Founding The surprisingly large North American TV audience of over 1 million for the
1966 FIFA World Cup and the resulting
documentary film,
Goal!, led American sports investors to believe there was an untapped market for the sport in the U.S. and Canada. In 1967, two professional soccer leagues started in the United States: the
FIFA-sanctioned
United Soccer Association (USA), which consisted of entire European and South American teams brought to the U.S. and given local names, and the unsanctioned
National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). The NPSL did not receive sanctioning by the
USSFA, as it refused to pay the $25,000 fee, was branded an outlawed entity by FIFA, and players faced penalties for signing with it. While the USA had FIFA sanction, the foreign teams that were rebranded with American names for the summer 1967 season viewed the league as little more than a training exercise for their off-season, and most did not field their best players. The NPSL had a two-year national television contract in the U.S. with the
CBS television network. Officials were instructed to whistle fouls and delay play to allow CBS to insert commercials. The ratings for matches were unacceptable even by weekend daytime standards and the arrangement with CBS was soon terminated.
Bill MacPhail, head of
CBS Sports, attributed NPSL's lack of TV appeal to empty stadiums with few fans, and to undistinguished foreign players who were unfamiliar to American soccer fans. The two leagues merged on December 7, 1967, to form the North American Soccer League (NASL). NASL began the
1968 season with 17 of the 22 teams that had participated during the 1967 season, folding five redundant teams in cities where both USA and NPSL had operated. The teams relied mostly on foreign talent, including the Brazilian
Vavá, one of the leading scorers of the
1958 and
1962 World Cups. International friendlies included victories against Pelé's
Santos and against English champions
Manchester City. Though the league had a few successes, it experienced significant problems gaining acceptance in the American sports community. The 17 teams included only 30 North American players. The
Dallas Tornado won the title after a number of multiple overtime playoff games, including a 173-minute marathon against Rochester. Realizing it needed to sell to North Americans the sport of soccer, which was still foreign to most people, the NASL modified its game rules in an attempt to make its product more exciting, and comprehensible, to the average sports fan. These changes included the following: • Utilizing a clock that counted game time down to zero, as was typical of other timed American sports, rather than the traditional upwards direction to 90 minutes. • The introduction during the
1972 season of a line from the goal to determine
offside calls, rather than the usual midfield line. Meant to increase scoring opportunities and reduce the frequency of defenses
trapping an attacking player into an offside position, this rule allowed the attacker to no longer be offside unless he had crossed that 35-yard line. Though it was ridiculed outside the NASL, the experiment did have FIFA's blessing until 1982. • The implementation in
1974 of a
penalty shootout to decide matches that ended in a draw. By the
1977 season the shootout was modified to somewhat resemble, in spirit at least, a
penalty shot in
ice hockey. The attacking player would start at the 35-yard line and attempt his shot within five seconds, but he could make as many breakaway moves as he could; likewise, the goalkeeper could take on the attacker without restriction. The format was best-of-5-kicks, with each team attempting extra rounds if the score was still tied after five rounds. • The carryover of the
NPSL's 1967 points system, in which teams were awarded six points for a regulation (and later extra time) win, and initially three points for a draw. When the penalty shootout eliminated tie games in 1974, the winning team was awarded three points for a win rather than six; this was later reduced to one point in 1975–1976, raised to the traditional six points from 1977 to 1980, and reduced again to four points from 1981 to 1984. • The most notable variation on the points system that was also carried over from the NPSL was awarding a team a bonus point for each goal (up to a three-goal maximum) they scored in the game, regardless of its outcome. On five occasions this nontraditional system gave the regular season title to a team other than the one with the best record; this most notably occurred in
1983, when the Cosmos, buoyed by their league-leading 87 goals, were awarded the regular season title despite having two fewer wins than the
Vancouver Whitecaps.
Interest begins to grow The NASL of the early 1970s was, to a large extent, a
semi-pro league, with many of the players holding other jobs. in
San Jose, California, hosted the
first Soccer Bowl when its capacity was 18,155 On September 3, 1973,
Sports Illustrated featured a soccer player on its cover for the first time –
Philadelphia Atoms goalkeeper
Bob Rigby. SI profiled the Philadelphia Atoms' victory in the
NASL championship, the first time an American expansion sports team won a title in its first season. The cover title declared "Soccer Goes American", as Philadelphia had started six Americans in the championship match. Despite the "Soccer Goes American" title, however, in no season after 1974 did any American player win the MVP award or finish as league top scorer, as the mid-1970s saw an influx of foreign talent. SI predicted continued success for the Philadelphia Atoms, but the Atoms dissolved in 1976. The
1974 and
1975 seasons saw rapid expansion for NASL. In 1974, eight new teams paid the $75,000 franchise fee (equivalent to $ in ) and joined the league, although two existing teams folded. The 1974 expansion saw teams on the west coast, giving NASL a national presence for the first time. The west coast expansion was a success, with three of the teams –
San Jose,
Seattle and
Vancouver – averaging over 10,000 fans in 1974. The expansions of 1974 and 1975 meant that NASL had grown from 9 teams in 1973 to 20 teams by 1975. The 1975 season saw the signing of internationally known players, including Portuguese star
Eusébio to
Boston, Best was traded to the
Fort Lauderdale Strikers (a club based in the
Miami area) in 1978, and in 1979 Los Angeles signed its next big star,
Johan Cruyff. L.A. also brought in a new head coach from 1979 to 1980,
Rinus Michels, who had coached
Ajax Amsterdam,
Barcelona, and the
Dutch national team, the man credited with the invention of the Dutch playing style of "
Total Football" in the 1970s. The
Minnesota Kicks were established in 1976 and quickly became one of the league's more popular teams, drawing an average attendance of 23,120 fans per game in 1976 to the
Metropolitan Stadium in a Minneapolis-Saint Paul suburb. The Kicks won their division four years in a row from 1976 to 1979, drawing over 23,000 fans in each of those four seasons (peaking at 32,775 in 1977). After L.A., Cruyff then moved on to the
Washington Diplomats. The Washington Diplomats had been purchased by Madison Square Garden Corp. and its chairman
Sonny Werblin in October 1978. Cruyff's presence was a huge boost, as was
Wim Jansen, a midfielder who had played for the Netherlands at the
1974 and
1978 World Cups. For the 1980 season, the Diplomats attendance was 19,205 spectators per match. Despite NASL's apparent success, of NASL's 18 teams in 1977, six were considered franchises that needed to be relocated, bought out, or folded. A planning committee of owners issued a report recommending that NASL strengthen its existing teams, and limit expansion to two franchises for 1978, with one additional franchise per year for the following years. Despite this recommendation, NASL brought in six new teams at $3 million per team, raising the league's teams from 18 to 24 for the
1978 season. signed Dutch superstar
Johan Cruyff in 1979
San Diego Sockers President Jack Daley later described NASL's boom years of the late 1970s: "It became fashionable to chase the Cosmos. Everyone had to have a Pelé. Coaches went around the world on talent searches, forcing the prices up." The
Portland Timbers tripled their team payroll from 1979 to 1980 in an effort to keep up with the league average. As of 1979, NASL rules required that each squad start two U.S. or Canadian players—often a goalkeeper and an outside defender The U.S. had lacked sufficient quality youth soccer programs in the 1950s, resulting in the dearth of U.S.-born talent in NASL in the 1970s. In 1980, the minimum number of U.S. and Canadian starters was raised to three. In April 1978, FIFA threatened the
United States Soccer Federation with banning NASL players from playing international games, due to the unsanctioned soccer rule changes by the NASL.
Financial problems and contraction At the close of the 1980 season, NASL's woes were beginning to mount, as NASL was feeling the effects of over-expansion, the economic recession, and disputes with the players union.
In the early 1980s the U.S. economy went into the doldrums, with unemployment reaching 10.8% in 1982, its highest level since World War II. NASL's owners, who were losing money, were not immune from the broader economy. Perhaps most troubling of all, NASL owners were spending sums on player salaries that could not be covered by league revenue. Whereas NFL owners in 1980 were spending on average 40% of the team's budget on player salaries, NASL owners were averaging over 70% of their budget on player salaries. The MISL began during the
1978–79 season, grew quickly, and by the early 1980s MISL was averaging over 8,000 fans per game. MISL's growth meant that throughout the early 1980s the NASL and the MISL engaged in a bidding war for U.S.-based soccer players, putting further pressure on league salaries and heightening NASL's financial problems. During the 1980 offseason, the NASL Players' Association was in dispute with the league over projected payments for the indoor season, causing the players to file a lawsuit against the league.
Ted Turner's
Atlanta Chiefs lost $7 million (or $ in ), the Minnesota Kicks lost $2.5 million (or $ in ), the
Calgary Boomers lost over $2 million (or $ in ), and
Lamar Hunt's Dallas Tornado had lost $1 million annually. Of those final nine teams, the
Chicago Sting, Minnesota Strikers, New York Cosmos, and San Diego Sockers joined the
Major Indoor Soccer League for its
1984–85 season. The
Tulsa Roughnecks independently played 11 matches in 1985, before suspending operations on July 17. The
Golden Bay Earthquakes and
Tampa Bay Rowdies managed to survive as independent franchises until they joined the
WSA and
AISA respectively. The Rowdies were the last surviving NASL franchise to play outdoor soccer, lasting until February 1994. The Sockers were the final league franchise to dissolve. They survived playing exclusively indoor soccer until 1996.
Heritage After the
United States' early elimination in
1982 World Cup qualifying, American manager
Walt Chyzowych stated the NASL had failed to offer much of a foundation for his team, since the league had largely failed to develop American players.
Canada fared better, coming a win short of qualification for the 1982 World Cup with a squad exclusively made up of NASL players. Although the NASL ultimately failed, it did introduce soccer to the North American sports scene on a large scale for the first time, and was a major contributing factor in soccer becoming one of the most popular sports among American youth. On July 4, 1988, FIFA awarded the hosting of the
1994 World Cup to the United States. NASL has also provided lessons for its successor
Major League Soccer, which has taken precautions against such problems, particularly a philosophy of financial restraint (mainstream American sports, by the time of MLS' startup in 1996, had adopted financial restraint rules, which MLS adopted). American college and high school soccer still use some NASL-style rules (with shortened halves, although the time does stop for certain reasons). The hockey-style penalty shootout is used in the
Kings League, a seven-a-side indoor variation of soccer founded by ex-
FC Barcelona player
Gerard Piqué. 18 of the 22 players on the
Canadian squad at the
1986 World Cup were former NASL players. The
United States did not have any former NASL players on their squad at the
1990 World Cup but had three on the 1994 team (
Fernando Clavijo,
Hugo Pérez and
Roy Wegerle) and one on the
1998 team (Wegerle). Several NASL team names have been reused by teams in later soccer leagues. Currently the
Portland Timbers,
San Jose Earthquakes,
Seattle Sounders FC, and
Vancouver Whitecaps FC are all successor teams in
Major League Soccer. Four other well known names (
New York Cosmos,
Tampa Bay Rowdies,
Fort Lauderdale Strikers, and
Tulsa Roughnecks) have resurfaced in the new
NASL (which eventually folded) and the USL (now the
USL Championship), both
Division II leagues. Two of the oldest
derbies in North American professional soccer
(Cascadia Cup and Fort Lauderdale–Tampa Bay) began in the NASL of the 1970s, and continue today via successor clubs.
NASL indoor The NASL first staged an indoor tournament in
1971 at the
St. Louis Arena with a $2,800 purse. After a couple of years of experimenting, including a three-city tour by the
Red Army team from Moscow in 1974, the league again staged tournaments in
1975 and
1976. For many years Tampa Bay owner
George W. Strawbridge, Jr. lobbied his fellow owners to start up a winter indoor season, but was repeatedly stone-walled by other owners. For several years, his Rowdies and several other teams used winter indoor "friendlies" as part of their training and build-up to the outdoor season. In the meantime, pressed by the rival
Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), which inaugurated play in 1978, two-day mini-tournaments like the
Skelly Invitational and the
NASL Budweiser Invitational were held with varying degrees of success. The NASL finally started a full indoor league schedule, a 12-game season with 10 teams, in
1979–80. For the
1980–81 season, the number of teams playing indoor soccer increased to 19 and the schedule grew to 18 games. The schedule remained at 18 games, but the teams participating decreased to 13 for the
1981–82 season. The league canceled the 1982–83 indoor season and three teams (Chicago, Golden Bay, and San Diego) played in the
MISL for that season. Four other teams (Fort Lauderdale, Montreal, Tampa Bay and Tulsa) competed in a short
NASL Grand Prix of Indoor Soccer Tournament in early 1983. The NASL indoor season returned for
1983–84 with only seven teams but a 32-game schedule. ==NASL champions==