Battle of Old Fort Wayne

The American Indoor Soccer League was a semi-professional indoor soccer league founded in 2002 and folded in 2008.

History

Founded in 2002, the AISL's headquarters were in West Springfield, Massachusetts, but the media relations office was in Cleveland, Ohio. The 2005–06 season started with promise, starting with six teams, but the New Mexico Storm and Detroit-Windsor Border Stars decided not to play in the AISL just before the season got under way. In 2006, the league announced the membership of the Canton Crusaders,[1] but the team's membership was revoked after the ownership was unable to fulfill its financial obligations.

In 2008 with the Cincinnati Excite going on hiatus, and the Massachusetts Twisters and Rockford Rampage moving to the National Indoor Soccer League, the 2008–09 campaign was canceled. On December 23, 2008, all news stories were dropped from the website.

Rules

Like many other indoor soccer leagues, the AISL also had their own variations on the generally-followed indoor soccer rules. Some of these variations were:

  • A point system that consisted of 1, 2, and 3 point goals, depending on how far away from the net the shot was taken.
  • No three lines rule.
  • One timeout per half per team.
  • Similar to the MSL, a goalkeeper could "...not use his hands when team-mate passes the ball back. Only after a shot from the opposing team, can you pass back to the keepers hands inside your third line. ( Rebounds, etc...) No direct pass back to keeper outside the third of field to hands."[2]
  • The clock did not stop unless the ball went out of play in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter.

Teams

Team City/Area Arena Years
Cincinnati Excite Cincinnati, Ohio Game Time Indoor Soccer Training Facility 2004–08
Canton Crusaders Canton, Ohio Canton Civic Center N/A
Connecticut Academica FC Cheshire, Connecticut Sports Domain 2003
Detroit-Windsor Border Stars Windsor, Ontario Novelletto Rosati Complex[3] 2004–05
Massachusetts Aztecs Beverly, Massachusetts Soccer Etc.[4] 2003
Massachusetts Twisters West Springfield, Massachusetts Big E Coliseum 2003–08
Montréal Team Canada Montréal, Canada Sportsplexx 2003
Memphis Mojo Memphis, Tennessee Agricenter Showplace Arena N/A
New Hampshire Storm New Hampshire 2003
New Mexico Storm Albuquerque, New Mexico Blades Multiplex Arenas 2004–06
New York Hampton Surf Long Island, New York Southampton Youth Sports Center 2006–07
Northern Illinois Rebels Waukegan, Illinois Lake County Sports Center 2007–08
Rockford Rampage Loves Park, Illinois Victory Sports Complex 2005–08
Tulsa Revolution Tulsa, Oklahoma Soccer City Indoor Sports Complex 2007–08

Previous champions

Season Champion Score Runner-Up Host
2007/2008 Rockford Rampage 18-5 Massachusetts Twisters Rockford
2006/2007 Massachusetts Twisters 11-5 Rockford Thunder Massachusetts
2005/2006 Cincinnati Excite N/A AISL(Season) N/A
2004/2005 Detroit-Windsor Border Stars 4-1 Cincinnati Excite Windsor
2002/2003 Massachusetts Aztecs 9-6 Connecticut Academica FC Massachusetts

Notable names

See also

References

  1. ^ "AISL Welcomes Canton Crusaders". Archived from the original on April 5, 2006. Retrieved August 21, 2009.
  2. ^ "AMERICAN INDOOR SOCCER LEAGUE...this game rules!". Archived from the original on January 6, 2009. Retrieved January 15, 2010.
  3. ^ "AMERICAN INDOOR SOCCER LEAGUE...this game rules!". www.aisl.org. Archived from the original on November 20, 2004. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  4. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 27, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)