A year off winning the SE Conference playoffs and playing strong against Miami, when they had to move (to a terrible field that is even worse for their preferred tactics), lose their identity and had a handful of their best players poached by their rivals. What we saw this season was an aberration, and while they may struggle this fall, the fact that they won't be constrained roster-wise by college players might not be terrible for them. Phoday Dolleh has historically drawn those teams from the immigrant communities and I wouldn't be surprised to see that again. They've still got the stadium problem, though. And Alpharetta is really (really) far from any immigrant communities. It's a shame that they couldn't find a way back to Silverbacks Park for the fall.
1999 Maryland Mania is the other disaster I was trying to remember. They couldn't afford to travel an athletic trainer, so they wanted to hire someone locally before a game in Indiana. We made them pay us up front to pay the athletic trainer because we knew they were not long for the world. I believe the late, great Paul Kitson was their player/coach. He got so pissed at the referee, he took off his wedding band and threw it at the guy. After the game, Paul was out on the field scouring the place for his lost wedding ring. I don't know if he ever found it.
Legend says, if you go to Kuntz Stadium on a summer evening, you'll see the ghost of a man looking for his wedding ring. No, seriously; you mentioned Indiana, and I know where you played at over on the West Side near old Bush Stadium. It's still there, long after the Blast became a clown shoes operation, went to USL PDL, and folded, but it's for recreational activities now.
Nah; once the Indy Eleven came along and brought upgrades to Carroll Stadium, they moved the high school soccer finals down the road to IUPUI.
Ah. At one point, Kuntz had the best surface in the A-League. And back when the Pan Am Games were in Indy (87?), they got big crowds for soccer there.
went there twice. once to see the US u-23 team play australia, and once to see Indiana Blast play Charlotte Eagles. It was a nice place to see a game.
Not the greatest name, but at least it isn’t a generic euro name. https://www.nisasoccer.com/news/2019/08/02/nisa-announces-los-angeles-club
Don't tell any Brits that there's a stadium called Kuntz. Wankdorf was the subject of much low brow amusement before it's name was changed to Stade de Suisse.
It's pronounced "Koontz" after William Kuntz, an Indianapolis businessman who was integral to its construction. (Though we had an intern who, in a phone call with a potential sponsor, pronounced it the other way, and I had to quickly correct her lest all sorts of damage occur.)
Maybe. Depends who can get time off from work, I guess. But, seriously, folks: their leading scorer in their (very good) 2019 NPSL season was a 27-year-old forward named Gustavo Villalobos with 10. He's played professionally before (including in the USL) but only in the NPSL (with this team and with the former FC Hasenthal) has he been able to score goals with any regularity. I don't know who else they have, but they were able to do well in the NPSL. With the limited time to ramp up and the short season, they might very well take that team en masse and add whoever they can. I would say taking an NPSL team right into a pro league would be a gamble (we have very limited data - I can find you amateur teams that have turned pro but I believe they have mostly been PDL teams, not NPSL teams), but most NISA teams are going to be in the same boat and none of them are likely to find Santiago Munez playing in a local league.
But.. the dream begins Seriously, at this rate the popcorn won't be out of the microwave before this league tanks.
FWIW, Miami beat the Cosmos 3-1 in the NPSL final. The bad news is that Miami won. The good news is that the Cosmos lost.
So, less than 2 months to sign sponsors, players, staff, merchandise, and most importantly, start selling tickets. We’re dealing with sunk cost fallacy here.
At least they are limiting their exposure by playing so few games (and calling it the "NISA Showcase" and not an actual season). Seems like it's more proof of concept than anything else. You'd have to judge it a relative success if all the games get played, none of the teams go toes-up and they average 1k a game.
Wait... 1904FC is playing at SDCCU stadium?! Bwahahahahahaha.... Here’s a preview of what game day will look like...
Don't you want every group of under-financed, no-experience people to be able to run their club into oblivion while tweeting about being held back by The Man, I mean?
Detroit and Chattanooga heading to NISA this spring. https://www.nisaofficial.com/news/2...ttanooga-fc-detroit-city-fc--oakland-roots-sc
"Bringing Chattanooga FC, Detroit City FC and Oakland Roots SC all in to NISA at the same time is very exciting! Wait a minute? Wasn't Oakland already in? They were on the Fall schedule that was released in July.
I think this is the official announcement by the league. I think everything up to now was from the club.