MSL NOTEBOOK : More Changes on the Horizon

Only eight months ago, it appeared the Major Indoor Soccer League was headed the way of the American Basketball Assn. and the United States Football League.

In July, however, owners did an about-face at their summer meetings in Baltimore where they made several major announcements:

For the first time, the league was returning all member franchises from the previous season; it had reached agreement with the players association on a lower salary cap; it was beginning to cooperate with with the United States Soccer Federation, ending what had been a 13-year acrimonious relationship; and it was changing its name to the Major Soccer League, leaving open the door to a future outdoor season.

On Monday, the MSL will begin its winter meetings in Kansas City, kicking off a busy week that will include the College Showcase Game on Tuesday, the annual draft Wednesday morning and the All-Star Game Wednesday night.

Indications are that this year’s round of announcements promise to be more dramatic.

“They will be even more so,” said Ed Hale, owner of the Baltimore Blast. “We’ll have some real big news on a lot of fronts and it won’t be any more of this negative (stuff). It’s positive in nature.”

It appears the league plans to expand into Pittsburgh and Buffalo. In fact, the Pittsburgh application has been filed by Bernie Mullin, a former Pittsburgh Pirates executive who will act as president of the new franchise.

Mullin is so confident of gaining admission that he sent a memo to the eight member teams informing them that Pittsburgh will be on the schedule next year.

The Tacoma News-Tribune obtained the text of the memo. It read, in part:

“We are pleased to announce that we have opened our office. We have submitted an expansion franchise application to the league office subject to obtaining the necessary financial backing. We plan to operate in the 1991-92 season.”

Buffalo is not so far along, but Commissioner Earl Foreman has made a number of trips to the city, the latest on Tuesday when he met with Comptroller Joel Giambra and Mayor James Griffin.

Foreman said the discussions were preliminary.

“It was a very productive meeting,” Foreman said. “There are some very responsible, interested parties there.”

Foreman remained customarily guarded in his comments on expansion, but said, “My hope is that we’ll play with 10 teams next year.”

Foreman said the biggest announcement to be made during the break likely will concern new proposals for next season’s schedule.

“There is a real strong desire to take a look at a fewer number of games,” he said.

Hale, the Baltimore owner, has been studying a shorter season since the July meetings.

“Personally, I’m for a shorter season,” he said. “It will have a drastic effect on revenues in a very, very positive way. It can affect (Blast operations) by $700,000 per year.”

Hale said the savings would be the result of “30 different things we feel we can save on,” but declined to be more specific.

Then there is the agenda item titled a “preliminary conceptualization for further European expansion.”

European expansion? Does that involve more overseas exhibition games such as the St. Louis Storm and Baltimore Blast played earlier this season?

No. Hale said he envisions a separate European division in the future with teams in “Scandinavia, England and a couple other countries.”

MSL owners also will hear from their newly formed marketing division, which, among other things, will announce it has sold a sponsorship to Leaf Candy, Foreman said.

It is the first national sponsor to come on board this year and joins U.S. Sprint, Wilson Sporting Goods, Lotto footwear and Bike uniforms.

The draft will go off in reverse order of the standings as of Feb. 10, which means if the Sockers remain where they are, they will pick last in each of the four rounds.

Sockers Coach Ron Newman said he has heard of only two of the seniors who will play in Tuesday’s College Showcase Game, USD’s Trong Nguyen and UCLA’s Billy Thompson.

To realize the importance of the Showcase, consider that Newman never had heard of David Banks before last year’s game.

“He showed up at the College All-Star game,” Newman said. “And I jotted him down as a possibility.”

The next morning, Newman used his second pick in the second round to select Banks, now considered the front-runner for Rookie of the Year honors.

On Jan. 21, the league announced that the coaching staffs of the Dallas Sidekicks and Wichita Wings would preside over the College Showcase teams.

Since that announcement, both Dallas Coach Billy Phillips and Wichita Coach Terry Nicholl have been fired.

Phillips, retained as a technical adviser, will go ahead with the West All-Star team. Wichita assistant Kevin Kewley will direct the East team, with assistance from Tony Glavin, a scout for Kansas City.

St. Louis Storm standout Claudio De Oliveira has been put in a cast after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, suffered Jan. 25 during a 2-1 loss to the Sockers.

De Oliveira made his peers take notice of his skills quickly; he was voted onto the West All-Star team after playing in the league only a season and a half.

He will miss the remainder of the Storm’s games, however, and will be replaced on the West All-Star team by teammate Godfrey Ingram.