There will be indoor soccer in Baltimore this season, but it will look vastly different than the former Major Indoor Soccer League.
The Baltimore Blast will join the Philadelphia KiXX, Orlando Sharks and Monterrey La Raza and at least one more team, which could allow the league to be unveiled as early as this week.
“We’re definitely close to making an announcement,” Blast president Kevin Healey said. “As we said all summer, the Blast will be back, and we’ll have a solid business plan ready to move forward.”
The Xtreme Soccer League will be composed of four former MISL clubs — the Milwaukee Wave, Detroit Ignition, New Jersey Ironmen, and Chicago Storm — and potentially other markets when the league officially launches Sept. 16.
The Blast’s league will have a shorter schedule, and the team plans to negotiate with players who were on last year’s championship squad as soon as the league is announced. The Blast won the MISL championship last season shortly before the league folded May 30.
With the Xtreme Soccer League, the Professional Arena Soccer League, the American Indoor Soccer League, and the new league in which the Blast is scheduled to play, the sport has been divided into four separate entities with no definitive champion.
The XSL sent out a release to MISL markets to promote an “energetic and innovative 12-month experience,” an online and live pairing to be known as the “Xtreme Soccer Xperience.”
“Being part of a group that is committed to long-term success and understands the value of such an amazing product is truly special,” Detroit Ignition owner John Hantz said in the release.
The California Cougars — one of the nine MISL teams of last season — announced before the league folded in May that they would join the PASL. Its markets are to be announced soon.
The AISL has teams in Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois and Oklahoma.
