Seventh Floor - The Soccer Dept.

New Soccer Bowl gear is here!

The Soccer Bowl was the championship game of the NASL from 1975 to 1983, created by Commissioner Phil Woosnam who was trying to build a neutral-site championship event in the mold of the NFL's Super Bowl. Unlike the Super Bowl, the game was not denoted by Roman numerals. Instead, the last two digits of the year would be used to denote which game it was. As the NASL hit financial problems in 1984 – the league's final year – saw it abandon the neutral-site format for a best-of-three series played at each team's home field. Prior to 1975, the NASL had used various championship formats. While there had been single-game finals since 1972, the 1968 NASL season and 1970 NASL season had been decided by a two-game aggregate goals series. Similar to 1984, the 1971 NASL season was decided by a best-of-three championship series. There were no playoffs for the 1969 NASL season, as the regular-season champion was declared the league winner.

The Major Indoor Soccer League...

 was the first attempt to create an indoor professional soccer league in the United States. For many years it was also the most successful, with some teams averaging close to 10,000 fans a season.  However, the league engaged in a costly bidding war with the North American Soccer League, which ultimately helped lead to the NASL's demise, and weakened the MISL. Later, it engaged in a fraternal bidding war with the AISA (Later the NPSL) for indoor soccer fans, which brought both of the leagues to the brink of bankruptcy. Finally, the league folded with a few of the remaining teams joining the NPSL.