North American Soccer League (2011–2017)

This article is about the present-day soccer league. For the league that was active from 1968 to 1984, see North American Soccer League (1968–1984).

North American Soccer League

File:NASL Logo.PNG
Founded	November 10, 2009
Country	United States
Other club(s) from	Canada
Confederation	CONCACAF
Number of teams	10
Level on pyramid	Division II (US) Division II (CAN)
Domestic cup(s)	U.S. Open Cup Canadian Championship
International cup(s)	CONCACAF Champions League
Current champions	New York Cosmos (1st title) (2013)
Most championships	Minnesota United FC New York Cosmos Tampa Bay Rowdies (1 title each)
TV partners	ESPN3 / ESPN Deportes
Website	www.nasl.com
Current: 2014 North American Soccer League season

The North American Soccer League (NASL) is a professional men's soccer league with ten teams in the United States and Canada. It is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as the Division II league in the American league system, under Major League Soccer (MLS) and above USL Pro. Its headquarters are in Miami, Florida.

The league is named for, but not affiliated with, the original North American Soccer League. The modern NASL was founded in 2009, and began play in 2011 following a 2010 season that saw NASL and USL teams play in a combined temporary Division II league. The number of franchises has remained at eight, with some teams coming and going, but the league plans to expand in 2014 and 2015.

The NASL uses a split-season schedule running from April to early November, with a four-week break in July. The spring and fall champions face each other in the Soccer Bowl at the end of the season. There is no promotion and relegation with other leagues.

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. Aaron Davidson 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.

NASL has elected not to invest money into obtaining TV contracts, and instead streams its games online free of charge on the nasl.com website.

Players generally earn in the range of $15,000 to $30,000 per season, according to IM Soccer News. NASL does not have a salary cap. NASL limits active rosters to 30 players and limits teams to 7 foreign players.

NASL teams have augmented their revenues by signing sponsorship deals. For example, the NY Cosmos landed Emirates Airline 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 and other Central American leagues, the schedule consists 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. The Spring runs from early April until July 4, and following a one-month break, the Fall season runs from early August until early November. During the 2013 season, clubs played a 12-match Spring and 14-match Fall season. Due to the 2014 World Cup, however, NASL reportedly intends to play the vast majority of its schedule during the Fall to respect the international competition. The official schedule Spring schedule for 2014 was released in December 2013 and features a nine-game, single round-robin format. The Fall schedule will be released at a later date.

The split-season model has several intended benefits for NASL. With only one playoff match for the entire season, a club's regular season performance becomes paramount. Secondly, 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. Lastly, 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.

Season	Spring Championship	Fall Championship	Soccer Bowl	Woosnam Cup
2011	not instituted until 2013 season		NSC Minnesota Stars	Carolina RailHawks
2012			Tampa Bay Rowdies	San Antonio Scorpions
2013	Atlanta Silverbacks	New York Cosmos	New York Cosmos	Carolina RailHawks

Similar to other American sports leagues (and unlike many European soccer leagues), NASL does not see 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-PRO. 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.

The champions of the Spring and Fall seasons meet in a one-game playoff called the Soccer Bowl at the home of the Spring champion after the conclusion of the NASL schedule. In the event that both halves of the season are won by the same club, the second place team during the Fall will qualify for the Soccer Bowl. The name was chosen to honor the heritage of the original NASL, which also played a championship match under the same moniker.

The Woosnam Cup is a newly created cup to be awarded by NASL supporters to the team with the highest season points total in order to recognize excellent play on the field throughout the entire year. It replaces the regular season champion trophy that was awarded in 2011 and 2012 before the league adopted the split season format.

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 2008-2009 Champions League, when the Puerto Rico Islanders reached the semifinals 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.

NASL's U.S. based teams also play in the U.S. Open Cup. 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.

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.

History

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 franchises to meet the new Division 2 standards set out by U.S. Soccer. The NASL submitted its formal application for Division 2 sanctioning to U.S. Soccer on November 11, 2010. NASL was provisionally approved by U.S. Soccer on November 21, 2010.

The provisional sanctioning was 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. On February 12, 2011 U.S. Soccer again provisionally sanctioned NASL to operate a Division II men's professional soccer league for the 2011 season.

David Downs became NASL 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 franchises. The first official match of the first official NASL season began April 9, 2011, with expansion side FC Edmonton notching an away win over the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, 2-1.

On June 20, 2011, NASL officially announced that an expansion franchise had been granted to Ottawa Fury FC. The team will begin play in 2014, pending the refurbishment of TD Place Stadium. The stadium issue is related to the city's proposed return to the CFL, meaning that Ottawa could have two teams beginning play in the same year.

In February 2012, Commissioner David Downs signed a two-year contract extension to remain as NASL Commissioner, although with an option to leave at the end of the 2012 season.

The 2012 season saw strong fan support for the newcomer San Antonio Scorpions. San Antonio led the league in attendance, averaging 9,178 fans, and selling over 3,000 season tickets, causing San Antonio to consider accelerating their plans to build a new stadium.

On July 12, 2012 the NASL announced that the New York Cosmos would be joining the league in the 2013 season. The original New York Cosmos were the most visible team in the original NASL, and played their games in four stadiums, most prominently Giants Stadium. The Cosmos will play home games at Hofstra University's James M. Shuart Stadium, where the original Cosmos played during the 1972 and 1973 seasons.

On October 4, 2012, Commissioner David Downs announced that he would be resigning after the end of the 2012 season, citing a desire to return to his home in New York. On November 27, 2012, NASL announced that Bill Peterson would be the new NASL Commissioner. Peterson was formerly the Senior VP of AEG Sports and Managing Director of the Home Depot Center from 2000-2006, a position where he oversaw the management of numerous MLS teams and the development of soccer-specific stadiums.

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 travelled to London to play lower division English teams.

Teams

Founding members and expansion

Founding members

Edmonton

Eleven

Deltas

Silverbacks

California United

San Diego

N. Carolina

Strikers

Minnesota

Impact

Islanders

Rowdies

Scorpions

Fury

Rayo OKC

Oklahoma City

Armada

Miami

Cosmos

Puerto Rico FC

Virginia

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Locations of NASL clubs.
Founding members; Expansion clubs;
Abandoned expansion clubs

In late 2010 announced its formal bid to the USSF for Division 2 sanctioning with the required minimum eight teams. With provisional approval for the league to begin play 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 (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 scheduled to join NASL did not ultimately end up playing 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 needed restructuring. The Rochester Rhinos of the USL First Division joined NASL on November 30, 2009, but as of October 25, 2010, the Rochester Rhinos had decided to join the new USL Pro League for 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.

Expansion

The league continued with eight teams in 2012, losing one team and adding one team. The Montreal Impact joined Major League Soccer. The San Antonio Scorpions FC joined NASL as an expansion side. The team is mostly owned by former real estate developer Gordon Hartman and plays at the South Texas Area Regional Soccer Complex (STAR Soccer Complex) in north central San Antonio.

As of 2012, Traffic Sports USA owned the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, and were part owners of the Carolina RailHawks and Atlanta Silverbacks, although both Traffic Sports and NASL were interested in finding other owners for Carolina and Atlanta to eliminate the multiple ownerships.

NASL played the spring 2013 season with seven teams, with one team on hiatus. NASL announced in December 2012 that the Puerto Rico Islanders would not play in the 2013 spring season. The Islanders were undergoing a reorganization, and with a change in government, there was uncertainty as to whether and how much of a government subsidy the Islanders would receive. 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.

Current clubs Former clubs On Hiatus Future clubs

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 slight 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.

Future planned expansion

The NASL plans to add three teams for the 2014 season: the Ottawa Fury FC, the Virginia Cavalry FC of Ashburn, Virginia, and Indy Eleven of Indianapolis. The Ottawa Fury will move over from the USL Premier Development League following the refurbishment of TD Place Stadium. The Virginia Cavalry plan to play in the new Edelman Financial Field. The Indy Eleven are in talks to play at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis until they complete their own stadium. On July 25, 2013, the NASL awarded expansion franchises to Jacksonville NASL team and Oklahoma City NASL team for the 2015 season.

In addition, the NASL has indicated its vision is to grow to 18 to 20 teams by 2018. They hope 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.

Team names

For more information on NASL team names, see the individual team entries.

As part of the leagues strategy to appeal to the history of the original NASL, several of the club names have gone with names that originated with earlier professional soccer clubs, such as the 1970s-era Tampa Bay Rowdies, Fort Lauderdale Strikers and most recently with the rebirth of the New York Cosmos. Other locations such as Edmonton, San Antonio, Atlanta, Minnesota and Jacksonville, though not using heritage names, had vary levels of success in the original NASL. The strategy is similar to that employed by MLS with the Seattle Sounders FC, San Jose Earthquakes, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps.

Minnesota United FC joined the NASL originally as the NSC Minnesota Stars after the collapse of the Minnesota Thunder following the 2010 season. For 2012, the team was rebranded the Minnesota Stars FC and subsequently rebranded again for 2013 as Minnesota United FC once Bill McGuire acquired the club.

Rivalry Cups

NASL teams also participate in some 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 Fort Lauderdale-Tampa Bay Rivalry was revived with the creation of the Coastal Cup with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. To date, the Rowdies have claimed all four Coastal Cups

Derby Name	Most Wins	Titles	Other Club(s)	Titles	Recent winner
Coastal Cup	Tampa Bay Rowdies	4	Fort Lauderdale Strikers	0	Tampa Bay Rowdies
Flyover Cup	Minnesota United FC	2	FC Edmonton	1	Minnesota United FC

Organization

Ownership

See also: North American Soccer League owners

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 have a lead shareholder that holds at least 35% ownership in the club and is worth at least $20M.

The league now has 12 ownership groups for its 13 clubs. At one time Traffic owned three clubs and indirectly owned the largest stake in a fourth until Minnesota was divested. With the recent divestiture of Atlanta, Traffic only holds interests in Fort Lauderdale and Carolina.

Sponsorship

Sponsorships and kit producers

Team	Kit	Sponsor	Annual Value	Year Expires
Atlanta Silverbacks	Reto
Carolina Railhawks	Adidas	BCBS of NC	Undisclosed	Undisclosed
FC Edmonton	Adidas	United Way	Undisclosed	Undisclosed
Fort Lauderdale Strikers	Joma
Indy Eleven	Diadora	Honda	$1M	2016
Minnesota United FC	Admiral
New York Cosmos	Nike	Emirates	$1M	2015
Ottawa Fury FC	Admiral
San Antonio Scorpions	Nike	Toyota	Undisclosed	Undisclosed
Tampa Bay Rowdies	Admiral	Mainsail Suites	Undisclosed	Undisclosed

The league currently does not have any national sponsorship arrangements beyond using a specially designed soccer ball produced by Voit. The design incorporates blue panels with a star designed inspired in the NASL logo, which will be featured prominently over the brand’s logo in the center. The deal replaces an arrangement the league had with Joma since 2011.

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.

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 coverage

Television coverage

Team	TV Partner(s)	Comments
Atlanta Silverbacks
Carolina Railhawks	WRAL-TV	select home games
FC Edmonton	Sportsnet 360	select home games
Fort Lauderdale Strikers
Indy Eleven	WNDY-TV	All home games, select away games
Minnesota United FC	Fox Sports North, KSTC-TV	select home games
New York Cosmos	ONE World Sports, SNY	All home games
Ottawa Fury FC
San Antonio Scorpions	KSAT-TV	All home games
Tampa Bay Rowdies

All league games are broadcast online on the NASL official website through uStream. To date, no national television contract has been signed, though each team is responsible for broadcasting in their local markets. The NASL plans to introduce changes to its web initiative in early January. For the 2013 Soccer Bowl, ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes provided live nationwide coverage. The coverage was available for approximately 85 million households.

In terms of coverage in local markets, the quality of production and availability of broadcasts widely vary. The Cosmos, through ONE World Sports use 9 HD cameras for all their home games whereas other teams are do not currently have local broadcast deals. Under the current structure, the home club is responsible for producing the television broadcasts so the quality of broadcasts can vary dramatically from team to team. For 2014, Indy became the first team to announce they would broadcast select road games through their local television partner.

The return of the Cosmos has helped draw mainstream media interest including 109 media credentials being issues for Soccer Bowl 2013.

Attendance

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

Season	Regular Season Average (Excludes Playoffs)
	ATL	CAR	EDM	FTL	MN	MTL	NY	PR	SA	TB	League avg.	Ref
2011	2,866	3,353	1,817	3,769	1,676	11,507	-	2,161	-	3,010	3,770
2012	4,505	3,883	1,525	3,615	2,796	-	-	1,864	9,176	3,116	3,806
Spring 2013	5,042	4,707	2,059	4,314	5,338	-	-	-	7,074	4,037	4,653
Fall 2013	4,364	4,709	2,761	4,223	3,680	-	6,849	-	6,820	4,050	4,676
2013	4,677	4,708	2,437	4,265	4,445	-	6,849	-	6,937	4,044	4,670
Bold denotes clubs' highest full year attendance and italics denotes clubs' highest split season attendance

Records and awards

See also: North American Soccer League records and statistics

NASL records

NASL club records only include performance while team competed in the NASL.

Team	Playoffs		Regular Season	Domestic (USOC, ACC, CFUCC)		Total Honors	Championships
	Winner	Runner-up / Other Split Season Champion	Woosnam Cup Winner	Winner	USOC - Top NASL club
Carolina RailHawks	-	-	2	-	2	4	2
Minnesota United FC	1	1	-	–	1	3	1
San Antonio Scorpions	-	-	1	-	1	2	1
Tampa Bay Rowdies	1	-	-	–	-	1	1
New York Cosmos	1	-	-	-	-	1	1
Puerto Rico Islanders	-	-	-	1	N/A	1	1
Atlanta Silverbacks	-	1	-	-	-	1	1
Fort Lauderdale Strikers	-	1	-	–	-	1	0

Individual records

Goals
Regular Season only

Rank	Player	G
1	Pablo Campos	45
2	Brian Shriver	26
3	Etienne Barbara	23
4	Nick Zimmerman	20
5	Mike Ambersley	19
6	Matt Horth	18
	Simone Bracalello	18
	Shaun Saiko	18
9	Nicholas Addlery	17
10	Hans Denissen	16
	Luke Mulholland	16

Assists
Regular Season only

Rank	Player	A
1	Mike Ambersley	17
2	Shaun Saiko	14
	Luke Mulholland	14
4	Pablo Campos	12
	Etienne Barbara	12
6	Danny Barrera	11
7	David Foley	9
	Ciaran O'Brien	9
9	Seven players tied	8

Minutes Played
Regular Season only

Rank	Player	MP
1	Pablo Campos	5,826
2	Frank Sanfilippo	5,760
3	Kupono Low	5,706
4	Takuya Yamada	5,219
5	Martyn Lancaster	5,204
6	Paul Hamilton	5,181
7	Neil Hlavaty	5,180
8	Justin Davis	5,177
9	Mike Ambersley	5,167
10	Aaron Pitchkolan	4,998

Bold denotes players still playing in the NASL.
Statistics as of December 2013

Awards

• NASL Player of the Month
• NASL Best XI
• NASL Golden Ball Award
• NASL Golden Boot Award
• NASL Golden Glove Award
• NASL Coach of the Year Award
• NASL Fair Play Award
• NASL Goal of the Year Award

Staff

• Bill Peterson - Commissioner
• Brian Melekian - Chief Operating Officer
• Rishi Sehgal - Director of Business Development & Legal Affairs
• Michael Preston - Director of Public Relations
• Steven Torres - Public Relations Coordinator

See also

• Major League Soccer
• USL Pro
• United Soccer Leagues
• National Premier Soccer League

External links

• Official website