2 More Indoor Soccer Teams Fold, Reducing League’s Total to 7

The Major Indoor Soccer League was on the verge of collapse Friday after the Tacoma Stars and the Chicago Sting announced that they were folding.

Word of Tacoma’s demise, which came Friday morning, surprised league officials and prompted San Diego businessman Ron Fowler, managing general partner of the San Diego Sockers last season, to withdraw his offer to purchase the team in federal bankruptcy court.

Fowler has said he would not go forward if the MISL could not field at least eight teams for next season. With Tacoma and Chicago out--Chicago’s departure was expected--the 10-year-old league has seven teams, including the Sockers.

The Los Angeles Lazers, as of Friday afternoon, had not announced plans to fold, but a source close to the team said that decision could be forthcoming.

Said Lazer President Jim Buss: “We have not folded. On Monday, the owners will get together (in a conference call), and the decision will be made then.”

The Lazers have played six seasons in the MISL, finishing with the worst record three times. Last season the team, under the guidance of first-year Coach Keith Tozer, made it to the playoffs for the first time in three years but was swept in the first round by the Kansas City Comets.

The team struggled at the gate, drawing a league-low average of 5,385. The Lazers declined to reveal financial losses over the six seasons, but after the 1985-86 season, team owner Jerry Buss said the team was losing an estimated $500,000 per season.

Neither Jerry Buss nor Tozer could be reached for comment.

In San Diego Friday afternoon, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Peter W. Bowie issued a restraining order preventing the league from terminating the Sockers for as long as the MISL remains alive.

“The restraining order just allows the ball to be kept in play while the league decides what it is going to do,” Fowler said. “That’s it. At this stage, based on all of the information I have, I see no basis whatsoever to think that this league will have eight teams next season.”

Without eight teams, Fowler said, there is no possibility he will resurrect his offer. The Lazers’ Jim Buss has also said he did not plan to go forward unless the MISL fields at least eight teams.

“When Tacoma announced that it was folding, it caught everybody by surprise,” said Bill Kentling, MISL commissioner. “But after everybody has had a couple of days to think about this situation, I’m hoping we can come back Monday with some creative ideas as to how we can keep this thing going.”

For the Sockers to do so, Fowler said, a lot of improbable things would have to take place early next week.

For one, either Tacoma or Chicago would have to decide to try and go forward. But both indicated Friday that the decisions to fold were final.

“For another thing,” Fowler said, “there were two other teams besides Los Angeles who said they were going back to their partners to discuss their future in the league because they had committed only on the assumption that there were going to be eight teams.”

The Sockers asked if there was a possibility of an expansion team joining the league in time for next season and were told it was unlikely.

“The practical realistic answer was that all expansion teams are a year away,” said Ron Cady, the Sockers’ president. “The only reality could be if Tacoma or Chicago could reconsider their position. And that was asked two different times by Ron (Fowler) and myself (during Friday’s conference call) and both times it was answered, ‘It’s not an if, it’s a final decision.’ ”

Tacoma said it folded because it could not sell enough season tickets or raise enough money to post a $400,000 letter of credit that league teams had to post by Friday. One week ago, the Stars organized a group that was to try to sell 2,000 season tickets by the deadline. The group--”Stars 2,000”--sold 406.

Stars owner John Best said: “The board made its decision due to the fact that we were facing another loss for this coming season and possibly for (the) next season.”

Best said the Tacoma franchise lost $8.9 million in its five years of existence.

Sting owner Lee Stern was trying to find investors or sell his team since the end of the regular season. Nobody stepped forward.

Fowler said: “During the conference call, we indicated to everybody, as we had earlier, that we had made a commitment to go forward with our offers to (the bankruptcy court) if we were assured there would be an eight-team league,” Fowler said. “Based upon our conversations, there were no commitments the league could make to us. We could not even come up with whether there would be a seven- or six-team league. That’s why we officially withdrew our offer.”