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Home  Articles 99/00 Season Wings and prayers for NPSL teams
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Wings and prayers for NPSL teams |
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Written by Gerry Prince
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Wednesday, 15 March 2000 |
Edmonton Drillers' owner Wojtek Wojcicki has sent out the SOS. He says he needs 8,000 people to commit to season-ticket purchases by the end of the month or the NPSL team's tenure in Edmonton is in jeopardy.
In Wichita, Kansas, the husband-and-wife team of Randy and Shirley Johnson have taken a page from Wojcicki's book.
With a season-ticket base of around 1,000, the Johnsons are sending out 15,000 letters to Wichita residents in an effort to scare up an additional 2,000 season-ticket-holders for next season. If not, the Wings franchise could be on its way to Oklahoma City or possibly even Topeka, Kansas.
Johnson toured Oklahoma City's recently renovated Myriad Convention Centre arena and discussed relocation with officials of the Oklahoma capital last Friday. "We love the Myriad and the whole downtown atmosphere," Randy Johnson told the Wichita Eagle. "Oklahoma City is very impressive. It has a big-city feel and we believe we can build support there."
After what's happened in Wichita since the Johnsons bought the Wings two years ago, that shouldn't take much.
STAYING AWAY IN DROVES
The Wings are averaging just over 3,400 fans per game at the Kansas Coliseum this season. With the fans staying away in droves, the Johnsons expect to lose around $500,000 once the smoke clears later this spring. "We do not want to move the Wings, but we have to look at the bottom line financially," Johnson told the Eagle. "All we want is to break even or at least be close."
The Johnson and Johnson party line sounds incredibly like what Wojcicki has been saying since Day 1. And that is mind-boggling. Doesn't anybody out there want to make a buck on indoor soccer? Evidently, zero return on your investment or a small loss at the end of every season is good business practice around the NPSL.
Failing or financially troubled franchises are hardly a ringing endorsement for any league, especially if you're looking to find a life partner - or quite possibly a lifeline.
Representatives of the NPSL and World Indoor Soccer League gathered in Chicago for the first of two days of meetings yesterday. Both sides are kicking around the possibility of a merger but nobody is talking. "The owners will do what the owners want to do," offered one NPSL GM. "I can't comment on the talks because I don't know what's going on."
The fledgling WISL is a hybrid of the now defunct Continental Indoor Soccer League and Premier Soccer Alliance and operated with seven teams last season. Sacramento, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Houston, Phoenix, Portland and Monterrey, Mexico, each had entries in the loop. Although the NPSL has been around in one form or another since 1984, the WISL folk appear to be of the opinion the NPSL needs a merger more than they.
TWO OR THREE YEARS AWAY
"I think both sides are trying to feel each other out," said Jim Tolbert, GM of the WISL champion Dallas Sidekicks. "I can't confirm the merger is imminent. If anything did happen, it would likely be two or three years down the road."
The biggest impediment to any merger could be the NPSL's standing with the United States Soccer Federation.
The WISL will operate with the USSF's blessing this season, while the NPSL remains in the federation's doghouse.
"We're in complete good standing and are sanctioned by (the USSF) this upcoming season," said Tolbert. "I think the NPSL owes them $80,000 or something like that. We have no concerns, it's whoever wants to jump on board with us and I'll leave it at that. Eventually--a year from now or 10 years from now--we all need to be one indoor entity. That's the only way we'll ever have national TV exposure or sponsorship deals.''
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