USISL commissioner Francisco Marcos sees a bright future for his league as a three-tiered minor league system to Major League Soccer.
The 1995 USISL season was, unquestionably, the league’s best ever, says commissioner Francisco Marcos.
“We achieved more on the field than we had in any previous season, maybe more than all [previous seasons] combined,” he said. “The USISL, like all professional soccer in this country, is going through an incredibly turbulent flight. But turbulence is only felt by planes that are flying. And we are flying. Eventually, I expect us to level off, then have a smooth landing.
“As I often say, we are going to be the best soccer in North America off-Broadway. We need to be aggressive, yet very careful. We can’t lose sight, perspective of what we are.
“We are trying very hard to find our true niche in the marketplace. We think we know what it is, but we still have to carve it out.”
Next year, that niche will include a three-tier league, as there will be a new Select Division in addition to the Pro and Premier divisions.
The Select Division will feature the best 18-24 teams in the league. The new division may include such teams as Minnesota, Milwaukee, Long Island, El Paso, Los Angeles, Chicago, Birmingham and Hawaii.
“We feel the Select Division is an inevitable next step,” Marcos said. “Finding three levels of competition is, for us, paramount because I think that’s what we have now.
“The teams [in the Select Division] will play dog-eat-dog games, like the kind that were played throughout most of this year’s Sizzlin’ Nine Championship, each and every week.”
The USISL will have a promotion and relegation plan in place by November for all three levels.
No agreement on merger
The USISL would like to move up to U.S. Soccer’s Division II level. The A-League, with four American and two Canadian teams, is a Division II league at the moment. Earlier this summer, Marcos presented a merger proposal to A-League owners. A-League commissioner Richard Groff has said A-League owners are opposed to the plan because they don’t want to join a team owned by one person, Marcos, though several A-League teams are known to be weighing their options for 1996.
“I honestly don’t know where it’s at right now,” Marcos said. “The ball is in their court.”
The big battle ground may be in Canada. The USISL was kept out of Canada this season — the Montreal Ramblers ended up in New Hampshire, where they proved to be a great success — but Marcos hopes to expand into both eastern and western Canada. “We’ve had talks with groups in several cities,” he said, “such as Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary, among others.”
The USISL did show it could compete at the A-League level when all four A-League teams were knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup by USISL teams.
“The A-League was the litmus test for us on the field,” Marcos said, “and I think we passed with flying colors.”
The Richmond Kickers, the Premier League champions, beat the El Paso Patriots in the final.
“That was an incredible high, especially with the live national TV audience,” Marcos said of the game that was broadcast on Prime Network. “That established our credibility on the field.”
Only moderate expansion
Despite the addition of a new division, don’t look for many more new teams in 1996. The USISL struggled with expansion this season. The new team in Puerto Rico ended up in court over a dispute with Puerto Rican soccer authorities and had to be dropped from the standings. Several owners publicly relied their precarious financial situations, and the unwieldy nature of the league, with 84 teams that finished the Pro and Premier League seasons, caused problems with its sponsor Nike.
“The days of excessive growth are over,” Marcos says. “I am not actively looking for more teams; rather, they are looking for us.”
Marcos predicted the ’96 season will feature 85-90 teams.
“We have to go from a mile wide and an inch thin to something less long and thicker,” Marcos adds. “We have to get meaner, leaner.”
USISL will lose stars
The USISL will also change on the field with the arrival of Major League Soccer. Many of the USISL’s top players have been waiting for a shot at MLS, and their departure will leave many rosters depleted.
“I hope they make it, because they will be one of the reasons players will want to be with us,” Marcos said, adding that the USISL will become similar to baseball’s minor leagues.
“We will become the place where unproven talent can prove itself. And, sure, when the MLS starts, we’ll lose some of the ‘big-name’ stars, but, there are as many stars, perhaps more, ready to replace them … it’s just a matter of finding those future stars.”
by Soccer America correspondent Ross Forman