North American Soccer League

Overview

The NASL is owned and operated by its member teams through the Board of Governors. The Board consists of a representative of each member team. The Board oversees the League rules and regulations, governs the expansion and commercial strategy of the League, and oversees the league office. Mark Frisch is the chairman of the board.

NASL has no official tie to the former NASL that operated from 1968 to 1984. Several of the present-day NASL teams, however, operate in cities where the former NASL had teams. In particular, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Tampa Bay Rowdies, and New York Cosmos clubs share the same names and similar jersey designs as their NASL predecessors. The league has taken great pains to express its affinity to the earlier league, in fact inviting participation from their AGM Phil Woosnam, who wrote them a kind letter wishing their success in the new league. The New York Cosmos have been particularly mindful of respecting the Cosmos' legacy, involving former players at all levels of the organization.

NASL does not have a salary cap. NASL limits active rosters to 30 players and limits teams to seven foreign players.

NASL teams have augmented their revenues by signing sponsorship deals. For example, the NY Cosmos landed Emirates Airlines as a jersey sponsor, FC Edmonton signed Sears Financial as a jersey sponsor, and the Carolina RailHawks have had Blue Cross as their jersey sponsor since 2009.

Competition format

The NASL began playing a split-season format in 2013. Similar to Liga MX, Central, and South American leagues, the schedule consisted of two competitions, Spring and Fall, with the winner of the Spring season earning the right to host the Fall champion in a one-game playoff, the Soccer Bowl. In 2014 the postseason was altered again with the introduction of The Championship: The NASL Spring Season and Fall Season champions are joined in the semi-finals of The Championship by the two clubs with the next best overall records from both seasons combined. The semi-final winners compete in The Championship Final, with "Soccer Bowl" being the name of the trophy itself. The NASL Spring Season and Fall Season champions will each host a semi-final. The number one seed will be awarded to whichever of the Spring or Fall champions posts the better combined regular season record. The number three and number four seeds will be awarded to the next two clubs with the best overall records from both seasons combined. Clubs will retain their seeding throughout the postseason. The top-seeded semi-final winner will host The Championship final. If the same club wins both seasons, the clubs with the second, third and fourth best overall records from both seasons combined will qualify for The Championship.

The Spring Season runs from early April until July 4, and following a one-month break, the Fall season runs from early August until early November.

The split-season model has several intended benefits for NASL. A break in July that coincides with the international transfer window allows teams to acquire (or sell) players during the summer, providing ample time for new players to become acquainted with their new club and league. Secondly, NASL teams can use this break to generate additional revenue by hosting international friendlies or going on tour. In prior NASL seasons, the competition featured 8 teams playing a 28-game regular season schedule, with 14 home and 14 away matches, meeting each opponent four times. The playoffs consisted of the top six clubs, with the first and second-ranked teams receiving a bye until the semi-final round. The bottom four competed in a knockout round before advancing to the semi-finals. Both the semi-final and the final rounds were played over two-legs, the winner advancing on aggregate goals.

Similar to other American sports leagues (and unlike many European soccer leagues), NASL does not have automatic promotion or relegation for its member clubs. The champion of Division II NASL is not automatically promoted to Division I Major League Soccer, and the team finishing last in NASL is not automatically relegated to Division III USL. There are occasional opportunities, however, for successful teams in Divisions II and III that meet specific criteria (most critically, financial) to join MLS as an expansion team, as the Montreal Impact did following the 2011 season and Orlando City SC in the 2015 season from the USL Pro.

The Supporters Cup was created before the 2013 season by a group of twenty-one NASL supporters groups, and was intended to be awarded to the team with the highest season points total in order to recognize excellent play on the field throughout the entire year. It replaced the regular season champion trophy that was awarded by the league itself in 2011 and 2012. Previous winners were retroactively recognized on the group's website, which recognized its last winner after the 2014 season.

Other competitions

NASL teams also occasionally play in international competitions, most notably in the CONCACAF Champions League. The best Division II team performances to date were in the 2008–09 Champions League, when the Puerto Rico Islanders reached the semi-finals and the then-Division II Montreal Impact reached the quarterfinal round. NASL teams also play in the aforementioned international friendlies during the league's summer break.

Teams playing in the NASL represent two separate CONCACAF members (the United States and Canada); in the past, and again from 2016, this will rise to three with the presence of a team from Puerto Rico. NASL's U.S. based teams play in the U.S. Open Cup, the winner of which provides one of the four US representatives in the CONCACAF Champions League. Division II teams have had some success in Cup play since MLS began, most notably in 1999 when the Rochester Rhinos won the title. Charleston Battery also reached the final in 2008, conceding the championship to D.C. United. NASL did not participate in the 2011 U.S. Open Cup during the league's first season, but joined the tournament in 2012 to some success as the Carolina RailHawks reached the Quarterfinals that year. In 2014, both the Carolina RailHawks and the Atlanta Silverbacks reached the Open Cup Quarterfinals. The league's Canadian teams, FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury F.C., participate in the Canadian Championship. This tournament consists of the Canadian Soccer Association's five professional clubs, the winner representing Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League. The Puerto Rico Islanders were invited to participate in the CFU Club Championship by the Caribbean Football Union representing Puerto Rico, participation in which allowed them to also enter the Champions League.

Founding

On August 27, 2009, multi-national sports company Nike agreed to sell its stake in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) to Rob Hoskins and Alec Papadakis of Atlanta-based NuRock Soccer Holdings, instead of to the USL Team Owner's Association (TOA), a group comprising the owners of several USL First Division clubs and St. Louis Soccer United. After the purchase, several prominent TOA members began to voice their concerns about the state of the league in general, its management structure and ownership model, the leadership of USL president Francisco Marcos, and about the sale of the league to NuRock, which the TOA felt was counter-productive and detrimental to the development of the league.

Within several weeks, a number of TOA member clubs threatened to break away from USL and start their own league. On November 10, 2009, six USL-1 clubs along with St. Louis applied for approval to create a new North American Division 2 league. On November 20, 2009, one team from both USL-1 and USL-2 announced their intentions to join the new league, taking the membership of the new league to nine teams.

The official name of the league was announced on November 23, 2009. According to the official press release, the NASL name is intended to "pay respect to the players, coaches and leaders who were pioneers for men's professional soccer in North America, many of whom remain involved and committed to the growth of the game in various capacities throughout the U.S. and Canada".

The USL issued several press releases questioning the legality of the teams choosing to break away, suggesting that it considered litigation to protect its interests and those of the USL-1 teams from any breach of contract. The USL claimed that the NASL and the TOA ownership group was "interfering with USL-1 team owners that are contractually obligated to participate in the 2010 season" and "made several misleading statements in a variety of press releases to taint the reputation of USL and its long history of developing the sport of soccer."

NASL's inaugural season was expected to begin play in April 2010. However, after announcing that it would not sanction either the NASL or the USL First Division for 2010, U.S. Soccer announced in January 2010 that it would run a temporary USSF Division 2 Professional League for the 2010 season that included 12 teams from both the NASL and USL-1, putting the NASL on hold for at least a year.

League begins

Following the 2010 season, NASL consolidated its member clubs to meet the new Division 2 standards set out by U.S. Soccer. The NASL was provisionally approved by U.S. Soccer on November 21, 2010. NASL The provisional sanctioning was briefly revoked by U.S. Soccer in January 2011 due to the collapse of two of the ownership groups involved with NASL and serious questions about several others but was reinstated before the 2011 season.

David Downs was named league commissioner effective April 4, 2011. Downs had previously worked for ABC Sports where he had secured the US television rights to every World Cup from 1994 to 2014, worked for Univision, and had been Executive Director of the unsuccessful US Bid Committee to bring the 2022 FIFA World Cup to the United States. NASL began regular league play in April 2011 with eight members comprising former clubs from the USL First Division, the USL Second Division, plus expansion sides.

Downs resigned after the end of the 2012 season, citing a desire to return to his home in New York. Bill Peterson, formerly the Senior VP of AEG Sports and managing director of the Home Depot Center from 2000-2006, replaced Downs as commissioner. Peterson left the NASL in January 2017 and was replaced by Rishi Sehgal.

In July 2013, NASL teams took advantage of the break afforded by the new split-season schedule to host several international friendlies, including several matches against Mexican, Brazilian, and Guatemalan teams, while the N.Y. Cosmos traveled to London to play lower division English teams.

In September 2015, NASL sent a letter to US Soccer president, Sunil Gulati, accusing US Soccer of antitrust violations should they adopt the proposed criteria for a sanctioned Division I soccer league. NASL took issue with three proposed changes: increasing the minimum stadium size to 15,000, increasing the minimum number of teams to 16, and changing the minimum population required in 75% of the teams from a population of 1 million to 2 million. NASL accused US Soccer of colluding with MLS to protect MLS's monopoly as the only Division I league in the United States.

Founding members

With provisional approval from U.S. Soccer to begin play as a Division 2 league in 2011, eight clubs were officially confirmed to launch the inaugural season: Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina RailHawks, FC Edmonton, Fort Lauderdale Strikers (formerly Miami FC), Montreal Impact, NSC Minnesota Stars, Puerto Rico Islanders and FC Tampa Bay.

Four of these eight teams — the Carolina RailHawks, Miami FC, Minnesota United FC (formerly Minnesota Thunder/Stars) and Montreal Impact — played in the USL First Division in 2009, and were among the set of TOA teams that initiated the original breakaway from the USL. FC Tampa Bay had been scheduled to be a 2010 USL-1 expansion franchise, but switched to the NASL shortly after NASL was officially formed. The Atlanta Silverbacks played competitively in USL-1 in 2008, and spent 2009 on hiatus from the league prior to joining the NASL. FC Edmonton was an expansion team that was founded in 2010. The Puerto Rico Islanders played in the USL in the 2010 season.

Several teams expected to join NASL did not play in NASL during the 2011 inaugural season. Crystal Palace Baltimore of the USL Second Division had planned to join the NASL, but announced in late 2010 that it would not play in NASL in 2011 due to a necessary restructuring. The Rochester Rhinos of the USL First Division joined NASL on November 30, 2009, but the Rhinos joined the new United Soccer League (then known as USL Pro) and have played there since 2011. AC St. Louis, part of the initial TOA group that formed NASL, closed in late 2010 after only one season due to financial difficulties. The Vancouver Whitecaps did not play in NASL in 2011 because the Vancouver Whitecaps FC joined MLS in 2011. The Minnesota Thunder ceased operations due to financial problems, and were replaced by the NSC Minnesota Stars under different ownership.

On March 25, 2015, it was announced that founding team Minnesota would become a Major League Soccer expansion side in 2017.

On January 11, 2016, the NASL announced that it had suspended its operation of the Atlanta Silverbacks for the 2016 season and possibly beyond.

On October 25, 2016, the Tampa Bay Rowdies announced that they would be moving to the United Soccer League for the 2017 season.

Expansion teams

The league continued with eight teams in 2012, losing one team and adding one team, with the Montreal Impact joining Major League Soccer and the San Antonio Scorpions joining NASL as an expansion side. The league played its 2013 spring season with seven teams, as the Puerto Rico Islanders suspended operations with uncertainty regarding a government subsidy. The New York Cosmos restored the league to eight teams when it joined for the fall 2013 season, playing its home games at Hofstra University's James M. Shuart Stadium.

NASL's expansion into New York marked the first time the league expanded into a city where an MLS team was already present, marking the beginning of a shift in NASL expansion strategy, with NASL later considering expanding into other large markets with MLS teams, such as the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC, and Los Angeles.

The NASL added two teams for the 2014 season: the Ottawa Fury FC and Indy Eleven of Indianapolis. The Ottawa Fury moved from the USL Premier Development League following the refurbishment of TD Place Stadium. The Indy Eleven played at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis but planned to complete their own stadium. In July 2013, the NASL awarded two new expansion franchises: Jacksonville Armada FC and Oklahoma City FC. Jacksonville plays at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville and ultimately hopes to build its own stadium.

Oklahoma City FC were originally set to begin play in 2015 but, along with Virginia Cavalry FC, did not join the league. The Cavalry was originally announced as a 2014 expansion team to be based in the planned Edelman Financial Field in Ashburn, Virginia, but construction delays and failure to find a suitable alternative venue set back its debut to 2015. In July 2014, a further delay was announced pushing their debut to 2016 as the team reorganizes its ownership group. An NASL team in Oklahoma City was eventually announced for a 2016 launch when Spanish club Rayo Vallecano launched Rayo OKC in November 2015.

In May 2015, the NASL announced that the twelfth team in the league would be Miami FC. Located in Miami, Florida, the team is owned by international entrepreneur Riccardo Silva and former Italian international Paolo Maldini. The team began play in 2016. In June 2015, professional basketball player Carmelo Anthony, announced that his new club Puerto Rico FC would join the league. The team began play in the 2016 NASL fall season.

On December 22, 2015, it was announced that the City of San Antonio and Bexar County had purchased Toyota Field and S.T.A.R. Soccer Complex. Along with this came an agreement for Spurs Sports and Entertainment, owners of the San Antonio Spurs, to operate the facilities and field a team in the United Soccer League, effectively folding the San Antonio Scorpions.

In October 2016, the Fury announced that they would be joining the USL for the 2017 season. At the time of their announcement, it had been reported that the Fury were losing approximately $2 million per year during their time in the NASL.

Planned expansion

The NASL has indicated its vision is to grow to 18 to 20 teams by 2018. Former NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson expressed interest in Hartford, which been home to the Connecticut Bicentennials in the previous version of the NASL. However, the priority remained to add more teams in the West, Midwest and Prairies, with an eye on placing teams in the 25 largest metropolitan areas without professional soccer teams in order to tap into greater media exposure and sponsor interest. NASL expansion conversations took place with interested parties from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and Las Vegas. Also, the owners of Detroit City FC expressed a desire to join the NASL or USL if additional investors could be found. In addition, Peterson criticized the MLS expansion plans in cities with existing NASL teams (Miami, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and San Antonio), suggesting a turf war and increased competition between the two leagues.

In July 2014, it was reported that the NASL and the Canadian Soccer Association were looking into creating a seven-team, all-Canadian league with the help of the CFL, thus establishing the first top tier fully Canadian league since Canadian Soccer League which folded in 1992. The format would resemble Major League Baseball's American and National leagues, with the Soccer Bowl taking place between the champions of the American-based NASL teams and the Canadian-based NASL teams to determine the overall NASL champion. The Canadian soccer teams would partner with Canadian Football League teams and play in CFL stadiums. The three existing Canadian MLS teams (Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal) would not be part of this league structure.

In February 2016, former Indy Eleven owner Peter Wilt has announced his ambitions to create yet another team in Chicago. He is credited with creating Chicago Fire Soccer Club. They announced that the NASL Chicago club would not be called the Chicago Sting, but works were in progress to secure short-term and long-term stadium options. The efforts were combined with exploring investors and supporter ownership structures.

In February 2016, it was announced that is expected that the San Francisco Deltas will join the NASL in 2017. The Deltas are expected to play at Kezar Stadium.

Rivalry cups

Some NASL teams participate in rivalry matches. Supporters of Minnesota United FC and FC Edmonton created the Flyover Cup, a nod to the clubs' geographic location with respect to the rest of the league.

Starting in 2010 when the Tampa Bay Rowdies returned, the Florida Derby was revived with the creation of the Coastal Cup with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The Rowdies claimed the first four Coastal Cups, with the Strikers winning the Cup for the first time in 2014. In 2015 Jacksonville Armada FC made the competition three-way, and the expansion Miami FC made it a four-club competition in 2016.

Ownership

The North American Soccer League operates as a group of independent club owners as opposed to the single-entity structure of Major League Soccer. Each club is a shareholder in the league, with one vote each on issues such as rule changes and contracts. The league requires that each club has a lead shareholder that holds at least 35% ownership in the club and is worth at least $20M.

Sponsorship

The league currently does not have any national sponsorship arrangements beyond using a specially designed soccer ball produced by Under Armour. The match ball features the NASL's signature red and blue colors, as well as the league's logo. The league also reached a deal with Seiko to serve as the official time keeper of the NASL starting with the 2014 season. Seiko branding will be prominent on the fourth official's substitution and timing boards, on goal line advertising boards, on the broadcast game clock and within the league's official website NASL.com.

Some NASL teams have been able to attract shirt sponsors over the past several seasons. The largest deal to date was the Cosmos signing Emirates through the 2015 season for $1M annually. Toyota's sponsorship of the Scorpions is tied into several other sponsorship programs involving the team and team ownership. Indy Eleven announced on October 1, 2013 that they had reached a three-year deal with Honda Manufacturing of Indiana LLC and central Indiana Honda dealers worth $1M annually to be the shirt sponsor for the team, the deal is on par with the one announced by the Cosmos earlier in the year. The Rowdies announced they had reach a sponsorship agreement with Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa for the 2014 season. This became the first gambling related sponsorship within the league something common with clubs in other countries.

Beyond shirt sponsorship and kit production, teams have had varying success in establishing sponsorship packages with local and national brands. The San Antonio Scorpions were able to land numerous sponsorship arrangements with the opening of Toyota Field including an innovative sponsorship by CST brands Valero Corner Stores. The sponsorship arrangement with Valero involves stadium branding and sponsorship of all corner kicks at home games.

Media and digital coverage

NASL began a relationship with ESPN3 beginning with Soccer Bowl 2013. Starting in 2015, ESPN3 began airing 100+ league matches in 75 countries.

The New York Cosmos began a partnership with ONE World Sports that expanded into a league-wide deal in 2015. For the 2016 season, One World Sports airs all Cosmos matches and an additional game of the week, on Saturdays in the spring season and on Wednesdays in the fall season. Additionally for 2016, beIN Sports and CBS Sports Network each began airing a game of the week.

In addition to the national deals, many clubs have local broadcast deals.

Champions

Championship results

Note:

NASL club honors

NASL club records only include performance while team competed in the NASL. Current through 2016 Season. Order based on major honors (championships).

Awards

Attendance

Stadium attendances are a significant source of regular income for the NASL and its clubs. The average and total attendances are listed below.

Staff