Long Live the MISL!

• Baltimore Sun, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 2:30 PM

Last week, Major Indoor Soccer League's commissioner Steve Ryan resigned after eight years in office. This week the league suspended operations. But officials at the Baltimore Blast, the reigning champion, insist the move is merely procedural, and that next winter will once again witness the glory that is professional indoor U.S. soccer.
 
"We're going to play next year with the number of teams and number of games to be determined," said Blast owner Ed Hale. "This is to streamline the league. We just closed the door on the corporation and we're opening another door. This is not the end." The team's General Manager Kevin Healey chimed in with, "We don't think that this is doomsday at all." Or, expressed in the standard sports business-speak of John Hantz, owner-operator of the Detroit Ignition: "We're considering structural changes that will bring us greater efficiencies, while also allowing long term growth and expansion of the league."
 
Officials from defunct MISL franchises had enjoyed equal voting rights on league policy with the teams currently operating. Disbanding the league has apparently eliminated that problematic rule. Meanwhile, all the league's players are now out of contract, but the Blast is confident that most of its roster will gladly return once the MISL resumes in its next incarnation.

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