The New Jersey Stallions are a long-time youth club soccer program operating out of Clifton, New Jersey. But during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s the organization also operated men’s – and, briefly, women’s – pro & amateur teams in the United Soccer Leagues. The Stallions debuted in 1996 and the Lady Stallions women’s club joined the USL in 2003. Following the 2004 season, the Stallions shuttered both their men’s and women’s USL adult clubs.
This doomed 2nd division men’s club was part of the disastrous Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Stadium project, intended to bring minor league baseball and pro soccer to the Easton/Allentown region of Pennsylvania during the late 1990’s. The Steam would be the region’s first outdoor pro soccer team since the Pennsylvania Stoners, who played out of Allentown and Bethlehem, folded in 1984. When the stadium project failed to come to fruition, the Steam embarked on a single, futile season in the USL A-League during the summer of 1999, cobbling together a schedule of “home” matches in various sites around Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Steam officially disbanded in December 1999.
The Orlando Sundogs were a pro soccer team that endured a single grim campaign in the USISL A-League during the summer of 1997. The A-League was the 2nd Division of men’s pro soccer in the U.S. at the time, one level below Major League Soccer. The Sundogs’ troubles were many, but a big one was their choice of stadium: the 64,000 Citrus Bowl, a former World Cup (1994) and Olympic (1996) stadium. The ‘Dogs averaged an invisible 1,278 fans per match in the gargantuan bowl.
Reno 1868 FC was a 2nd Division pro soccer club affiliated on the technical side with the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer and operated on the business side by the front office staff of Minor League Baseball’s Reno Aces of the Pacific Coast League. 1868 played out of Greater Nevada Field, the Aces’ 9,000-seat baseball stadium, from 2017 through 2020.
Independent (1993) United States Interregional Soccer League (1994) USISL Pro League (1995) USISL Select League (1996) USISL A-League (1997-1998) USL A-League (1999-2002) Born: 1993 Folded: January
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