1983–84 Major Indoor Soccer League season

The 1983–84 Major Indoor Soccer League season was the sixth in league history and ended with the Baltimore Blast winning their first MISL championship. The Blast would beat the St. Louis Steamers in the championship series, the third time in five seasons the Steamers would lose in the MISL championship round. This would be the first time the MISL finals would be a best-of-seven series, part of the league's expanded playoff format.

With the North American Soccer League restarting their indoor league in the fall of 1983, the defending champion San Diego Sockers, Chicago Sting and Golden Bay Earthquakes would not rejoin the MISL for the upcoming season. To replace the teams, the Tacoma Stars (actually the reactivated Denver Avalanche) began play this season.

While there were some franchises who would begin a run of respectability at the box office, the Cleveland Force chief among them, others would see the end of their run. The New York Arrows, Buffalo Stallions and Phoenix Pride would all go out of business at the end of the season. Despite winning the first four MISL titles, the Arrows never gained a foothold in the New York market. Changing the name of the Phoenix franchise (GM Ted Podleski hated the Inferno name, and wanted a name more in tune with his Christian beliefs) would not bring about an improved record and new owner Bruce Merrill was ready to fold after losing $2 million in less than a year.[1] The Stallions, in particular, would be caught trying to move out of their Buffalo Memorial Auditorium offices without paying back rent, similar to what had happened with the NFL's Baltimore Colts a few months earlier.[2]

Not all news was bad. The Force and Blast routinely drew strong crowds, and the new franchise in Tacoma nearly made the playoffs. The MISL drew 2.5 million to their games, and another 300,000 attended the playoff games. One game was televised on CBS (Game 3 of the championship series on June 2), as well.

After the season, the Memphis Americans would move to Las Vegas.[3]

Teams

Team City/Area Arena
Baltimore Blast Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore Arena
Buffalo Stallions Buffalo, New York Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
Cleveland Force Cleveland, Ohio Richfield Coliseum
Kansas City Comets Kansas City, Missouri Kemper Arena
Los Angeles Lazers Inglewood, California The Forum
Memphis Americans Memphis, Tennessee Mid-South Coliseum
New York Arrows Uniondale, New York Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Phoenix Pride Phoenix, Arizona Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Pittsburgh Spirit Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Civic Arena (Pittsburgh)
St. Louis Steamers St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis Arena
Tacoma Stars Tacoma, Washington Tacoma Dome
Wichita Wings Wichita, Kansas Kansas Coliseum

Regular season schedule

The 1983–84 regular season schedule ran from November 4, 1983, to April 21, 1984. It would be the first time in MISL history that the length of the schedule stayed the same as the previous year. In this case, each team continued to play 48 games apiece.[4]

Final standings

Playoff teams in bold.

Eastern Division W L Pct. GB GF GA Home[5] Road[5]
Baltimore Blast 3414.708 --28020320-414-10
Pittsburgh Spirit 3216.667224520419-513-11
Cleveland Force 3117.646326922918-613-11
New York Arrows 2028.4171423228012-128-16
Memphis Americans 1830.3751621628414-104-20
Buffalo Stallions 1533.3131922627912-123-21
Western Division W L Pct. GB GF GA Home[5] Road[5]
St. Louis Steamers 2622.542--22020216-810-14
Wichita Wings 2523.521123722817-78-16
Los Angeles Lazers 2424.500222323913-1111-13
Kansas City Comets 2325.479323224615-98-16
Tacoma Stars 2226.458422623214-108-16
Phoenix Pride 1830.375822124912-126-18

Playoffs

Division Semifinals Division Finals Championship Series
         
E1 Baltimore Blast 3
E4 New York Arrows 1
E1 Baltimore Blast 3
E3 Cleveland Force 0
E2 Pittsburgh Spirit 1
E3 Cleveland Force 3
E1 Baltimore Blast 4
W1 St. Louis Steamers 1
W1 St. Louis Steamers 3
W4 Kansas City Comets 2
W1 St. Louis Steamers 3
W2 Wichita Wings 0
W2 Wichita Wings 3
W3 Los Angeles Lazers 1

Quarterfinals

Baltimore vs. New York
Date Away Home Attendance
April 27 New York 5 Baltimore 11 11,220
April 29 New York 9 Baltimore 8 10,606
Mark Liveric scored at :17 of overtime
May 4 Baltimore 4 New York 3 2,353
May 9 Baltimore 14 New York 5 1,779
Baltimore wins series 3-1
Pittsburgh vs. Cleveland
Date Away Home Attendance
April 26 Cleveland 6 Pittsburgh 4 7,002
April 27 Cleveland 1 Pittsburgh 4 11,739
May 3 Pittsburgh 5 Cleveland 6 10,383
Alex Tarnoczi scored at 11:46 of overtime
May 6 Pittsburgh 3 Cleveland 5 18,630
Cleveland wins series 3-1
St. Louis vs. Kansas City
Date Away Home Attendance
April 24 Kansas City 4 St. Louis 6 7,445
April 27 Kansas City 6 St. Louis 7 12,235
May 5 St. Louis 1 Kansas City 2 15,007
May 9 St. Louis 3 Kansas City 5 13,127
May 13 Kansas City 5 St. Louis 6 13,273
St. Louis wins series 3-2
Wichita vs. Los Angeles
Date Away Home Attendance
April 24 Los Angeles 7 Wichita 10 8,782
May 1 Los Angeles 6 Wichita 4 9,586
May 4 Wichita 5 Los Angeles 4 4,522
May 7 Wichita 6 Los Angeles 5 3,392
Wichita wins series 3-1

Semifinals

Baltimore vs. Cleveland
Date Away Home Attendance
May 12 Cleveland 4 Baltimore 5 11,034
May 16 Cleveland 5 Baltimore 6 9,110
May 17 Baltimore 7 Cleveland 2 10,591
Baltimore wins series 3-0
St. Louis vs. Wichita
Date Away Home Attendance
May 16 Wichita 3 St. Louis 4 8,695
May 19 Wichita 6 St. Louis 7 13,112
May 22 St. Louis 4 Wichita 3 9,681
Tony Bellinger scored at 1:55 of overtime
St. Louis wins series 3-0

Championship Series

Baltimore vs. St. Louis
Date Away Home Attendance
May 27 St. Louis 7 Baltimore 3 11,546
May 31 St. Louis 3 Baltimore 5 10,778
June 2 Baltimore 5 St. Louis 2 14,114
June 6 Baltimore 5 St. Louis 4 15,302
Stan Stamenkovic scored at 1:59 of overtime
June 8 St. Louis 3 Baltimore 10 12,007
Baltimore wins series 4-1

Regular Season Player Statistics

[6]

Scoring leaders

GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

Player Team GP G A Pts
Stan Stamenkovic Baltimore Blast 46 34 69 97
Kai Haaskivi Cleveland Force 47 37 51 88
Craig Allen Cleveland Force 44 49 37 86
Mark Liveric New York Arrows 48 58 26 84
Fred Grgurev New York/Memphis 50 42 34 76
Andy Chapman Wichita Wings 46 53 21 74
Poli Garcia Los Angeles Lazers 48 39 33 72
Keith Furphy Cleveland Force 48 39 31 70
Gordon Hill Kansas City Comets 41 46 24 70
Louie Nanchoff Cleveland Force 42 36 33 69

Leading goalkeepers

Note: GP = Games played; Min – Minutes Played; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; W = Wins; L = Losses

Player Team GP Min GA GAA W L
Slobo Ilijevski St. Louis Steamers 40 2336 143 3.67 22 15
Scott Manning Baltimore Blast 28 1552 104 4.02 18 8
Joe Papaleo Pittsburgh Spirit 25 1455 100 4.12 16 8
Mike Mahoney Los Angeles Lazers 42 2390 172 4.32 19 18
Mike Dowler Wichita Wings 46 2724 196 4.32 25 21
Krys Sobieski Cleveland Force 32 1716 125 4.37 19 7
John Baretta Tacoma Stars 30 1741 130 4.48 11 14
Blagoje Tamindzic Phoenix Pride 30 1486 116 4.68 9 14
Enzo DiPede Kansas City Comets 39 2180 174 4.79 18 18
Wieslaw Surlit Buffalo Stallions 35 1736 155 5.36 10 20

Playoff Player Statistics

[7]

Scoring leaders

GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

Player Team GP G A Pts
Stan Stamenkovic Baltimore Blast 12 13 20 33
Dave MacWilliams Baltimore Blast 12 12 14 26
Njego Pesa St. Louis Steamers 13 15 9 24
Pat Ercoli Baltimore Blast 10 16 2 18
Don Ebert St. Louis Steamers 12 9 7 16

Leading goalkeepers

Note: GP = Games played; Min – Minutes Played; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; W = Wins; L = Losses

Player Team GP Min GA GAA W L
Scott Manning Baltimore Blast 9 500 31 3.72 8 0
Chris Vaccaro Cleveland Force 6 325 22 4.06 3 3
Enzo DiPede Kansas City Comets 5 286 22 4.62 2 2
Slobo Illijevski St. Louis Steamers 10 596 48 4.83 6 4
Mike Dowler Wichita Wings 7 398 34 5.13 3 3

All-MISL Teams

First Team   Position   Second Team
Slobo Illijevski, St. Louis G Mike Dowler, Wichita
Sam Bick, St. Louis D Tony Bellinger, St. Louis
Kim Roentved, Wichita D Greg Makowski, Kansas City
Kai Haaskivi, Cleveland M Craig Allen, Cleveland
Art Hughes, Memphis M Greg Makowski, Kansas City
Stan Stamenkovic, Baltimore F Gordon Hill, Kansas City
Andy Chapman, Wichita F Mark Liveric, New York
Honorable Mention   Position  
Scott Manning, Baltimore G
Helmut Dudek, Memphis D
Ray Evans, Tacoma D
Batata, Los Angeles F
Poli Garcia, Los Angeles F

League Awards

Most Valuable Player: Stan Stamenkovic, Baltimore

Scoring Champion: Stan Stamenkovic, Baltimore

Pass Master: Stan Stamenkovic, Baltimore

Defender of the Year: Kim Roentved, Wichita

Rookie of the Year: Kevin Maher, Pittsburgh

Goalkeeper of the Year: Slobo Ilijevski, St. Louis

Coach of the Year: Kenny Cooper, Baltimore

Championship Series Most Valuable Player: Scott Manning, Baltimore

Team Attendance Totals

Club Games Total Average
Kansas City Comets 24 378,864 15,786
St. Louis Steamers 24 335,805 13,992
Cleveland Force 24 328,619 13,692
Baltimore Blast 24 268,534 11,189
Wichita Wings 24 216,824 9,034
Pittsburgh Spirit 24 198,668 8,278
Memphis Americans 24 157,361 6,557
Phoenix Pride 24 142,157 5,923
New York Arrows 24 131,472 5,478
Tacoma Stars 24 127,728 5,322
Buffalo Stallions 24 116,020 4,834
Los Angeles Lazers 24 105,720 4,405
OVERALL 288 2,507,722 8,707

References

  1. "Phoenix Inferno/Phoenix Pride". Fun While It Lasted. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  2. "Buffalo Stallions". Fun While It Lasted. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  3. "Memphis Americans Move to Vegas". Palm Beach Post. April 20, 1984. p. D4. Retrieved 2012-03-10.
  4. 1983-84 MISL Media Guide. 1983. pp. 46–47.
  5. 1 2 3 4 1984-85 Dallas Sidekicks Media Guide. 1984. pp. 36–37.
  6. MISL Official Tenth Anniversary Guide. 1987. p. 53.
  7. MISL Official Tenth Anniversary Guide. 1987. p. 81.

1983-84 MISL Media Guide. Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania: Major Indoor Soccer League. 1983. 

1984-85 Dallas Sidekicks Media Guide. Dallas, Texas: Dallas Sidekicks. 1984. 

Leary, Dan; Griffin, John (1987). MISL Official Tenth Anniversary Guide. New York: Major Indoor Soccer League Communications Department. 

External links

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