These links will independently chronicle the Cedar Rapids MASL expansion team in write-ups and photos. Feel free to follow (or add anything about the team) to this thread. http://5thseasonfront.blogspot.com/ https://twitter.com/5thSeasonFront
Nice job! Good luck with your new team, maybe they can become the Green Bay Packers of indoor soccer!
Bare bones write-up for fans new to indoor soccer. I know I may simplify/gloss over events, but I want to know if I have anything flat out wrong. Thanks. http://5thseasonfront.blogspot.com/
Yeah, he had this part correct right up until the end: It's true, the 1975 and 1976 NASL indoor tournaments were a reason behind the MISL's genesis. And the Kansas City Comets and Baltimore blast were teams of that original league. But those aren't the same teams who are part of today's MASL. Same markets. But the original Comets went out of business in 1991 and Don Kincaid's version (nee Attack) died in 2005. And despite what some folks in Baltimore would have you believe, the original Blast went under when the original MISL did. Bill Stealey's Spirit was a new franchise, which was later bought by Ed Hale and renamed the Blast. They're not the same franchise. Rochester never played in any of the NASL's official indoor seasons. The 1975 and 1976 indoor tournaments were their only foray into the indoor game. Like the KC Comets and original Baltimore Blast, the Lancers do not "continue to this day." Their "short hiatus or two" was actually 35 years. And, again, completely different franchise. The Sockers don't continue, either. The current iteration is at least the third (after the original NASL-MISL-CISL version and the WISL-MISLII version). As Skipper mentioned, no, the Comets and Blast were never in the NASL and never played outdoor. They were in the MISL at the time of the collapse of the NASL. The Strikers, Sting and Sockers (and, briefly during the previous winter before the end of the NASL, the Cosmos) found refuge in the MISL. The Rowdies, who probably should have joined the MISL, went to the AISA instead, for one year, before managing to return to the outdoor game in the old ASL. "To this day" connotes an unbroken line, which is not the case with either of those franchises. This Ambush is two seasons old. This Heat is also a resurrection. What other arena in Baltimore was bigger that the Blast moved out of? And the Sockers - who did, for a time, play in a pavilion in Del Mar - now play in San Diego's largest arena (the old Sports Arena). The Ambush never moved, because they never played at the home of the NHL's Blues. And St. Louis didn't lead the league in attendance, they were third. "Bedrock" is a stretch. Wichita doesn't play in the biggest arena in town. Tulsa barely got 400 people per game and moved to a smaller arena part way through the season, while Turlock was just over 500 a game. Ontario did do better (2,500), but Brownsville absolutely isn't doing much better, as they averaged an announced 469 last year. The PDL is not 4th Division. There is no 4th Division in this country. People like that shorthand because it helps them get their point across about the PDL's relative place in the hierarchy, but "4th Division" is a misnomer. USSF bylaws recognize three and only three professional divisions and lumps all the amateurs together outside of that. I can appreciate your passion. All the folks here would be glad to help with any questions you have about the history of the indoor game, which is long and convoluted.
While the NPSL was on ESPN2, I don't think it was ever a "staple" of the network. That phrase means that it was center to the network's programing. It was not. There were times when NPSL games were not even broadcast live.
I am making the revisions now. I was twelve when I became a fan of the CISL and I was only just born when the MISL entered its golden years. Hence, a lot of this comes from very old memory and limited knowledge. I want to make sure it is as accurate as possible. Thank you for your attendance info, Kenn. Yours is probably more accurate than what I culled. Appreciate it guys. Kenn, I found your extremely helpful attendance blog and have noted it at bottom. Just noticed it got shared by one of the CR Gazette Sports writers so the corrections come just in time. Thank you!
Totally cool, man. It's not like there are a ton of great sources for accurate history of this crazy sport. Rich and Alan and I and some other folks are just nuts enough to think it's important that stuff be written down somewhere.
That's fair. It's fair to say strange sports and offbeat stuff like indoor soccer were staples of programming on espn2 when it first launched. That whole thing was not intended to be just another side-by-side ESPN network that's basically indistinguishable from the mothership, but ESPN for a younger, hipper generation. (Which was why, of course, they tabbed Keith Olbermann to co-host its signature show. Oy.)
Also, I'm guessing no indoor league (since the original MISL, anyway) has had more games on TV than the NPSL did on espn2. But that's just a guess. Seemed like they had a lot of games on (of course, they played 40 games a season per team, which no one has come close to in the last 8-10 years).
I was at the 1995 All-Star game in Buffalo. I got to participate in the media game at half-time as a reporter for Utica College's WPNR. I still have my all-star t-shirt somewhere. In fact, I think that I first met Rich P at that game.
Good article. We want the fans in CR to get excited about indoor soccer and your article hit the right tone & level of detail. I have a lot of optimism about the new team in CR. The new owners & staff need to spend a lot of time appearing in the community: parades, soccer tournaments, football games, festivals, rock concerts, marathons, etc. Get the players visiting schools & hospitals very often. Sponsor amateur soccer leagues. Invent reasons to get covered by local TV news. The St. Louis Ambush have done all these things (with some advertising but not a ton) and done well. It can be done, and success is not necessarily tied to spending tons of $$. Get the 'group sales' angle working - many of the Ambush sales are groups. It helps a lot that CR is being run by people who have owned a team before, albeit a different sport.
Exactly. Exposure, exposure, and more exposure. Set up booths at community events, at malls, etc. Print up batches of wallet size schedule cards and leave them out at restaurants and other public places. Make use of resources like entertainment.com books, groupon, and others. Get coaches, players, and other personnel on as guests on local radio shows. Let as many people as you can know that you exist, and do it often. It doesn't have to cost a fortune, and it's certainly no guarantee of success, but at least people know you're out there as an entertainment option.
The Titans do a great job of this. They are constantly in schools and out at community events. I'm not sure this has been mentioned, but our owner Chris Kokalis got his start coming up in the ranks of the Milwaukee Wave front office so he knows the business of indoor soccer well.
i remember Espn2 when it started, it was different from ESPN. now of course its indistinguishable, but back at the start it was very different. same with ESPN Classic. Des that even exist anymore? The Wave are the longest tenured indoor soccer team, in that they have played every season since 1984. there are iterations of teams that played earlier than the Wave, but todays versions are versions 2, 3, 4 or 5 of those teams.
Congratulations to Cedar Rapids and welcome aboard Firesting81. Good that you are getting to know your indoor soccer history; and a lot there is. As you can see, there's a lot of resources here (myself included), that are like walking encyclopedias. I am a big fan of the Baltimore Blast, who are the 7 Time World Champions. We are kind of the model franchise in this sport and one of the main reasons indoor soccer is still alive today. The City of Baltimore has fielded a team in the top league since 1980. That's a 35 year continuous run....and that is the longest run of pro soccer in North America. The Blast has had great rivalries with the Sockers, Force (Cleveland), Wave, you name em. And we have beat them all. Here's hoping that there is great success in Cedar Rapids and I can't wait to play you guys. If you have any questions, please feel free. Good Luck.
The name and logo will be revealed, 3pm tomorrow at White Star Ale House in downtown CR. And after some internet sleuthing last night, I know what the name will be. It will be a familiar one to midwestern soccer fans who remember the 90s.
1990s Midwestern indoor teams names: Ambush (St. Louis/Tulsa) Attack (Atlanta/Kansas City) Crunch (Cleveland) Dynamo (Dayton) Invaders (Canton/Columbus) Power (Chicago) Silverbacks (Cincinnati) Thunder (Illinois/Denver) Wave (Milwaukee) Wings (Wichita) Obviously, Ambush and Wave are out. USPTO has nothing for "Iowa Thunder" or "Cedar Rapids Thunder." "Iowa Power" is an actual utility company and "Cedar Rapids Power" is a trademark used by Electro-Hydraulic Automation, Inc. of Cedar Rapids. I'm not finding USPTO trademarks on any of the other terms using "Iowa" or "Cedar Rapids." WHOIS shows everything with iowa(teamname).com is available. The only CISL teams in the Midwest were: Hotshots (Houston) Neon (Detroit) Safari (Detroit) Sidekicks (Dallas) WHOIS has no record of an iowahotshots.com or a cedarrapidshotshots.com. Obviously Sidekicks is out. I would not expect Neon or Safari. So I'm stumped. Wait 'til tomorrow.
My clue was a little cryptic, Kenn. I didn't specify which version of soccer. Oh, and I misspoke earlier: Announcement is Thursday. Also, if any of you want clues, follow on Twitter at the link atop this thread
Cedar Rapids Rampage. Could also theoretically be the Lancers or Vipers, but those were indoor teams. Could be the Spirit, but Baltimore isn't in the Midwest. The only other ones I could think of might be the Phoenix or Dynasty, because they sound like soccer team names, but I can't recall a 90s-era Midwest soccer team with those team names. Way cooler would be the Cedar Rapids Riverboat Gamblers, but, well, there are obvious problems with that.