Discussion: Multiple Doors

WASHINGTON, DC and SAN JOSE, CA (Sept 3, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- Tony Edwards and J Hutcherson walk through the two announced indoor soccer leagues while waiting for the third option to become official. 

Tony Edwards: Hi J. How was your Labor Day weekend? To make the obvious pun about laboring, our friends in the indoor soccer have apparently decided that if one struggling league was good, three leagues would be even better.

Just from last year's MISL, which folded, the Stockton (nee California) Cougars have joined the Pro Arena Soccer League. The NJ Ironmen, Detroit Ignition, Milwaukee Wave, and Chicago Storm have founded the (you can't make this stuff up) Xtreme Soccer League/Xtreme Soccer Xperience. And the Baltimore Blast are apparently joining Philadelphia, Orlando, Monterrey, and possibly one other team in a different league.

On the bright side, we now have the Edmonton Drillers back (PASL), so there is that.

J Hutcherson: Unless one of them go completely retro with uniforms, stadium announcements, etc, I can't feign enthusiasm for yet another attempt at proving a trend was actually a mandate.   People liked a lot of things in the 80's.  Just saying.

As it stands, considering there's no direct market competition across these three leagues it might not be the worst way to go.  Travel is a problem, and one can only assume the issues between the former MISL clubs are so pronounced that there was no way Jersey was continuing with Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Whatever market exists for indoor, it should be able to make a quick regional statement.  That's better than trying again for a national circuit that likely forces itself on New York and Los Angeles. 

TE: You make a fair point about the regional nature of two of the three leagues. One has to presume that even in the PASL, the eastern clubs (such as 1790 Cincinnati, St Louis, Dallas, and Detroit) won't play Stockton, Denver, Colorado, and Wenatchee. I had to look up where Wenatchee is (it's in Washington State on the shores of the Columbia River).

But there is market competition in Detroit, of all places. I say all places because I think the Ignition play in a place that holds less than 4000.

What did the glory days of the 1980s look like? We all can conjure up images of the St Louis Steamers and of Steve Zungul and Julie Vee, but how does that translate to 2008-2009. Do these teams have ticket sales programs and staff in place to have them do the leg work it takes to sell tickets in a lousy economy?

JH: That's the thing, it doesn't.  The bigger sports have opened up so many ways to make money, it makes everyone else look even worse by any comparison.  No indoor league is going to move a large amount of tickets, not even Baltimore playing to capacity.  They won't be making up the difference in merchandising and sponsorships.  At best, that leaves camps.

I would assume that's part of the whole Xperience from one of the groups, and it's not a bad way to think.  If you're designed around putting your name and players in camp settings along with whatever else, you're at least building something larger than just a limited indoor soccer schedule.

Without some broader aspect, you're opening yourself up to the same old problems. <

TE: It's not a bad way to think, but I presume they are staffing the camps from local coaches/college players, as many of the indoor players are probably playing in the USL during the summer. Maybe I am wrong.

All the leagues are presumably talking a shorter season than last year's MISL schedule. So with a short season, and less travel expense, it might be financially feasible to keep your coaches on a 12 month contract, but how do you keep your players, or how do you attract them even? How do you pay a sales staff?

Milwaukee tried to field both indoor and outdoor teams a few years back and that didn't work. Do these teams come up with some kind of understanding with a local USL team to offer players 12 month contracts?

As much as I enjoy going to Cougars games, I'm not feeling the optimism.

JH: All of it assumes a market for professional indoor soccer that might not exist, and most of it works off optimal scenarios.  Baltimore plays in a building the city would very much like to implode.  Philadelphia's building is already scheduled for demolition.  In bigger buildings, they're not going to get the best available dates.

Detroit tried to usher in the era of indoor soccer-specific venues, but at a significantly reduced capacity it becomes a significantly different league.  You go from Newark in a brand new NHL building to 4500 capacity in Plymouth Township, MI.  That's tough. 

It's more obvious with the PASL, who have small market host cities where not even the name on the shirt connects them to some bigger city.

TE: We haven't even touched on what the quality of play might be like. The PASL has a no-slide tackle rule, probably as much for insurance reasons as any concern about protecting the skill players. We've seen the quality of play decline over the last few years in the MISL, and now team-building will probably mean trying to learn everybody's name in the locker room and spending the first quarter finding out if the new guys can play.

Then again, that presumes that the ticket buying public actually cares about quality of play and seeing skill players play. I think it's established that unless the opponent is the 'Chivas Legends' or something much like that, the visiting team's name on the marquis doesn't much matter.

What? the Denver Dynamite aren't going to play in the Pepsi Center? Nope, the 1500 seat Denver Sports Center, according to the relative wonder that is the wikipedia. Oh, and don't forget that the San Diego Sockers are coming back in 2009-2010.

JH: The best thing any indoor operation could do from a spectator standpoint is to freeze rosters prior to a set start date and put all of the player pool and coaches in a group setting for a couple of weeks.  Teach them the rules as they'll be applied, go through the various setups, and build a comfort level.  There's no use pretending this is the NFL preseason or anybody is really an expert with the shifting rules and expectations of indoor soccer.

Best case, you end up with a product worth watching a lot quicker than as you say, simply throwing players out there and hoping they understand. 

I'll give the Xperience credit for something else, breaking with the nostalgia.  I know I started with a nostalgia circuit, and it's either one or the other.  There's no point trying for a little of both. 

TE: But a lot of people are going to see or hear the name Xtreme Soccer Xperience and that will be the end of the conversation. You want to distance yourself from the most immediate failure? Fine, but lets remember that's been tried before also, and that wasn't the Kansas City Wiz playing the San Jose Clash last weekend.