American soccer writing, history & data.
Having accepted their status as the USSF's formally sanctioned Division II professional league, the A-League had a stable offseason before the 1996 season. in January, the struggling New York Centaurs merged with the New York Fever of the USISL. The merged organization would continue the A-League franchise and take the New York Fever as their official team name. The organization would play at Barr...
In July of 1994, the Atlanta Magic club was granted a franchise in the American Professional Soccer League to begin play in 1995. Sam Chase was the president of the Magic which held a franchise in the USISL. The club expected to maintain a USISL team as a farm club for the APSL squad. In August, Mark Dillon resigned as head coach of the Orlando Lions of the USISL to become the general manager o...
After years of delays, the U.S. Soccer Federation scheduled their decision to choose an organization to launch a Division I professional league for December of 1993. In early October, the USSF gave the American Professional Soccer League outgoing commissioner, Bill Sage, a deadline of December 15 to submit a business play for the new major league. When the 1994 World Cup organizing committee misse...
The 1993 American Professional Soccer League was the second for the organization as a member of the USSF's Professional Division. The league lost two franchises following the 1992 season. The Miami Freedom's franchise was involuntarily terminated in January of 1993 after failing to find a new owner to take it over. Dan Van Voorhis pulled the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks out of the league becaus...
In the fall of 1991, the American Professional Soccer League activated its entry into the USSF's Professional Division by paying a $100,000 fee. Requirements for entry into the Professional Division meant more stringent standards for the league's member teams including a fully staffed, year-round front office, eight to twelve players under full-time contracts, and a stadium that can accommodate 60...
The offseason prior to the 1991 American Professional Soccer League season was one of massive change. The biggest may have been the league's contraction from 22 teams for the 1990 season down to nine active for the 1991 season. A number of factors were part of this issue including individual team finances to the general unsettled nature of the professional game in the U.S. In October of 1990, m...
In April of 1989, the American Soccer League and the Western Soccer League formally agreed to negotiate toward a merger of the two organizations. A joint resolution adopted by the WSL and ASL boards stated that the leagues would immediately begin to finalized details of the merger and set the criteria required for their teams to join the U.S. Soccer Federation's new "Professional Division". The...
Stability reigned in the American Soccer League as the same 10 teams returned for the 1989 season. In late April of 1989 David F. Prouty was named commissioner of the league replacing Chuck Blazer who resigned in January to become president of the Miami Sharks' franchise. In the first week of May, just two weeks into the season, Miami Sharks' owner, Dirceu Caria, fired Chuck Blazer. Caria criti...
The idea for a new American Soccer League was born in the summer of 1986 when the USSF passed legislation calling for the formation of regional leagues. The Western Soccer Alliance formed on the West Coast and the ASL was created in the northeast. The ASL's founding commissioner was Chuck Blazer, the executive director of the USSF. Originally planned to start play in 1987, with only five franchise...
At the end of the 1988 season, the Western Soccer Alliance began to work seriously towards becoming a fully professional league. In late July of 1988, the league granted an expansion franchise to the Phoenix-area, Arizona Condors, which would begin play in the 1989 season. Its owner, Tony Koleski, planned to initially fill the team's roster with junior college players but hoped to turn the team pr...
The same six teams returned for the 1988 Western Soccer Alliance season. The teams would play home-and-home series against each other plus two games against Canadian Soccer League clubs. The games against the Calgary Kickers and Vancouver 86ers would count in the league standings. In a slight change from the prior season, matches tied at regulation would go to two mandatory, not sudden death, 10-m...
The Western Soccer Alliance returned for the 1987 season with a number of changes from the prior year. The Edmonton Brick Men did to return as the team joined the newly-formed Canadian Soccer League. For the first time the league implemented a playoffs. The second and third place teams would face off in a semifinal with the winner playing the first-place team for the league championship. The regul...
After a successful opening season as an relatively informal alliance, the Western Soccer Association returned for the 1986 season as a true league. The purposed of the league was to give American players the chance to play outdoors as each team was required to start at least nine Americans in their starting lineups. Peter Bridgewater of the San Jose Earthquakes was named the first president of the...
Following the collapse of the NASL the Pacific Western Soccer Alliance was proposed as a fully professional league. The Vancouver Nationals, Edmonton and Calgary teams each posted the necessary $50,000 financial guarantees with the Canadian Soccer Association but the fourth entity, the Seattle Americans, merged in late February 1985 with the F.C. Seattle United club and were not prepared to join a...
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