Major Indoor Soccer League (2002-2005)
Tombstone
Born: August 23, 2002 – Re-branded from Cleveland Crunch.1NO BYLINE. “Soccer team opens play in October”. The Beacon Journal (Akron, OH). August 24, 2002
Folded: Postseason 2005
First Game: October 5, 2002 (L 14-6 @ Baltimore Blast)
Last Game: May 21, 2005 (L 10-9 vs. Milwaukee Wave @ St. Louis, MO)
MISL Championships: None
Arena
CSU Convocation Center
Opened: 1991
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners: Richard Dietrich, Michael Gibbons & Paul Garofalo
Background
Cleveland was long a hotbed of professional indoor soccer. The city’s original Cleveland Force was the model franchise of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), attracting huge crowds to the Richfield Coliseum in the mid-80’s. The Force folded in 1988, but were quickly replaced by the Cleveland Crunch indoor team just one year later.
But by the early 2000’s, the indoor game’s fortunes were in sharp decline. The premier indoor league at the time was the National Professional Soccer League, whose membership included the Crunch. In 2001, the NPSL re-branded itself as the Major Indoor Soccer League, in the hopes of scaring up some nostalgia for the glory days of the 1980’s.
Crunch management followed suit in August 2002. The franchise dropped the Crunch identity after 13 seasons in favor of reviving the Force name and colors. Team President Paul Garofalo, a former executive with the original Force during the 80’s, predicted the name change alone would increase team revenues by one million dollars annually.
Demise
Garofalo’s optimism was misplaced. Force attendance muddled along at the 4,000 – 5,000 per game level – basically unchanged from the later years of the Crunch. Majority owner Richard Dietrich gave up hope during the third season of the Force re-boot, announcing the club was for sale in March 2005. With no takers, the team folded following the 2004-05 MISL season.
As far as the team on the carpet, Force 2.0 were decent. Indoor soccer’s all-time leading scorer, Hector Marinaro, played for the Force from 2002-2004. Marinaro was a holdover from the great Crunch indoor teams that won three championships during the 1990’s. But the Force let Marinaro go in the MISL expansion draft in the summer of 2004.
The Force made the MISL playoffs in each of their three seasons. The final Force team made it to the 2005 MISL Championship Series where they lost in a two-game sweep to the Milwaukee Wave.
In a final bummer, the Force’s loyal core of diehards were unable to cheer the team on in the 2005 championship series. The MISL secured a deal to have the 2005 championship televised on ESPN2. But the dates available for live broadcast fell in conflict with other events at the CSU Convocation Center. What would have been Cleveland’s home date for the deciding Game 2 had to be moved to the Savvis Center is St. Louis, Missouri. The Force lost a double overtime heartbreaker to the Wave 10-9 to lose the game and the series on May 21st, 2005.
The club never played another game.
Cleveland Force Shop
Cleveland Force Video
The Force, wearing their retro Reflex Blue & Yellow unis, brawl on the road against the Chicago Storm. March 19th, 2005
Links
2001-Present Indoor Soccer Media Guides
2001-Present Indoor Soccer Programs
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