The Denver Avalanche were a short-lived franchise that played two seasons in the Major Indoor Soccer League between 1980 and 1982. The Avalanche faced a tough landscape in Denver in that era, competing head-to-head with the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and NHL’s Colorado Rockies for fans, sponsors and decent dates at McNichols Arena during the winter time. The team entered bankruptcy and folded after two seasons.
The New Jersey Rockets were a One-Year Wonder in the Major Indoor Soccer League who played the winter of 1981-82 at the newly opened Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford. One challenge for the Rockets was the presence of another indoor soccer team at the Brendan Byrne Arena that winter – the mighty New York Cosmos of the rival North American Soccer League.
The Crunch were Cleveland’s indoor soccer team of the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Led by standout forwards Hector Marinaro and Zoran Karic, the Crunch won National Professional Soccer League titles in 1994, 1996 and 1999. Between 1993 and 2001, either Marinaro or Karic led the NPSL in scoring for nine consecutive seasons. Off the field, the Crunch never managed to rekindle the passionate following enjoyed by their local predecessor, the Cleveland Force, who packed the Richfield Coliseum for Major Indoor Soccer League matches during the mid-1980’s. The Crunch era came to an end in 2002, as new owners switched back to the old “Force” name and colors in an unsuccessful bid to juice the team’s financial fortunes.
Imagine if some upstart sport – a junk sport as some of the old cranks in the sporting press would call it – went into an big city arena next fall and outdrew the local NBA team. Not just outdrew it, but nearly doubled their average gate for each game and eventually drove the NBA out of town. It’s inconceivable that a sport like indoor lacrosse or arena football could blindside a city like this today. But this is exactly what happened in Kansas City in the early 1980’s with the arrival of the Comets and the Major Indoor Soccer League.
The Long Island-based New York Arrows were the original dynasty franchise in the sport of indoor soccer in the United States. One of six founding franchises in the Major Indoor Soccer League in 1978, the Arrows won the first four MISL championships from 1979 to 1982. The team was virtually unbeatable during this stretch, posting a regular season record of 114-26 with a star-studed roster that included all-time greats Steve Zungul and Branko Segota along with ex-New York Cosmos goalkeeper Shep Messing.
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