The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the United States. The league final was called the Soccer Bowl from 1975 to 1983 and the Soccer Bowl Series in its final year, 1984. The league was headed by Commissioner Phil Woosnam from 1969 to 1983. The NASL laid the foundations for soccer in the United States that helped lead to the country hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup and setting up Major League Soccer (MLS) in 1996.

The United States did not have a truly national top-flight league until the FIFA-sanctioned United Soccer Association (USA) and the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL), which had operated separately for one season in 1967 and merged in December 1967 to form the NASL. The NASL considered the two pre-merge forerunner leagues as part of its history.

The league's popularity peaked in the late 1970s. The league averaged over 13,000 fans per game in each season from 1977 to 1983, and the league's matches were broadcast on network television from 1975 to 1980. The league's most prominent team was the New York Cosmos. During the mid-to-late 1970s, the Cosmos signed a number of the world's best players —Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto— and the Cosmos averaged over 28,000 fans per game for each season from 1977 to 1982 while having three seasons of the average attendance topping 40,000 spectators per game. Other internationally well-known players in the league included Giorgio Chinaglia, Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Gerd Müller, Bobby Moore, Eusébio, and George Best. However, over-expansion, the economic recession of the early 1980s, and disputes with the players union ultimately led to the collapse of the NASL following the 1984 season. Also, FIFA's decision to award the hosting of the 1986 FIFA World Cup to Mexico after Colombia withdrew, rather than the U.S., is considered a factor in the NASL's demise. Former New York Cosmos president Clive Toye called the league "a magnificent success that eventually failed as a single entity. But, what it left behind is a knowledge of the game that didn't even existed (sic) in this country before and enthusiasm for the game which never existed before."

The league additionally sanctioned indoor soccer in various tournament and season formats between 1971 and 1984.

History

Founding

The surprisingly large North American TV audience of over 1 million for the 1966 FIFA World Cup and the resulting documentary film, Goal!, led American sports investors to believe there was an untapped market for the sport in the U.S. and Canada. In 1967, two professional soccer leagues started in the United States: the FIFA-sanctioned United Soccer Association (USA), which consisted of entire European and South American teams brought to the U.S. and given local names, and the unsanctioned National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). The NPSL did not receive sanctioning by the USSFA, as it refused to pay the $25,000 fee, was branded an outlawed entity by FIFA, and players faced penalties for signing with it. While the USA had FIFA sanction, the foreign teams that were rebranded with American names for the summer 1967 season viewed the league as little more than a training exercise for their off-season, and most did not field their best players. The NPSL had a two-year national television contract in the U.S. with the CBS television network. Officials were instructed to whistle fouls and delay play to allow CBS to insert commercials. The ratings for matches were unacceptable even by weekend daytime standards and the arrangement with CBS was soon terminated. Bill MacPhail, head of CBS Sports, attributed NPSL's lack of TV appeal to empty stadiums with few fans, and to undistinguished foreign players who were unfamiliar to American soccer fans.

The two leagues merged on December 7, 1967, to form the North American Soccer League (NASL). NASL began the 1968 season with 17 of the 22 teams that had participated during the 1967 season, folding five redundant teams in cities where both USA and NPSL had operated. The teams relied mostly on foreign talent, including the Brazilian Vavá, one of the leading scorers of the 1958 and 1962 World Cups. International friendlies included victories against Pelé's Santos and against English champions Manchester City.The Year in American Soccer – 1968, Steve Holroyd, http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/year/1968.html

Though the league had a few successes, it experienced significant problems gaining acceptance in the American sports community. The 17 teams included only 30 North American players. The expenses of high salaries for foreign players and renting of large stadiums, coupled with low attendances, resulted in every team losing money in 1968, and investors quickly pulled the plug after their year's commitment ended. At the end of the year, CBS pulled its TV contract, and all but five of the teams folded. The league moved its offices to a basement of Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, and at the end of the sixteen-game 1969 season, the league declared Kansas City the league champions on the basis of most points in the round-robin, and the Baltimore Bays announced they would fold. It appeared top-tier professional soccer would not survive in North America.

Desperate to keep the league afloat, the league approached two American Soccer League teams, the Rochester Lancers and the Washington Darts about transferring to the NASL. Despite coming from the ASL (which had a nearly 40-year history as a semi-pro league), the two teams were immediately the most successful, and won their respective divisions. Rochester beat Washington in a two-game final, and the league survived.

In 1971, NASL added three teams—the New York Cosmos, Montreal Olympique, and the Toronto Metros—each of which paid a $25,000 expansion fee. The Dallas Tornado won the title after a number of multiple overtime playoff games, including a 173-minute marathon against Rochester.

Realizing it needed to sell to North Americans the sport of soccer, which was still foreign to most people, the NASL modified its game rules in an attempt to make its product more exciting, and comprehensible, to the average sports fan. These changes included the following: Utilizing a clock that counted game time down to zero, as was typical of other timed American sports, rather than the traditional upwards direction to 90 minutes. The introduction during the 1972 season of a line from the goal to determine offside calls, rather than the usual midfield line. Meant to increase scoring opportunities and reduce the frequency of defenses trapping an attacking player into an offside position, this rule allowed the attacker to no longer be offside unless he had crossed that 35-yard line. Though it was ridiculed outside the NASL, the experiment did have FIFA's blessing until 1982. The implementation in 1974 of a penalty shootout to decide matches that ended in a draw. By the 1977 season the shootout was modified to somewhat resemble, in spirit at least, a penalty shot in ice hockey. The attacking player would start at the 35-yard line and attempt his shot within five seconds, but he could make as many breakaway moves as he could; likewise, the goalkeeper could take on the attacker without restriction. The format was best-of-5-kicks, with each team attempting extra rounds if the score was still tied after five rounds. The carryover of the NPSL's 1967 points system, in which teams were awarded six points for a regulation (and later extra time) win, and initially three points for a draw. When the penalty shootout eliminated tie games in 1974, the winning team was awarded three points for a win rather than six; this was later reduced to one point in 1975–1976, raised to the traditional six points from 1977 to 1980, and reduced again to four points from 1981 to 1984. The most notable variation on the points system that was also carried over from the NPSL was awarding a team a bonus point for each goal (up to a three-goal maximum) they scored in the game, regardless of its outcome. On five occasions this nontraditional system gave the regular season title to a team other than the one with the best record; this most notably occurred in 1983, when the Cosmos, buoyed by their league-leading 87 goals, were awarded the regular season title despite having two fewer wins than the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Interest begins to grow The NASL of the early 1970s was, to a large extent, a semi-pro league, with many of the players holding other jobs.

On September 3, 1973, Sports Illustrated featured a soccer player on its cover for the first time – Philadelphia Atoms goalkeeper Bob Rigby. SI profiled the Philadelphia Atoms' victory in the NASL championship, the first time an American expansion sports team won a title in its first season. Philadelphia averaged 11,500 fans in 1973, the first time since 1967 that any North American professional soccer team had averaged over 10,000 fans.North American Soccer League Players, Stats, Standings, http://www.nasljerseys.com/Stats/Standings.htm The cover title declared "Soccer Goes American", as Philadelphia had started six Americans in the championship match. Despite the "Soccer Goes American" title, however, in no season after 1974 did any American player win the MVP award or finish as league top scorer, as the mid-1970s saw an influx of foreign talent. SI predicted continued success for the Philadelphia Atoms, but the Atoms dissolved in 1976.

NASL's average attendance had grown steadily from a low of 2,930 in 1969 to 7,770 in 1974, and by 1974 four teams were averaging over 10,000 attendance. The 1974 NASL Championship game between the Los Angeles Aztecs and the Miami Toros was televised live on CBS, the first national broadcast of a pro soccer match in the United States since 1968.

The 1974 and 1975 seasons saw rapid expansion for NASL. In 1974, eight new teams paid the $75,000 franchise fee (equivalent to $ in ) and joined the league, although two existing teams folded.The Year in American Soccer – 1974, Steve Holroyd, http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/year/1974.html The 1974 expansion saw teams on the west coast, giving NASL a national presence for the first time. The west coast expansion was a success, with three of the teams – San Jose, Seattle and Vancouver – averaging over 10,000 fans in 1974. In 1975, five more franchises were added. Two of these five additions – Chicago and Hartford – were in cities that had successful franchises in Division II American Soccer League, which at the time saw itself as a potential challenger to NASL as the U.S.'s top professional soccer league.Steve Holroyd, The Year in American Soccer – 1975, http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/year/1975.html The expansions of 1974 and 1975 meant that NASL had grown from 9 teams in 1973 to 20 teams by 1975.

The 1975 season saw the signing of internationally known players, including Portuguese star Eusébio to Boston, and former England goalkeeper Peter Bonetti to St. Louis.

Pelé and the New York Cosmos

In 1975, the New York Cosmos created a media buzz and put international eyes on soccer in the United States by signing Pelé. From the moment he signed his contract at the 21 Club on June 10, 1975, in front of worldwide media, Pelé's every move was followed, bringing attention to soccer in America. The Cosmos' home attendance tripled in just half the season Pelé was there, and on the road the Cosmos also played in front of crowds that came to watch Pelé play.