Mike Peters, The Examiner
2007-10-19 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Three teams will make their debuts in the Major Indoor Soccer League this season, and that’s just the beginning.

“Our business plan is to grow the league to 21 clubs, and we’ve been working on that for a couple years,” said Commissioner Steve Ryan.

The Orlando Sharks, the New Jersey Ironmen and the Monterrey (Mexico) La Raza are the newest members, as the league kicks off its season tonight at 7:35 at 1st Mariner Arena with the Blast hosting the Philadelphia KiXX. The MISL now has nine teams, its highest number since eight for the 2002-03 season.

Three teams have been added since 2004 — the Chicago Storm, the California Cougars and the Detroit Ignition — and there are plans to add a 10th team next year. Ryan said an application has been filed by a “major Midwestern city,” but that’s as much as he would say. He added that the MISL, with players from 32 countries, would like to have 12 teams by 2009.

“It has been an ongoing process to attract important markets and expand our geographic footprint,” Ryan said.

The Cougars, based in Stockton, Calif., are the only West Coast franchise. There are four franchises in the East.

“We have one team as an outpost,” Blast owner Ed Hale said. “It’s difficult for Baltimore to fly out there. You go out there the day before you play one game, then you fly right back. It’s a problem. We need to get more teams out there — and in the Midwest. We need to have a West Division and an East Division.”

Last season, the MISL survived with only six teams, the smallest since the league’s formation in 2001.

A two-year television deal with Fox Soccer Channel, which will broadcast 20 regular-season games, and the adoption of the Premier Arena Soccer League as a farm system show that the MISL is moving in the right direction.

“[Last year] we had to hold on by our fingernails,” Hale said. “Now, we’re at a size that makes us more sustainable.”