The Carolina Vipers soccer team was a founding member of the Continental Indoor Soccer League (1993-1997) but didn’t begin play until the league’s second season in the summer of 1994. Playing out of Charlotte’s Independence Arena, the Vipers finished their only season with a dismal 3-25 record. The club folded quietly after the 1994 season wrapped up.
The Sidekicks won championships in the Major Indoor Soccer League (1987), Continental Indoor Soccer League (1993), Premier Soccer Alliance (1998) and World Indoor Soccer League (2001). At the peak of their popularity in the late 1980’s, the Sidekicks attracted nearly 10,000 fans per match to Reunion Arena for a 28-game home calendar. The team’s success and community goodwill was inextricably tied to the talents of resident superstar Tatu, the Brazilian scoring wizard who led the Sidekicks on the field for 19 of their 20 seasons. By the time that the Sidekicks finally closed their doors in 2004, they were the longest continuously operating professional soccer franchise in the United States.
The Portland Pride played in all five seasons of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, a summertime league that had heavy investment from NBA owners. Although the Pride shared Memorial Coliseum and later the Rose Garden arena with the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers, they did not share common ownership as many CISL teams in NBA cities did. The Pride had only one winning season – their first, in 1993 – and never made it beyond the first round of the CISL playoffs.
L.A. United was a One-Year Wonder in the Continental Indoor Soccer League in 1993. The club was owned by Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss and was in some ways a re-boot of the Los Angeles Lazers, the indoor soccer team run by Dr. Buss and his son Johnny for seven seasons during the 1980’s. While the Buss family showed enormous patience with the Lazers, this was not the case with United. After one last place season with dreadful attendance, the franchise was packed off to Anaheim under new ownership in 1994.
The Detroit Neon indoor soccer team drew their name from a title sponsorship with the Chrysler Corporation, who introduced their Neon sub-compact car in 1994, the same year the soccer club debuted at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Neon remained one of the better draws in the Continental Indoor Soccer Leage during its existence, despite being absolutely dreadful. The Neon twice had the worst record in the CISL and posted a 32-80 record over four seasons of play.
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