer League Will Cease Operations
Ron Weinstein, founder and commissioner of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, announced Tuesday that the 5-year-old league would cease operation.
Since the 1997 season ended in October, the 11-team league has lost four franchises. The Portland Pride, Houston Hotshots and Dallas Sidekicks withdrew from the league, and the Anaheim Splash’s franchise rights were seized.
“The remaining owners and myself,” Weinstein said in a release, “still firmly believe that the CISL’s concept of indoor soccer and the business approach that our league attempted to take gave the sport its best-ever opportunity for fiscal success.
“Unfortunately, some of our former owners chose to deviate from that path and it unfairly impacted the other owners.”
Dan Grigsby, legal counsel for the CISL, said the league will continue to seek more than $200,000 in delinquent fees owed by Anaheim Splash Inc. and its president, Gary Sparks.
“I don’t think this changes anything,” Grigsby said of the league’s folding. “There are still outstanding bills to be paid. . . . Most of those monies that weren’t paid were covered by those teams that did [pay]--payments to Splash players, for example.”
Sparks could not be reached for comment.
Ogden Facility Management, which operates the Pond and had been seeking a partner to assume franchise rights to the Splash, might still have an opportunity to own a team next year.
Many CISL ownership groups are looking at forming a new league, which could begin in August and hold playoffs in November.
Prospective owners will meet next month to discuss the viability of a new league. They also will meet with ownership groups from the National Professional Soccer League, the only remaining professional indoor league.
Brad Mayne, general manager of the Pond, which is operated by Ogden, will be invited to participate in those discussions, along with former ownership groups from San Diego and Las Vegas.
“There are two [potential partner] groups out there with an interest in indoor soccer,” Mayne said. “I think it would still be viable. If the new league wants to come into [the Pond], I would be interested in discussing it.”
In its four years in Anaheim since moving from Los Angeles, the Splash won two division titles--both while owned by Ogden.
“I think [the CISL] tried hard and gave us an avenue to play in some of the premier arenas across the country,” Splash defender Rich Ryerson said. “I’m disappointed.”
Monday was the deadline for owners of the league’s seven remaining franchises to post letters of credit to commit to the 1998 season, but only the Sacramento Knights, Seattle SeaDogs and Monterrey La Raza did so. The other teams are the Arizona Sandsharks, Detroit Safari, Indiana Twisters and Washington Warthogs.
Hubert Rotteveel, Sacramento’s general manager, said the four owners who refused to move forward for 1998 became frustrated with the rising costs of operating the league and the return on their dollar.
“When you’re looking at what they were doing in the league office and what they were giving in publicity, in terms of TV coverage and national sponsorships, it didn’t make sense anymore,” Rotteveel said. “They were not creating or producing.”
The CISL’s decision leaves the NPSL, a 15-team Eastern winter league, as the only professional indoor league. In the NPSL’s 14-year history, two summer leagues have failed, including the Major Soccer League.
“We would try to accommodate any of their teams that would have interest [in joining the NPSL],” said Steve Paxos, NPSL commissioner. “We hope to be a coast-to-coast league one day, and hopefully that will happen sooner than later.”
