And then there were four.
The National Indoor Soccer League will have just four teams in its inaugural season after the Orlando Sharks revealed they would temporarily cease operations.
The Sharks, a Major Indoor Soccer League expansion team last season, will resume on-field operations in 2009-2010, according to team president Rich Bradley.
The Blast’ home opener was scheduled against Orlando for Nov. 15 at 1st Mariner Arena. Now, the entire 18-game schedule for the four remaining teams — the Blast, Philadelphia, Monterrey and Rockford (Ill.) — may need to be revised.
“We’re not in any way uncommitted to the game or the team,” Bradley said. “I’m not laying anybody off. We’re not canceling any of our school or appearance programs or camps and clinics. In terms of putting men back on the carpet, it will be next October instead of this October.”
Bradley cited a short window of time to negotiate a new arena contract as the main reason, suggesting the team was stuck with “pretty horrid dates” for home games, leaving the franchise’s fiscal stability in jeopardy.
The Sharks, whose players can be loaned to other indoor teams, finished their inaugural season with a league-worst 4-26 record, and last in the league with a home attendance average of 1,789. The Blast, in comparison, drew a league-best average of 7,229 fans.
“It’s something we didn’t expect to happen,” Kevin Healey, the Blast’s president, said. “It provides another challenge for us, however, we’ll move forward and we will grow the league and grow the game.”
The remaining four teams are hoping to have a contingency plan by Monday.
The Xtreme Soccer League, the other spinoff from the May dissolution of the Major Indoor Soccer League, has four teams —Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and New Jersey — playing an 18-game schedule.
At the NISL’s introductory news conference in early September, Blast owner Ed Hale suggested the teams could play intra-league exhibitions. The Blast has contacted at least two XSL teams about scheduling exhibitions, but according to a source, the XSL teams had no interest.
