"Somewhat unstable?" The only sport more unstable than indoor soccer is arena football. There are only three championship teams that have not folded - the Wave, the current Sockers, and the current Blast. In the history of the sports hasn't there been something like a 90% failure rate on franchises?
This is one of (many) indoor soccers strange paradox's though Card. It costs money to pay for the above, most teams don't have the money to advertise. It is a vicious circle. It is only recently that all MASL teams now all have working websites. They have at least gotten live updates from the Twitter and Facebook feeds too, before they were three separate platforms. Great post. A full time marketing manager is a fantastic idea. If a team can afford one they need one, if they can't afford one, can they really afford to be in MASL?
For what i needed it for , Man it worked out great. I would only advertise when people seem to need money the most., Hollidays , When kids went back to school, I would liquidate anything i did not consider a premium buy. through dealers and auction houses. Then I would just post them in my store and right around Tax time and Xmas I would sell everything off and start all over. I did well until the market fell out of it.
Indoor soccer wishes it was as unstable as arena football. The AFL has NBA/NHL owners owning teams to fill summer dates in their arenas and a TV deal with CBSSN.
Arena football is similar to indoor soccer. Its actually a fun time if you go in person and there is a crowd thats into it. I dont know if either one translates to tv well, certainly not by using hockey/basketball camera angles and commentary. It needs a NASL or XFL thinking to mix things up like broadcasting and marketing. Yes both leagues failed but they also revolutionised the broadcasting of the sports.
It actually worked out great. The CISL outdrew the NPSL for about 4 of their 5 years. It didn't help that the commissioner was getting a huge cut of everything, which ultimately caused the league to break up. And the NBA repurposed the CISL model to create the WNBA (28 summer games from June-September).
The Chicago Mustangs, Kansas City Comets, and Monterrey Flash are still around (more or less on the latter two).
Don't give a cr@p about the WNBA. The CISL lasted for only 5 years, expanded WAY too quickly and the deep pockets of the NBA/NHL owners did nothing to prevent the league from collapsing onto itself. I'm not sure I'd use the words "worked out great", but that's just my opinion.
Bullshit they do. People over 65 do. Not a demographic interested in this product. Jesus, you really need to stay out of business discussions. You get EVERYTHING wrong all the time.
And, yet, here they are. That's because Ron Weinstein had it in his employment contract (which I used to have a copy of) that he got a piece of each expansion fee. Or into oblivion. Honestly, there were not that many NBA/NHL owners in the CISL. That was the concept, and it started that way, but the WNBA was eventually seen as a much more viable option and brand extension than indoor soccer was. In 1993, Don Carter owned the Mavericks and the Sidekicks (he sold the Mavericks in 1996), Jerry Buss owned LA United and the Lakers, the Colangelos owned both the Sandsharks and the Suns and Jim Thomas owned the Knights and the Kings. Portland, Monterrey and San Diego did not have NBA cross-ownership. Eventual expansion teams in Detroit, Washington, Charlotte, Pittsburgh and Seattle had NBA cross-ownership (the only NHL connection I recall was Abe Pollin owning the Warthogs as well as the Bullets/Wizards), but their ardor cooled. Which is not surprising, because, really, it was indoor soccer and asking your basketball front office staff to sell basketball in their offseason was much less of a stretch than asking them to sell indoor soccer. By the end, Monterrey, Indiana, Houston, Dallas, Anaheim, Portland and Arizona did not have NBA cross-ownership. Detroit, Seattle and Sacramento did. Most clubs were struggling or tired of not seeing success and feeling Weinstein was the only one making any money on the deal. When Dallas pulled out, that was the plug that drained the tub, so to speak. Some clubs soldiered on in the new PSA (which became the WISL), while others folded for good. It worked for a brief period. But in the end, no. But you can say that about most teams and leagues in this sport.
The NHL has looked at the CWHL and NWHL (both womens hockey) numerous times and shied away from stepping in. They actually told both leagues to get lost in the lead up to the Montreal v Boston outdoor game at Gillette stadium. Neither league could agree on the time of day let alone anything else. The WNBA took some money, serious money to get going. Most NHL owners would rather spend a week living in a homeless shelter than pour money in indoor soccer. These guys are rich already, they want something that is up and running. We (as in the collective 'we' in indoor soccer) are far too small right now and a NBA or NHL owner would do more harm than damage. If you've ever seen the ESPN 30 for 30 on when President Trump owned a team in the USFL that is a blue print of what a major league owner would do in indoor today. I've seen how these guys (occasionally girls) operate. They ignore the word "no" and will work harder at proving someone wrong than it's worth to argue. They all have family offices and people, you'd never get a hold of them, but they will get a hold of you in a hurry. The sport isn't at the level where we can deal with one of these people right now.
You two are having an argument and you are just about the only ones on here who have each accomplished something fairly rare. I don't think Tom Higginson is on here anymore, NSL2004 and the guy who played for the Wave off of the top of my head. You both have generated income from indoor soccer. Card - I will give CardshopMD some credit in one (highly underserved) area of the business indoor soccer. He manages to generate money from indoor soccer. Whether or not he is up or down because he is a hobbyist first and businessman second, whether or not he can buy a box of peanuts or a new car with the money from selling, whether or not he has some unique (read peculiar) ideas on the business side of the sport, the guy has generated some cash from the game. That is rare. In fact, he's been doing it for awhile. The number of teams who have generated income on a year to year basis over Cardshop is pretty small if I was to guess. I'm not comparing the dollar to dollar value, but anytime you can make money from something you love that's a win. Kenn - to your credit, you have generated multiple streams of income from soccer, which is really rare. Books, tv, radio, commentary. However, to the initial point. Phone book covers are not a cost effective means of advertising anymore. Probably haven't been since 1998. It's only in the last 2-3 years each team actually got a working website. Relying on Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest is crazy. Most employers block those sites, most MASL fans go to work to pay for their tickets, not having an easily viewable website was a big downside.
Or you could also look at the New York Cosmos owners in the NASL the last several years. There may have been one other factor: MLS playing in the summer. To some extent this affected both the CISL and NPSL, because both leagues lost some top talent to MLS. (I notice that the Sacramento Knights, in particular, had their roster hollowed out in 1996 by departures for MLS.) But the CISL may have had it far worse in having to actively compete with MLS for eyeballs all season and no longer having a fair number of the best American soccer players.
It is easy to make money on indoor soccer items, When the Baltimore blast decided a few years ago to clean out its storage area at the arena m They were selling Practice jerseys and Game used shorts at $5.00 each, I bought almost every single item on the table. Then I went & have every item signed by the players. A week later I put them on ebay for $25 for the shits and $40 for the shorts & within 2 weeks they were all gone. Granted it's a lot easier for me to sell the items because i have a large following and I know almost of of the collectors and I know what they are looking for. This year I may be selling photos at the arena to help the Blast fan club raise money. Right now the sports collectible market is at its lowest value since 1988 when it hit rock bottom. The best way to make money in indoor soccer is dont own the team.
OMG I just noticed that, Big soccer wont let me fix it , Now we know why the shorts were so cheap LOL