Two rival leagues started in 1967, the FIFA-Sponsored United Soccer Association and the renegade National Professional Soccer League. In 1968, they merged to form the North American Soccer League. The league florished for many years attracting many top stars and posting impressive performances and attendance figures, but overspending eventually forced the league into oblivion. Despite its unfortunate demise, the NASL briefly enjoyed the greatest success of any league in US history, albeit without the stability and long-term foundation established by Major League Soccer.
A complete NASL Player Register has been published as "The North American Soccer League Encyclopedia", by Colin Jose. It may be bought through Amazon.com or directly from St. Johann's Press, 315 Schraalenburg Rd., PO Box 241, Haworth, NJ 07641. $29.95.
Another source for NASL Jersey Replicas, 15 teams available: rock-it!@easynet.co.uk. Tel (UK): 01933 311179
1960 - The International Soccer League plays its first season. The ISL
invites top clubs from around the world (Everton, West Ham, AS
Monaco...) to participate in it. After a while, regular crowds of
up to 15000 turn up to attend the games.
1966 - The World Cup final is beamed live by NBC all over North America
and
receives a favorable reaction. American sports promoters decide
to start a pro league.
1967 - Two new leagues begin play. The United Soccer Association (backed
by FIFA, USSFA and CSFA) extends the principle on which the ISL
had been based and imports entire teams to represent cities:
Shamrock Rovers(Boston), Cagliari(Chicago), Stoke City(Cleveland)
Dundee Utd.(Dallas), Glentoran Belfast (Detroit), Bangu (Houston)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (Los Angeles), Cerro (New York), ADO Den
Haag (San Francisco), Hibernian (Toronto), Sunderland (Vancouver)
and Aberdeen (WAshington) all become "American" for two months...
Meanwhile, a rival group - the National Professional Soccer
League - receives a TV contract from CBS and begins recruiting
players. This in spite of the fact that it is outlawed from
FIFA and its players therefore subject to suspension. Neither
league is a success in its first season.
1968 - The USA and NPSL merge, and the North American Soccer League
(NASL) is born. 17 teams play the first season.
1969 - After a disastrous season, all but five NASL teams fold.
The league is being run on a semi-professional basis after this
while the NASL owners and officials instead concentrate on
creating a base of participation. Slowly, the game becomes more
and more popular as a participant sport among kids.
1975 - The NASL slowly claws itself back to respectability in the 1970s.
Then, in 1975, Pele signs a $4.5 million, three year contract
with
the New York Cosmos. The NASL is suddenly front-page news all
over
the world.
Late - In just two years, the NASL is transformed from being a minor
league
1970s into the world's most exciting soccer league. A galaxy of foreign
star players and coaches move to the States and Canada
(Beckenbauer,
Cruyff, Eusebio, Weissweiler, Michels, Moore, Best, Francis,
Chinaglia, Krol, Muller, Alberto...) and attendances double in
just two years as a result of this. The NY Cosmos regularly
attract crowds of up to 70000 people to their games.
1978 - The league decides to expand to 24 teams. Unfortunately, the
spiralling costs begin to take their toll. Although attendances
continue to rise, most teams admit to financial problems.
1981 - The NASL collapses, losing 17 of its franchises in just four
years.
The league is eventually closed down in March 1985.
P NAME NATIONALITY NASL TEAM
G-Gordon BANKS England Ft.Lauderdale (1977-78)
D-Rodrigues ANDRADE Uruguay - (retired in 1954)
D-Obdulio VALERA Uruguay - (retired in 1954)
D-Bobby MOORE England San Antonio ('76), Seattle ('78)
D-Nilton SANTOS Brazil -
M-Franz BECKENBAUER Germany NY Cosmos (1977-80, 1983)
M-Giuseppe MEAZZA Italy - (retired before WW II)
M-Diego MARADONA Argentina -
F-GARRINCHA Brazil - (retired after 1962 World Cup)
F-Johan CRUYFF Holland Los Angeles ('79), Washington
('80-81)
F-PELE Brazil NY Cosmos (1975-77)
The NASL teams were able to sign half of the players on Glanville's
list,
only Santos and Maradona (who received an invitation to the Cosmos'
training
camp in 1978) never played pro soccer in North America among those
finishing
their careers after 1966. The impact on the US soccer scene was
enormous,
current American-born stars such as Bundesliga scoring sensation Eric
Wynalda
(who went to see the Aztecs in the Cruyff/George Best days) and
Sheffield's
John Harkes (a former NY Cosmos ballboy together with national team
goalie Tony Meola) are former NASL fans who picked up soccer in the
1970s.
Point system: two points for a win, one for a draw.
G W T L GF GA Points %
New York Cosmos 359 221 18 120 844 569 460 0.640
Washington Darts/ Miami/ 383 196 29 158 698 663 421 0.549
Ft.Lauderdale/ Minnesota S
Vancouver Whitecaps 302 182 4 116 568 407 368 0.609
Toronto Metros/Blizzard 359 163 23 173 590 601 349 0.486
Dallas 357 151 31 175 562 643 333 0.466
St.Louis/California 377 142 31 204 578 739 315 0.417
Baltimore C/Las Vegas/ 302 153 2 147 560 561 308 0.509
San Diego Jaws/Sockers
Seattle 278 151 3 124 538 409 305 0.548
Chicago Sting 282 150 0 132 585 523 300 0.531
Tampa Bay 282 147 0 135 551 535 294 0.521
San Antonio/Team Hawaii/ 282 133 0 149 500 502 266 0.471
Tulsa
Rochester 265 111 23 131 380 453 245 0.462
Los Angeles Aztecs 216 115 2 99 375 380 232 0.537
Portland 228 111 0 117 356 367 222 0.486
Washington Diplomats 216 110 1 105 403 386 221 0.511
Minnesota Kicks 174 104 0 70 352 273 208 0.597
San Jose (/Golden Bay) 248 94 8 146 377 523 196 0.395
Atlanta (1967-73) 159 70 38 51 277 218 178 0.559
Philadelphia F/Montreal M 186 78 0 108 318 357 156 0.419
New England/Jacksonville 156 78 0 78 249 268 156 0.500
Oakland S/Edmonton 156 60 0 96 233 332 120 0.384
SEASON No.of games No. of teams Attendance(avg.) 1967 12 12 7781 (USA) 1967 32 10 4799 (NPSL) 1968 32 17 4699 1969 16 5 2888 1970 24 6 3128 1971 24 8 4157 1972 14 8 4785 1973 19 9 5974 1974 20 15 7841 1975 22 20 7597 1976 24 20 10361 1977 26 18 13584 1978 30 24 13006 1979 30 24 14163 1980 32 24 14440 1981 32 21 14060 1982 32 14 13156 1983 30 12 13387 1984 24 9 10659 ---------------------------------------------- NASL Indoor: 1979-80 12 10 4869 1980-81 18 19 4993 1981-82 18 13 6202 1983-84 32 7 ----------------------------------------------
In comparison, the average English Football League draws about 24000 spectators per game, while the German Bundesliga, Italian Serie "A" and Spanish 1st division draw about 30000. Belgian and French first divisions usually attract about as many people (10000-15000) to their matches as the NASL did in its last ten years of operation. This seems to confirm the wiew that the US and Canada CAN support big-league, professional soccer. Unfortunately, 10000-14000 spectators per game is not enough if you buy star players as expensive as Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff were. The figures above are also a bit misleading since they are "inflated" by the most popular clubs (led by the Cosmos) that almost always attracted crowds in excess of 30000-40000 to their home games. The median ("middle") value is usually lower than the avg.attendance by a margin of about 2000 spectators. I'd say the break-even mark for most teams after 1978 was about 15000- 20000 spectators per game. Only a third of the teams enjoyed that kind of support from their fans.
Clive Toye, the former Chicago & Toronto general manager, claimed the rapid expansion in 1978 (when seven expansion franchises were admitted to the league) was the main reason for the NASL's demise. The statistics here suggest he is right. Of the new teams that tried their luck after 1977, only Tulsa and Montreal were truly successful at the gate. It is of course debatable whether cancelling the expansion could have saved the NASL or not. Some of the "established" teams (Minnesota, Portland) were losing fans even before the 1978 expansion and it seems like North America just didn't have the fan base to make the league work at the time. Today, when 10 million kids play soccer and a generation of adults that grew up in the "Pele years" make up a significant part of the sports-buying public, things should be different!
The USA Soccer History Archives are maintained by Dave Litterer
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