New Jersey Ironmen
June 25, 2019
The Ironmen were a short-lived indoor soccer team out of Newark, New Jersey operated by perhaps the last rich men in the indoor game: the co-owners of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. Various NBA and NHL owners bet on indoor soccer a number of times during the 1980’s and 1990’s. But by the early 2000’s the indoor game was in steady decline. When Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek appeared alongside Newark Mayor Cory Booker at a press conference in June 2007 to unveil an MISL expansion franchise for the soon-to-open $375 million Prudential Center, the announcement felt like a relic of a bygone era.
