Oakland Stompers
| Full name | Oakland Stompers | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Stompers | ||
| Founded | 1978 | ||
| Dissolved | 1978 | ||
| Ground | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | ||
| Capacity | 50,000 | ||
| Chairman | Milan Mandarić | ||
| League | NASL | ||
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The Oakland Stompers were a soccer team in the North American Soccer League (NASL) which played the 1978 season in the NASL. The Stompers played in the Western Division of the American Conference and finished the year with a 12-18 record, in third place and out of playoff contention.
Team history
At the end of the 1977 NASL season, Silicon Valley businessman (and former owner of the San Jose Earthquakes) Milan Mandarić bought the Connecticut Bicentennials and relocated them to Oakland. The club, renamed the Stompers, moved into Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, previously home of the NASL's Oakland Clippers in 1967-68.
The club drew 32,104 in their home opener against cross-bay rival San Jose in April (at the time, the largest crowd ever to see a pro league soccer match in California), but could only break 20,000 once more, against the Cosmos in July. On the field, with ex-Cosmos goalie Shep Messing, the Stompers won four of their first five matches, and held a 8-5 record in early June, good enough for second place in the ASC Western Division. As late as June 28, Oakland still had a winning record at 10-9; they collapsed after that, losing nine of their last eleven matches (and being outscored 28-8). The Stompers, whose 34 goals on the season tied for dead last in the NASL, finished at 12-18 and out of the playoffs.
Most of their crowds were in the 8,000-to-10,000 range, and they averaged only 11,929 on the season. (The Coliseum was a lonely place in the summer of '78: the Stompers' co-tenants, baseball's Oakland Athletics, attracted just 7,218 fans per home date.) The crowds weren't that bad by NASL standards; they were good enough for ninth-best in the 24-team league (albeit less than the league average of 13,084), but they were insufficient to pay the bills. So, at the end of the 1978 season, the team on the move again, this time to Edmonton, Alberta where they was renamed the Edmonton Drillers.
Year-by-year
| Year | League | W | L | T | Pts | Regular Season | Playoffs | Avg. Attend. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | NASL | 12 | 18 | — | 103 | 3rd, American Conference, Western Division | Did Not Qualify | 11,929 |
Honors
U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame
- 1997: Johnny Moore
Canada Soccer Hall of Fame
- 2008: Bruce Twamley
Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame
- 2019: Shep Messing[1]
Roster
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Coaches
References
- ^ "Hall of Famers". indoorsoccerhall.com. September 1, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
- ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=19771108&id=75syAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6egFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1759,4385750&hl=en
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-05. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links
 | This article about a soccer club from California is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- Oakland Stompers
- Defunct soccer clubs in California
- North American Soccer League (1968–1984) teams
- Sports teams in Oakland, California
- 1978 establishments in California
- 1978 disestablishments in California
- Soccer clubs in California
- 1978 North American Soccer League season
- Association football clubs disestablished in 1978
- Association football clubs established in 1978
- Western United States soccer club stubs
- California sports team stubs