American Professional Soccer League

History

In 1989, a match was held between the winners of the American Soccer League and the winners of the Western Soccer League to declare a national soccer champion. On February 22, 1990, the two leagues merged as the American Professional Soccer League. To reduce travel expenses, the inaugural season would be played under two separate leagues akin to Major League Baseball: the ASL became the American Soccer Conference and featured teams from the East Coast, while the WSL became the Western Soccer Conference and featured teams from the West Coast. Teams only played other teams from within the same conference and it was not until the title decider, between Maryland Bays and San Francisco Bay Blackhawks that teams from the two different conferences actually met in a competitive game.

Throughout its existence, the league would struggle financially and its roster of teams quickly dropped from 22 in 1990 to just 5 in 1992. However, in 1993 the league expanded when following the demise of the Canadian Soccer League, three former CSL clubs – Vancouver 86ers, Montreal Impact and Toronto Blizzard – joined the APSL.

As part of the conditions for been awarded the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the United States Soccer Federation had agreed to launch a new Division I professional league. In December 1993, together with League One America and Major League Soccer, the APSL was one of three proposals that was put before the USSF national board of directors. At the time the APSL was the only candidate who were currently operating a soccer league. It featured several established clubs and its roster of players included several members of the United States men's national soccer team. Despite this they lost out to MLS.

Despite rebranding itself as the A-League in 1995, it faced increasing competition on two fronts. The USISL had initially confined itself to organizing regional leagues but by 1995, it began organizing on a national level. By 1996, MLS was also up and running and a number of top A-League players left to join it. In 1996 the A-League and the USISL Select League, both operating as USSF Division II leagues, agreed to merge. Six of the seven remaining A-League teams, the Montreal Impact, Colorado Foxes, Seattle Sounders, Rochester Raging Rhinos, Vancouver 86ers, and Atlanta Ruckus, and two planned A-League expansion teams, the Toronto Lynx and Hershey Wildcats, effectively joined the USISL Select League in 1997. The combined league was operated by USISL but retained the A-League name.

Complete team list

• Albany Capitals (1990–91) (New York)
• Arizona Condors (1990) (Arizona)
• Atlanta Ruckus (1995–96) (Georgia)
• Boston Bolts (1990) (Massachusetts)
• California Emperors (1990) (California)
• Colorado Foxes (1990–96) (Colorado)
• Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1990–94) (Florida)
• Los Angeles Heat (1990) (California)
• Los Angeles Salsa (1993–94) (California)
• Maryland Bays (1990–91) (Maryland)
• Miami Freedom (1990–92) (Florida)
• Montreal Impact (1993–96) (Quebec)
• New Jersey Eagles (1990) (New Jersey)
• New Mexico Chiles (1990) (New Mexico)
• New York Centaurs (1995) (New York)
• New York Fever (1996) (New York)
• Orlando Lions (1990) (Florida)
• Penn-Jersey Spirit (1990–91) (Pennsylvania)
• Portland Timbers (1990) (Oregon)
• Real Santa Barbara (1990) (California)
• Rochester Raging Rhinos (1996) (New York)
• Salt Lake Sting (1990–91) (Utah)
• San Diego Nomads (1990) (California)
• San Francisco Bay Blackhawks (1990–92) (California)
• Seattle Sounders (1994–96) (Washington)
• Seattle Storm (1990) (Washington)
• Tampa Bay Rowdies (1990–93) (Florida)
• Toronto Blizzard (1993) (Ontario)
• Toronto Rockets (1994) (Ontario)
• Vancouver 86ers (1993–96) (British Columbia)
• Washington Diplomats (1990) (Washington, D.C.)
• Washington Stars (1990) (Washington, D.C.)

Timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1200 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1990 till:1997 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:100 left:20 bottom:20 top:5 # to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"

Colors = id:line value:pink id:Full value:rgb(0.85,0.85,0.95) legend:League_member

PlotData=

width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:Full from:1990 till:1991 text:13 teams bar:2 color:Full from:1990 till:1992 text:Albany Capitals bar:3 color:Full from:1990 till:end text:Colorado Foxes bar:4 color:Full from:1990 till:1995 text:Fort Lauderdale Strikers bar:5 color:Full from:1990 till:1992 text:Maryland Bays bar:6 color:Full from:1990 till:1993 text:Miami Freedom bar:7 color:Full from:1990 till:1992 text:Penn-Jersey Spirit bar:8 color:Full from:1990 till:1992 text:Salt Lake Sting bar:9 color:Full from:1990 till:1993 text:San Francisco Bay Blackhawks bar:10 color:Full from:1990 till:1994 text:Tampa Bay Rowdies bar:11 color:Full from:1993 till:1995 text:Los Angeles Salsa bar:12 color:Full from:1993 till:1997 text:Montreal Impact bar:13 color:Full from:1993 till:1994 text:Toronto Blizzard bar:13 color:Full from:1994 till:1995 text:Toronto Rockets bar:14 color:Full from:1993 till:1997 text:Vancouver 86ers bar:15 color:Full from:1994 till:1997 text:Seattle Sounders bar:16 color:Full from:1995 till:1996 text:New York Centaurs bar:16 color:Full from:1996 till:1997 text:New York Fever bar:17 color:Full from:1995 till:1997 text:Atlanta Ruckus bar:18 color:Full from:1996 till:1997 text:Rochester Raging Rhinos

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1990 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:

Champions

By year

By club

League average attendance

• Regular season/playoffs
• 1996: 4,946/4,781
• 1995: 3,347/5,280
• 1994: 3,478/6,082
• 1993: 2,271/2,903
• 1992: 2,104/1,502
• 1991: 1,827/3,106
• 1990: 1,082/2,039

References

References

1. "The Year in American Soccer – 1995".
2. "The Year in American Soccer – 1990".
3. "The Year in American Soccer – 1993".
4. "The Year in American Soccer – 1989".
5. Richardson, Kenneth. (February 23, 1990). "Seattle part of new soccer merger". [[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]].
6. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DA1038F931A1575AC0A966958260 nytimes.com]
7. Wangerin, David. (2008). "Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game". Temple University Press.
8. "The Year in American Soccer – 1995".
9. "The Year in American Soccer – 1996".