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Oakland Stompers

American soccer team

Summary

American soccer team

Field	Value
clubname	Oakland Stompers
fullname	Oakland Stompers
nickname	Stompers
founded
dissolved
stadium	Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum
capacity	50,000
chairman	Milan Mandarić
mgrtitle	General Manager
manager	Dick Berg
league	NASL
American	true
pattern_la1	_blueborder
pattern_b1	_bluecollar_2
pattern_ra1	_blueborder
pattern_sh1	_blue_stripes_adidas
pattern_so1	_color_3_stripes_blue
leftarm1	ffffff
body1	ffffff
rightarm1	ffffff
shorts1	ffffff
socks1	ffffff
pattern_la2	_whiteborder
pattern_b2	_whitecollar
pattern_ra2	_whiteborder
pattern_sh2	_adidaswhite
pattern_so2	_3_stripes_white
leftarm2	0000ff
body2	0000ff
rightarm2	0000ff
shorts2	0000ff
socks2	0000ff

The Oakland Stompers were a soccer team based out of Oakland, California that played the 1978 season in the North American Soccer League (NASL). The Stompers played in the Western Division of the American Conference and finished the year with a 12–18 record, in third place and out of playoff contention.

The name is also used by a National Premier Soccer League club, active since 2021.

Team history

At the end of the 1977 NASL season, Silicon Valley businessman (and former owner of the San Jose Earthquakes) Milan Mandarić bought the Connecticut Bicentennials and relocated them to Oakland. The club, renamed the Stompers, hired Mirko Stojanović as head coach and signed a 10-year lease at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, previously home of the NASL's Oakland Clippers in 1967–68. The team signed Shep Messing for $100,000 making him the highest-paid American soccer player at the time.

The club drew 32,104 in their home opener against cross-Bay rivals San Jose Earthquakes on April 2, 1978, with about half of those in attendance being supporters of the visiting team. (At the time, it was the largest crowd ever to see a club soccer match in California.) After eight games and a record of 4-4, the team fired Stojanović and replaced him on an interim basis with Jack Hyde. Hyde was in turn replaced by Ken Bracewell who had previously coached the Denver Dynamos. In July, the team was averaging 12,200 fan in attendance, but ended the season in third place and with a slight dip in attendance, 11,929 fans at seasons end. (The Coliseum was a lonely place in the summer of '78: the Stompers' co-tenants, baseball's Oakland Athletics, attracted just 7,218 fans per home date.)

Following the season, the team moved to Edmonton, Alberta where they were renamed the Edmonton Drillers.

Year-by-year

Year	League	W	L	Pts	Regular season	Playoffs	Avg. Attend.	Ref
1978	NASL	12	18	103	3rd, American Conference, Western Division	Did not qualify	11,929

Honors

U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame

1997: Johnny Moore

Canada Soccer Hall of Fame

2008: Bruce Twamley

Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame

2019: Shep Messing

Coaches

Yugoslavia Mirko Stojanović
England Ken Bracewell

References

(May 17, 1978). "Messing faces former mates". St. Petersburg Times.
(March 16, 2015). "Milan Mandaric: Football's Mr Fixit says farewell". [[BBC Sport]].
(November 8, 1977). "Stojanovic Will Coach Stompers". Gettysburg Times.
"The Forgotten Legacy of Oakland's 'Outlaw' Soccer Team". Medium.
(April 4, 1978). "Messing Has Summer In the Right Place(s)". Observer-Reporter.
(March 20, 1978). "People". Time Inc..
(July 21, 1978). "Messing faces former mates". Lewiston Morning Tribune.
(June 14, 1978). "Cosmos rally past Kicks 4-2". St. Petersburg Times.
(July 8, 1978). "Soccer attendance up, but figures misleading". Lewiston Morning Tribune.
"North American Soccer League".
(March 9, 1979). "Stompers turn into Drillers". Lewiston Morning Tribune.
(May 21, 1997). "Hall of Fame selects 6". Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
(September 1, 2020). "Hall of Famers".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

oakland-stompers defunct-soccer-clubs-in-california north-american-soccer-league-(1968–1984)-teams sports-clubs-and-teams-in-oakland,-california 1978-establishments-in-california 1978-disestablishments-in-california soccer-clubs-in-california 1978-north-american-soccer-league-season association-football-clubs-disestablished-in-1978 association-football-clubs-established-in-1978

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