Calgary Boomers

North American Soccer League (1980-1981)

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Calgary Boomers
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There was deep irony embedded in the name of this short-lived North American Soccer League club. The Calgary Boomers formed in late 1980 as part of a wild frenzy of sports franchise speculation by the infamous Vancouver real estate investor Nelson Skalbania. When the bust came in 1981 and Skalbania lost his burgeoning empire, the Boomers vanished after only one season.

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Background

The Calgary Boomers were a One-Year Wonder in the North American Soccer League (NASL).  The Boomers arrived in Calgary courtesy of a manic 1980-1981 sports franchise buying spree by Vancouver real estate speculator Nelson Skalbania.  Over a frenzied period of little more than a year, Skalbania purchased the Atlanta Flames hockey team of the NHL, the Vancouver Canadians triple-A baseball team, the Memphis Rogues of the NASL and the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.  During the same timeframe, he made an offer for Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners and took out ads in the Vancouver papers promoting interest in an NBA expansion franchise. Skalbania moved both the NHL’s Flames and the NASL’s Rogues to Calgary, Alberta.

Skalbania already had a sketchy track record in pro sports.   As owner of the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association in the late 1970’s, he was the man who signed 17-year old Wayne Gretzky to his first pro contract.  On the down side, Skalbania flipped Gretzky’s contract to the Edmonton Oilers only eight games into the Great One’s rookie season and then folded the Racers a month later right in the middle of the season.

Move From Memphis

We’ll let former Boomers General Manager Rudi Schiffer, a holdover from the club’s days in Memphis, pick up the story from here…

“Skalbania wanted it because his buddy Peter Pocklington owned the Edmonton Drillers in the league and he wanted to compete with him.

“We went to Vancouver for the league meetings in September 1980.  I’m sitting next to <Rogues outgoing owner> Avron Fogelman, but I had already talked to Skalbania.  I told him ‘I want to come north with the team and I can help you’.  He said OK.  So we’re sitting there at this big horseshoe table.  The league had taken a stance that it didn’t want to expand and bring in these new cities anymore.  So they took a vote on the sale and it went right around the table and right down to the last vote.  The tiebreaker was the Vancouver Whitecaps.  Fogelman was sitting there shaking like a leaf – he was so nervous I thought he was gonna fall apart at the table right in front of me.  Herb Capozzi was the owner of the Whitecaps – he was a great owner – and he voted yes, so Calgary was in.

“Fogelman was kind of a tough guy with everybody,” Schiffer continued.  “A dictatorial owner and boss.  That’s the way he ran his businesses – basically scared a lot of people.  Little Napoleon.  So Fogelman says ‘Well, Skalbania, you’ve got the team for a million bucks.’

I had already coached Skalbania.  I told him to ask for the indoor soccer carpet, which costs about a hundred grand, plus all the equipment and the vans and everything.  Told him how bad Fogelman wanted to get rid of it.  So Skalbania says, ‘Well, Avron, I want all the equipment too.’  Fogelman says ‘Oh no.  You got to pay extra for that.’

“Skalbania told him ‘Oh yeah?  You can stick it up your tuckus.  You want the equipment? Keep the whole team!’

“Fogelman blanched.  He turned white – and he gave it to him.

“Avron was a good businessman – he was tough as hell.  Nobody beat Avron.  Well, he got beat this day because Skalbania never paid him.  Nelson gave Avron a hundred thousand dollars down and never paid him the rest of the million bucks.”

Indoor & Outdoor Play

The Rogues arrived in Calgary in October 1980. They re-branded as the Boomers in time to take part in the NASL’s winter 1980-81 indoor soccer season.  The Boomers played their indoor games at the Stampede Corral.  Calgary finished the indoor season 10-8, not quite good enough for playoff consideration.

The Boomers’ roster for the 1981 NASL outdoor season featured nine imports from West Germany, including starting goalkeeper Jurgen Stars and leading scorer Franz Gerber (20 goals, 10 assists).  The team was competitive, making the playoffs with a 17-15 record.  The Boomers were bounced in the first round by the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in August 1981.

Boom To Bust

By late 1981, Nelson Skalbania’s real estate empire was collapsing under pressure from Canada’s skyrocketing interest rates and his string of money-losing sports investments.

The Calgary Boomers folded in September 1981.  They were one of seven NASL franchises to fold that fall, as the league shrunk from 21 to 14 clubs.  The NASL itself would fold following the 1984 season.

Skalbania lost all of his pro sports investments and declared bankruptcy in December 1982 with debts of approximately $30 million. His epic collapse caused two pro teams to go out of business entirely – the Boomers and the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.

In 1996, Skalbania briefly returned to professional sports by acquiring a controlling interest in the CFL’s British Columbia Lions. He lost control of that team to a bankruptcy receiver within six months.

Voices

All of these balls <Skalbania> had in the air came tumbling down. He was going into bankruptcy.  I showed up one day and the office was locked.  I finally got in and some lawyers came in and took my desk away, told me we were shut down.  He got it open again maybe a week later, paid somebody off, and we hung on to the end of the season.

We had already done a season ticket drive for the 1981-82 NASL indoor season.  I had $114,000 in ticket deposits and league playoff money in the bank that only I could sign for.  When the team finally went down, I wasn’t going to send it back to Skalbania.  He actually owed me a year’s salary on agreement, so I could have taken $65,000 out of that with no hit to my conscience at all.  But I thought I wanted to stay in soccer and you do something like that, you’ll never get another job.

So I went down to the bank and wrote refund checks to everybody who had paid for season tickets.  The league was trying to get the money back and Skalbania was trying to get the money.  I gave it all back to the fans and I didn’t get anything.  I left Canada broke.

– Rudi Schiffer, General Manager 1981 (2012 FWiL Interview)

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In Memoriam

Boomers forward Carlos Salguero passed away on December 28, 2006 from cancer.  Salguero was 51 years old.

Downloads

2012 Fun While It Lasted interview with former Boomers GM Rudi Schiffer

Links

North American Soccer League Media Guides

North American Soccer League Programs

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