Before Atoms coach Al Miller took the young team to England to train and to scout for some British players to fill out the roster, back in Philadelphia, Atoms general manager Bob Ehlinger’s marketing skills were put into play. In addition to players,the team needed a name. So a name-the-team contest was held with the winner being awarded an all-expenses paid to the FA Cup Final. Press coverage was cultivated. Given the woeful state of Philadelphia professional sports at the time, the local press enthusiastically covered the new team. Favorable coverage was aided by the fact that throughout the season Miller proved to be a natural with the press.

The Atoms first game was away to the St. Louis Stars. Like the the Atoms, the Stars also fielded a squad filled with Americans, as they had done for years. It proved to be an inauspicious start as the Atoms lost 1-0 in front of a paltry 6,782 spectators. Concerns about whether the Atoms would be any good aside, some wondered if teams filled with Americans would be able to draw fans: with the exception of the Stars and Atoms, only 19 Americans were on the rosters of the other seven teams then in the NASL.

Steve Holroyd writes, “Skeptics around the league expected that the ‘Philadelphia Experiment’ would also fall flat. Philadelphia soccer fans thought otherwise: a league-record 21,700 fans went to the home opener at Veterans Stadium on May 11, “after a parade of 3,000 youngsters in full soccer dress welcomed the team.” The debut home game was against Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Tornado, a team that had won the NASL championship in 1971 and had made it to the semifinals in 1972. Though the match ended as a scoreless draw, the Atoms had shown they could hold their own against the league’s best. Throughout the season the fans kept coming. By the end of the season, attendance at Atoms games would be nearly twice the league average with 11,382 per game.

The 1973 Philadelphia Atoms

Success at the gate was due to two factors. First, the Atoms players endeared themselves to their fans by being accessible: the players regularly showed up early to games to meet their fans and sign autographs and community outreach was the norm. And fans appreciated the team’s scrappy and resolute style of play. Fans loved Andy Provan, nicknamed “the Flea.” His hard-nosed play earned him comparisons to the Flyers Bobby Clark. Led by Rigby in goal, the backline “No Goal Patrol” of Bobby Smith, Chris Dunleavy, Roy Evans (who had joined the Atoms on loan from Liverpool and who, after his return, would later have a long coaching career there, eventually managing the team 1994-1998) and Derek Trevis (on loan from Stockport County) led the league for fewest goals in a season with Rigby’s .62 goals per game setting a NASL record. The Atoms played the way Philadelphia sport fans admire: tough.

The second factor is simple: the Atoms were good. After their opening loss to St. Louis, the Atoms went on a thirteengame unbeaten streak. Ending the season as Eastern Division champs, they lost only two games the entire season.

The Atoms would meet the only team with a better record, the Dallas Tornado, in the NASL championship game. Dallas was no stranger to the big game and they were no stranger to the Atoms either. After drawing 0-0 to Dallas in their home opener, the Atoms had beaten Dallas 2-1 away later in the season. Because the championship game was scheduled for August 28th, both teams lost key British players who had to return home for the start of English league soccer play. The Atoms lost two of their leading scorers, Provan and Jim Fryatt. Under suspension in England, Dunleavy was available for the game.

The Atoms starting lineup for the championship game featured six Americans, including Bill Straub, a Philadelphia native who had gone to the University of Pennsylvania and had been a mid-season acquisition from Montreal Olympique. Straub was a defender who had yet to play a single minute for the Atoms. Miller put him upfront. After a goal-less first half, Dallas defender John Best, who had been a star on the Philadelphia Spartans, scored an own goal midway into the second half of the final. With a little less than 5 minutes to go, Dunleavy fed the ball to Straub, who administered the coup de grace with a header. Philadelphia had its first professional sports championship since the Wilt Chambelain and the 76ers had won the NBA title for the 1966-1967 season.

In a 1984 interview in Soccer Digest, Bob Rigby remembered, “After the game all our players got totally drunk. Emotionally, I was as high as I’ll ever be. It was a great feeling to win the title, especially as a rookie. The problem was that it happened too fast.”

"Philly's Bob Rigby," the first soccer player to be featured on a Sports Illustrated cover, September 3, 1973.

While the cover of Sports Illustrated that featured Rigby – first ever to feature a soccer player – proclaimed after the Atoms victory “Soccer Goes American,” expectations that teams dominated by Americans could repeat the Atoms achievement proved premature. Said Rigby, “We did so well – you can’t do better than winning your division and then winning the championship – that people expected us to do it again next season. We had a great season, but we couldn’t match it again . . . Another problem was that our success gave people the wrong idea about American players. People who wanted more Americans on the field – and I’m one of them – pointed to our roster and said, ‘See, they won the title with all those American players. Every team should do that.’ But a lot of the American kids were not ready for the pros.”

Although the Atoms didn’t make the playoffs the next two seasons, there were a few highlights. Attendance rose for the 1974 season to an average of 11,784. Dunleavy was named a first-team NASL all-star, Rigby and Trevis named to the second-team. The Atoms finished third in the Eastern Division in 1974.

Though they lost the match, in 1974 the Atoms played the touring Red Army team in the “Big Bang” for indoor soccer in America at the Spectrum. The success of that match up led to the NASL beginning an indoor tournament before the start of the regular season. This provided the impetus for the formation of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL, 1978-1984), which in turn led to a confusing array of indoor leagues including the American Indoor Soccer Association (AISA), later renamed National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). The NPSL folded after 17 years of existence which led to the National Indoor Soccer League (NISL) and several other incarnations of MISL, in which the most current the Philadelphia KiXX play.

While in 1974 ten native-born Americans were on the Atoms roster, a scoring drought that season meant the roster was overhauled for 1975. Players moved on to other clubs. Although a few local players such as Chris Bahr – the brother of Casey Bahr, the 1975 NASL Rookie of the Year who would go on to a long career as a place kicker in the NFL – and Bobby Smith – in 1975 the first native-born American to be named to the NASL all-star first-team – were on the roster, the team began to rely more on foreign players. Attendance drastically declined: the season average for 1975 was 6,849. The Atoms finished fourth in the Eastern Division.

Team owner Tom McCloskey’s longtime hope had always been to own an NFL team. He seemed to get his chance with the expansion team Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, the deal soon went sour. With a sour economy affecting the profitability of his construction business and no longer able to afford the financial losses of the Atoms, McCloskey looked to sell the club. Calling Philadelphia “one of the absolutely top areas in the country in soccer interest,” NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam stepped in to help find a buyer. With no local investors forthcoming, the team was sold to United Club of Jalisco, a syndicate of four Mexican soccer clubs. Miller elected not to return as coach and took over at the Dallas Tornado. Now playing  it’s games at Franklin Field and fielding a squad of unfamiliar players, attendance continued to drop, the season average of 6,449 being generously inflated by the 25,000 who showed up to see the Atoms play Pele and the Cosmos. The Atoms again didn’t make the playoffs, again finishing fourth in the Eastern Division. At the close of the season the team was placed into receivership by the league.

So, where are they now? Al Miller, who briefly managed the US national team in 1975, would have a long coaching career and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1995. Bobby Smith left the Atoms to play for the Cosmos, played for the national team and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007. He now runs the Bobby Smith Soccer Academy outside of Trenton. Bob Rigby played for the national team and was a fixture in the NASL and MISL and has coached youth soccer. Barry Barto played for the national team and enjoyed a long career in the NASL before embarking on a long and successful college coaching career, first at Philadelphia Textile and then at UNLV. Charlie Duccilli went on to be a player-coach of the ASL’s Delaware Wings before moving on to a long career coaching women’s soccer at Rutgers and then the WUSA’s New York Power. He now is director of coaching at the Cafe Express Soccer Club in Cape May. Several Atoms players would eventually play for the next NASL team in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Fury, as well as the indoor Philadelphia Fever.

Aside from the pride Philly soccer fans can have in the way the Atoms won the NASL championship in their first year, what can we learn from their all too rapid demise? Steve Holroyd argues, “The Philadelphia Atoms had provided a blueprint for all other American clubs to follow, combining grass roots appeal with attractive football to create a product that even the casual sports fan could follow and embrace,” but that “the signing of Pelé and the arrival of other world-class superstars basically wiped out the grass-roots movement before it could bloom. Instead, ‘trendy’ fans packed the stands, leading to a false sense of success. However, few American players graced NASL pitches.”

Well, maybe. While it is undeniable that the the NASL’s rapid expansion was instrumental in its equally rapid decline, that the Atoms were a “blueprint” for success in the 1970s is less certain. As was noted earlier, St. Louis followed a similar “blueprint” and the fans stayed at home. And Bob Rigby described how there simply weren’t enough American players of quality to fill the rosters of the league. Fans, be they “trendy” or not, cannot be blamed for wanting  to see good play any more then they can be blamed for wanting their team to win championships. If the Atoms had not won the championship in their first season, would attendance have risen the next?

The quick demise of the Atoms, following so closely to their championship season debut, showed the dangers of unrealistic expectations, be they on the part of club owners or fans, just as much as 70,000 people showing up to watch the Cosmos play at Giants Stadium would prove to unrealistically represent interest in and the viability of the NASL, whatever such turnouts might say about the potential audience for the soccer. Owners need deep-pockets and a commitment not just to their team but to growing the game of soccer in a country which, despite the long history of the sport here, has until very recently viewed that sport as foreign. After the first two seasons McCloskey did not have the money to sustain the team. It is questionable whether he ever had the commitment to grow the game of soccer. Clubs and players need to work on the pitch and off to garner and maintain fan support. Only then can committed and capable investors be found in troubled times, only then will fan support continue in bad times as well as good. For the first three seasons the Atoms worked hard for their fan support. That no local investors could be found to buy the team before the 1976 season is telling: business people invest in projects to make money. Clearly no local investor thought they could make money out of the Atoms, which, despite our best wishes, says something about the viability of a top flight professional team in Philadelphia in the 1970s. That there was a fourth season at all seems remarkable.

In their success, the Philadelphia Atoms foreshadowed the development of American-born players as capable of professional-level quality on the pitch and as legitimate favorites in the stands on a scale never before evident and now regularly apparent in the MLS. They quieted skeptics by showing that an American-born coach could lead a team largely made up of American players to a national championship. Their success sparked fan interest in a struggling NASL, leading to a resurgence in the league that only increased with the signing of Pele and other world famous international players. In the four seasons that the Atoms played in the NASL, the number of teams in the league more than doubled from nine to twenty. As such, the Atoms role in the soccer explosion that continues in America to this day was key.

But the real importance of the soccer explosion is not measured in the boom and bust that was NASL. As professional soccer league the prime reason for the existence of the NASL was to make money. As such, the excitement that surrounded the Atoms was a best a grassroots moment, not a grassroots movement. Rather, what truly defines the soccer explosion that began in the 1970s was not the existence of the NASL, it was the rapid proliferation of youth teams and leagues around the country, sparked in no small measure by the excitement generated by the NASL. That was the real grassroots movement that began in the 1970s and it is ongoing. That grassroots movement created two generations of American soccer fans who love and understand the game because they have played the game. It also has created the pool of American-born players that not only fills all levels of the American soccer pyramid, but also players capable of playing in the best leagues in the world. Soccer is no longer simply a sport of immigrants, it is a sport played and watched by millions of Americans of all ages and both sexes. The roots of that movement are stronger than ever and continue to bloom to this day. Soccer is going American still and the Philadelphia Atoms part in this is largely unsung.

If the “blueprint” for soccer’s success in America as embodied in the Philadelphia Atoms was questionable in the mid 1970s, it is undeniably true now. Thankfully, MLS, and the Philadelphia Union, seem to understand this. May they continue to do so.

You can read the full Sports Illustrated cover story from September 3, 1973 celebrating the Atoms NASL championship here.

You can read Steve Holroyd’s year-by-year history of the team, which was invaluable in writing this article, on the Philadelphia Atoms fan site here. Also of interest there are some great photos, images of the team’s kit, and a player register and the interview with Bob Rigby. It is well worth your time.

Philadelphia soccer history has many important examples of teams that were backed by businesses: the John A. Manz team, who in 1897 became the first team from outside of  Southern New England/Northern New Jersey to win the AFA’s American Cup, was backed by a brewer; Bethlehem Steel FC, the most dominant team in American soccer of the 1910s and 1920s, by the steel company; Uhrik Truckers, winners of two ASL championships in the 1950s, by a trucking company. All of these teams, however, competed in leagues that were either amateur or semi-professional against teams that were largely backed by the kinds of ethnic social clubs that have contributed so much to American soccer history.

The Philadelphia Atoms were part of a new trend in American soccer toward professionalism in which teams, backed by business owners or groups, would have unprecedented media coverage on a national scale. The resulting soccer explosion of the 1970s led to the rapid expansion of youth soccer programs across the country. This in turn led to the movement of soccer into the national sport consciousness, the rise of the US national team as a legitimate power in world soccer, and the eventual establishment of a stable and growing professional league. 

Atoms team owner and founder Tom McCloskey had little or no experience with soccer. He did have experience with professional sport, having owned the minor league Philadelphia Ramblers of the Eastern Hockey League. He had also served as president of the Liberty Bowl, the college football bowl game that at one time had been located in Philadelphia.

McCloskey was a “Philadelphia construction magnate” whose list of construction projects included the Philadelphia Mint, Centre Square, the Mann Music Center, Veterans Stadium, the Spectrum, and RFK Stadium. Early in 1973, McCloskey, who most of all wanted to own an NFL team, found himselfwith eight friends at Super Bowl VII in Los Angeles without tickets. Lamar Hunt, the sports entrepreneur who, in addition to owning the Kansas City Chiefs, had an interest in the NASL through his ownership of Dallas Tornado, heard about McCloskey’s plight. Waving nine Super Bowl tickets, Hunt asked McCloskey, “How would you like to have a soccer franchise in Philadelphia?” $25,000 later, the Philadelphia Atoms were born.

With little more than three months to build a team before the May 5th season opener, McCloskey’s lack of soccer knowledge would inadvertently become a benefit. He appointed as general manger of the Atoms Bob Ehlinger, who also had no soccer experience. But he was a vice president of marketing for McCloskey’s company and had 20 years experience as a referee in college football. Following the example of American professional football when trying to find new talent, McCloskey and Ehlinger looked to the American college soccer scene for their choice of manager for the new club.

Al Miller

The man they chose was Al Miller, a successful soccer coach at Hartwick College and eventual Hall of Fame Member who had grown up in the Philadelphia area and had been an All American player at East Stroudsburg. Miller’s experience with soccer at the college level led him to make perhaps the singular most important decision in establishing the quick rise of the Atoms: rather than build a squad around foreign players, which until then was how NASL teams went about building their rosters, Miller would build his squad around American-born players. That they would be players with local roots would only make the story of a magical season better.

Bob Rigby

Bobby Smith

Barry Barto

The Atoms had the first pick in the NASL college draft and Miller chose Bob Rigby, who had grown up in Ridley Park, and had played at Miller’s college alma mater. His next choice was Bobby Smith, who had grown up in Trenton and played college soccer at Rider University. Miller then acquired Barry Barto from Montreal Olympique. Barto had grown up in Philadelphia and was coached at Philadelphia Textile by future Hall of Fame member Walt Chyzowych. From the New York Cosmos Miller signed University of Pennsylvania product Stan Startzell. Charles Duccilli, who had graduated from Germantown High School before setting the record for most goals scored at Temple University and was was the ASL’s Philadelphia Spartans leading scorer in 1971, joined the team. Casey Bahr, fresh out of a three year stint in the Navy after graduating from the Naval Academy and son of the legendary Walt Bahr, also came aboard.

Stan Startzell

Charles Duccilli

Casey Bahr

The team went to England to train at Lilleshall, site of the National Recreation Centre in England and training ground of the 1966 World Cup winning England team. Steve Holroyd writes, “By training in England, Miller hoped to impress his young Americans with a top-flight facility in a ‘real’ soccer country.  Also, it gave him the opportunity to fill out his squad with British players who played the fast-moving style Miller preferred. As the NASL played a summer schedule, a number of English players were available ‘on loan’ to American clubs.” Miller signed three players from Southport FC, who had just won promotion to League Three as League Four champions: Andy Provan, Jim Fryatt, and Chris Dunleavy.

Philadelphia had a new professional soccer team. The team had been built from scratch in a few short months by a daring young coach with a roster of largely young American players with Philadelphia-area roots, mostly filled out with a few older veterans of lower division English league football. Would the city embrace the new team? Would anyone come to see them play? Would the team be any good?

Part II will continue next Thursday.

USSF officials announced the deal Thursday as a one-year compromise between the United Soccer Leagues and the breakaway teams that moved to form their own league, the North American Soccer League.

“This agreement allows us to continue to develop the professional game in many important markets around the country, while at the same time working towards the long-term stability of Division 2 professional soccer,” U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said.

The league will operate with two six-team conferences, one dubbed the USL Conference and the other named the NASL Conference. The Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact, Carolina RailHawks, Crystal Palace Baltimore, Miami FC and Carolina Railhawks will play in the NASL Conference. The USL Conference will include the Portland Timbers, Puerto Rico Islanders, Austin Aztex FC, Rochester Rhinos, Tampa Bay Rowdies and and unnamed Minnesota team to replace the Minnesota Thunder.

Two of those cities – Vancouver and Portland – are due to Major League Soccer in 2011 and 2012, respectively, so they won’t last long in this setup. Montreal could join them.

Thursday’s announcement by the USSF comes just a few days after the national soccer federation refused to sanction either the USL or the breakaway NASL.

Nine of these 12 teams were set to split off from the USL, due to their objection to a single-entity ownership. Only Puerto Rico, Austin and Portland were planning to stay with the USL. The NASL had planned for a team in Atlanta, where the Atlanta Silverbacks last played in USL’s first division in 2008, but Atlanta is not part of this equation.

This league will be a stopgap, however. The warring sides are expected to continue talks this year to determine how a single Division 2 league would function in the future. USSF will oversee the league.

What do you think about this setup? Smart move, or a prelude to more chaos? Could it lead to promotion and relegation with Major League Soccer, or do you think that’s a long way off?

For background information on the rift in the second division of US soccer, see our three-part series “That USL, TOA, NASL Thing.” You can use the links below:

Part One Part Two Part Three

So, in the spirit of speculation, what might happen?

The most likely scenario is that both the USL and the NASL will be sanctioned as Division 2 leagues for 2010. It may look a bit like baseball with two leagues and the champion of each league meeting for a national title. The question is whether USL-1 will be able to field enough teams to sustain a viable league. According to Inside Minnesota Soccer, it’s roster of clubs stands at three. IMNS puts eight teams in the NASL camp with one other apparently hedging it’s bets. By size alone it would seem that NASL has a better chance of survival and hence a better chance of becoming the only sanctioned Division 2 league in North America after 2010.

That said, as evidenced by the lawsuit the USL has brought against three teams associated with the NASL, some of the former USL-1 teams may be in breach of contract because they allegedly had previously pledged to play in the USL. What the USSF’s take on this is, because of the gag order, anyone’s guess. Could USSF  force the three teams named in the USL suit to rejoin the league for 2010, thus bringing the two leagues, in terms of number of teams, on more or less level terms? And if this were to happen, what would be the reaction of the teams? What would be the reaction of the fans of those teams?

The effect that MLS expansion will have on both leagues after the 2010 season must also be considered. Portland, said to be satisfied with USL-1, will join the MLS in 2011. On the NASL side, Vancouver will also join the MLS in 2011.  Montreal is currently in talks to join the MLS. Miami, St. Louis and Atlanta, among others, all want in on the MLS. Will there be enough teams to sustain either league? Where will replacement teams – viable teams that are likely to survive financially – come from to populate second division soccer in the US?

The USL lawsuit is surely a major point of contention for, as stated in Article 62 of the FIFA statues, “it is prohibited to take disputes in the Association or disputes affecting Leagues, members of Leagues, clubs, members of clubs, Players, Officials and other Association Officials to ordinary courts of law, unless the FIFA regulations or binding legal provisions specifically provide for or stipulate recourse to ordinary courts of law.” In other words, the USL’s lawsuit is in violation of FIFA regulations.

What could be the result of that?

Well, in November, FIFA  threatened to expel Chile from the World Cup because a club there had filed a suit against the the Chilean league (ANFP, Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional). The dispute was quickly settled and it’s difficult to imagine that USSF would let things get so out of hand here that FIFA expel the US from the 2010 World Cup. However, as the US begins to ramp up efforts toward its World Cup 2018/2022 bid, it is safe to assume that league disputes are not what the USSF has in mind for promoting the US as a host country. It is probably also safe to assume that FIFA is more interested in the development of the US as a market for soccer than worrying about US second division league disputes. After all, along with perhaps China, the US is the greatest untapped market for soccer in the world.

How all of this will end is anyone’s guess – better informed people than me don’t know. But that this is something for you to care about, even if Philadelphia isn’t a USL or NASL town, is undeniable. For, in the end, this is not only about the viability of second division soccer – which is essential for player development as well as for being an opportunity for fans to see competitive matches in those markets that are not large enough to sustain an MLS team – in the US soccer pyramid. If as some reports suggest, dissatisfaction with the USL is not restricted to USL-1, this is about the viability of professional soccer in the US, generally.

Teams at all levels – MLS, USL-1, USL-2, PDL, whatever – struggle financially, often lack strong fan support, and are neglected by their local media. The wages of most players, regardless of league, are well below international standards. And the history of soccer in the United States is rife with examples of league disputes that have retarded the development of the sport. While soccer in America is undoubtedly at a stronger position now than at any other time in its history, the position of professional soccer, as we all know, is one of flux. With more questions than answers, the future, while not bleak, is far from certain.

• October 3: Inside Minnesota Soccer (IMNS) reports that five USL-1 teams – Minnesota Thunder, Carolina RailHawks, Miami FC Blues, Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact – have not paid the required yearly USL franchise fee. The USL reacts by voiding player contracts.
• October 5: Brian Wellman, president of the Carolina RailHawks, describes the recent actions of the USL as “unfortunate and unnecessary” . Wellman is elsewhere quoted as saying that such a move “only hurts the players, confuses the fans, alerts the media and worries the sponsors.”
• October 6: The  United States Soccer Federation (USSF) becomes involved.
• October 7: The Kartik Report says that “despite having the USSF, TOA, MLS and USL all meeting together, a solution is not at hand.”
• October 17: The Montreal Impact defeat the Vancouver Whitecaps 6-3 on aggregate to claim the USL-1 championship.
• October 28: IMNS quotes USL league owner Alek Papadakis from Canadian press reports as saying “negotiations are finished” with the TOA and that the USL will continue preparations for the 2010 season “with the teams which wished to remain with us.” CBCSports.ca reports that the TOA will form a new league.
• November 10: The owners of the Atlanta, Carolina, Miami, Minnesota, Montreal, St. Louis and Vancouver teams formally announce their intention to start a new league that will have second division status in the US soccer pyramid.
• November 20: Two more teams, Tampa Bay Rowdies and Crystal Palace Baltimore, join the breakaway league.
• November 23: The breakaway league officially announces that it will be called the North American Soccer League (NASL).
• November 30: Rochester Rhinos join the NASL.
• December 7: USSF makes its first official press statement regarding the two leagues confirming that the USSF met with representatives of both the USL and the NASL on December 6. U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati, CEO/Secretary General Dan Flynn and Professional Council Chairman (and MLS Commissioner) Don Garber are present at the meeting.
• December 9: The USL files a lawsuit against the Rochester Rhinos, Tampa Bay Rowdies and Crystal Palace FC USA for breach of contract. The lawsuit alleges that the three teams had committed to play the 2010 season in the USL before joining the NASL.
• December 9: MLS commissioner Don Garber travels to Montreal to talk with Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo about bringing the team into the MLS. On March 19, 2009, the MLS announced that the Vancouver Whitecaps would begin playing in the league in 2011.
• December 10: The Kartik Report says that the NASL has initiated efforts to secure a TV deal for the league.

That’s where we are at the moment. In Part III I’ll discuss what all of this might mean and why you should care.

Or maybe you aren’t aware of these developments. After all, Philadelphia doesn’t have a USL team and the nearest USL franchises are three 2nd Division teams, the Harrisburg City Islanders, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and Real Maryland Monarchs, and two Player Development League (PDL) teams, the Reading Rage and the Ocean City Barons. (The Hershey Wildcats were in the First Division as recently as 2001 before folding and the Delaware Wizards were active in the USL 3rd Division in the 1990s.) I’ve watched some enjoyable USL games on FSC over the years but, in all truthfulness, my aspirations for soccer in Philadelphia have always been focused on the MLS. Any interest I had in the USL could at best be described as passing.

Of course, I could say the same thing about my interest in Italian soccer. So, much as with the case with Italian soccer, while I haven’t been very interested in the USL I do recognize that developments there are important – if not in the world of soccer, then at least  in the American world of soccer. And, rest assured, if Philadelphia did have a USL team, both you and I would be very interested in what’s going on with the league.

So, I thought I would share a time-line of events leading up the current crisis. Thankfully, the folks at Inside Minnesota Soccer, in conjunction with The Kartik Report,  have already done much of the hard work in a three-part series that was first posted at the end of August entitled “United Soccer Leagues at a Crossroads.” Both of these blogs are directly concerned with the USL and the breakaway NASL, what with the Minnesota Thunder and Miami FC, not to mention their excellent coverage of various other levels of league play in Minnesota and Florida. Let me say that both blogs are outstanding resources. May we at PSP someday attain their high standard of reporting.

Here we go:

• 1986: Former Tampa Bay Rowdies executive and soccer entrepreneur Francisco Marcos forms the forerunner to USL, the Southwest Indoor Soccer League.
• 1989: Marcos forms the Southwest Outdoor Soccer League. The name is soon changed to Southwest Independent Soccer League to include both the indoor and outdoor leagues. The league name is then changed to the Sunbelt Independent Soccer League (1990), the United States Interregional Soccer League (1991), and the United States International Soccer League (1995).
• 1990: The American Soccer League and the Western Soccer League merge to form American Professional Soccer League (APSL).
• 1993: MLS founded.
• 1995: The Unites States International Soccer League name is changed once again to reflect the formal organization of a professional and a amateur league (the Pro League and the Amateur Premier League) to the United Systems of Professional Soccer Leagues (USISL).
• 1995: The APSL changes it’s name to the A-League.
• 1996: Inaugural season of the MLS.
• 1996: With the aim of gaining USSF sanctioning as the official 2nd Division of US professional soccer, the USISL establishes a Select League consisting of the strongest teams from the Pro League and the Amatuer Premier League.
• 1996: The A-League and the USISL merge, retaining the A-League name.
• 1999: The A-League changes it’s name to the United Soccer Leagues. In need of investments to fund the new league, Marcos sells USL shares to Umbro, Signal Apparel and Riddel Sports. By April, Umbro owns 60% of the league, Signal Apparel and Riddel Sports each own 15%, and Marcos owns 10%.
• 2000-2005: The USL continues to developed as a true soccer pyramid system along European lines with a USL-1 league (second tier behind the MLS), a USL- 2 league (third tier), and the PDL (fourth tier). The W-League functions as the second tier for women’s professional soccer. The Super -20 and Super-Y leagues support youth soccer. While such development is impressive, the league struggles financially, its teams are generally in smaller media markets with little press coverage, and the league matches often suffers from poor attendance. Meanwhile, the MLS begins to expand into USL markets. In 2005, Toronto FC’s expansion into the MLS is announced leaving the USL’s Toronto Lynx to voluntarily relegate themselves to the PDL.
• 2006: Umbro increases its ownership of shares to 94%, leaving Marcos with a 6% share.
• 2007: Nike announces a deal to buys Umbro. The deal is finalized in February, 2008 and thus Nike owns 94% of the USL. Nike begins to pressure teams to move to soccer-specific stadiums (SSS) and to “improve their on-field product.”
• 2008: The TOA begins to officially operate in February in an attempt “restructure the USL in a way that would elevate the league and raise the franchise values of its teams.” Among the TOA’s concerns are a lack of influence in the league office and the need for greater representation there in decisions which directly affect the franchises; a perceived lack of direction and paucity of marketing for the league along with the related inability by team owners to influence the direction of the league; the need to reconfigure the financial structure of the league so that losses are shared by the league; the need to better respond to MLS expansion. Despite widespread dissatisfaction among league owners, the USL, Nike and all of the teams – except for the Atlanta Silverbacks – agree to commit to the 2009 season.
• 2009: Team owners tell Nike that “they were not going to play another season under current conditions.” Nike agrees to sell the league, the owners pay their franchise fee and the season begins. Three groups make bids to buy the league: members of the TOA,  along with Traffic Sports (a Brazilian sports marketing group and owners of the Brazilian teams Ituano FC and Desportivo Brasil – Desportivo Brasil are described on the Traffic Sports website as “a club and company to find and prepare promising newcomers of the Brazilian football to pursue careers in other clubs of Brazil or abroad” -  and the American team Miami FC); the NuRock Group (described in a USL press release as run by two men: Rob Hoskins, “one of the country’s most respected and largest real estate developers in residential housing,” and Alec Papadakis, “a franchise attorney with domestic and international expansion experience” who, as “a player in the North American Soccer League for the Atlanta Chiefs and the Boston Minutemen,” had “a long, storied soccer career in the United States at the collegiate and professional level, with numerous accolades” – one of these guys is apparently, according to IMS,  “a former college classmate” of USL founder Marcos, but which one is, unfortunately, not identified), and a group headed by Jeff Cooper, (former backer of St. Louis’ MLS expansion bids and owner of  St. Louis United, an “investment group” and owner of  the WPS team St Louis Athletica and the then nonexistent but now existing – though presumably unpopulated – NASL club AC St. Louis). Cooper’s group includes backing from Anheuser-Busch, a group of European investors and Addidas, “who were reportedly acting as a proxy for MLS.”  Cooper’s is the winning bid. The TOA, finding Cooper “on the same wavelength,”  begin to work with him on how to restructure the league. Then, in a move “which was done legally but without properly notifying many owners,” Nike awards control of the USL to NuRock.

Well, that brings us up to date with the background for more recent events, to which we will return, in Part II.