Sockers’ End Nears as Two Teams Fold

SAN DIEGO — The Sockers and the Major Indoor Soccer League were on the verge of collapse Friday after the Tacoma Stars and 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 to withdraw his offer to purchase the Sockers in federal bankruptcy court.

Fowler, the team’s managing general partner last season, 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 had been expected), the 10-year-old league has seven teams, including the Sockers.

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. Owners from the six other teams are scheduled to discuss the league’s future in a conference call Monday afternoon.

“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.

“I think all of us, without saying it to one another until today (during a conference call), had a realization that from a marketing standpoint and a competitive standpoint, eight was a critical mass number that we needed to go forward.”

Without eight teams, Fowler said, there is no possibility that he will resurrect his offer. Los Angeles Lazer President Jim Buss has also said he did not plan to go forward unless the MISL fields at least eight teams. Buss will take part in the conference call Monday.

“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 to 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 Socker 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.’ ”

Friday was supposed to be the day Fowler found out whether Bowie had ruled in favor of either of his offers to buy the Sockers. One, for $825,000, included $375,000 in secured loans that would be returned to Fowler’s Liquid Investments Inc. The other was for $500,000 in cash in case Bowie rejected the first offer. With a favorable ruling and Tacoma’s expected commitment for next season, the Sockers and the league would have gone on.

“I frankly thought we were going to end up with eight very committed franchises,” Fowler said. “With the salary cap issue resolved and the ability to do a far better job marketing-wise at the league level and the team level . . . I’m just shocked. Why now? When you know you’re going to have $400,000 in reduced costs (because of the salary cap)? It just doesn’t make sense.”

Before entering court Friday morning, Cady was told of Tacoma’s decision.

“When Ron walked in shaking his head, it was like, ‘You’ve got be kidding,’ ” Fowler said. “We have gone this far from the end of the season to now. If we had any idea this was going to happen, our life could have been a lot easier.”

Charles Christopher, the Sockers’ bankruptcy attorney, told Bowie that the 10 a.m. hearing was not needed. When he learned that a league conference call was set for noon, Bowie moved it back to 1 p.m.

Christopher returned to tell Bowie that Fowler’s offer was being withdrawn and to ask for the restraining order just in case.

“I’m just trying to preserve whatever might be left of this franchise in terms of its MISL membership,” Christopher said.

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 provide 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.

Star 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.

Since the end of the regular season, Sting owner Lee Stern had been trying to find investors or sell his franchise. Nobody stepped forward.

“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.”

Fowler, even though he has nearly given up for all practical purposes, still has some hope.

“This league has been full of nothing but a series of surprises since I took over as managing general partner (in October),” Fowler said. “I thought this (Tacoma folding) was the last real big surprise. But I’ve learned to never say never.”