By Delorean Fleetwood
New York, NY: Major League Indoor Soccer announced early Tuesday afternoon, that they will be expanding to Long Island, New York. Team identity, uniforms, and home arena will be announced at a later date in the near future.
The team will take the field beginning with the 2027-28 MLIS arena soccer season, along with Scranton, Pennsylvania and Nashville, Tennessee. Mesquite, Texas will began play this season.
Austin Williams CEO Rick Chiorando will lead the charge in bringing off the wall action back to the “City That Never Sleeps”.
“Through Austin Williams’ partnership with MLIS, I’ve seen the energy behind this league and the opportunity to help it grow,” Chiorando said. “I’m excited to bring a team to Long Island and give local fans a club they can call their own. We want to build an organization that connects with the community and gives people a reason to come back, season after season.”
This is exciting news for reasons only the most hard-core fans of the sport could tell you. And those reasons are enough to make anyone excited for the return of arena soccer to the place that once housed the greatest player the game has ever seen to this day.
LORD OF ALL INDOOR MARKETS
Arena soccer returning to the place that put itself on the map, similar to how Pele did around that same time with the outdoor game in the old North American Soccer League, is colossal for the sport itself. Not to mention the region that once had it.
Back in the days of the old Major Indoor Soccer League, the New York Arrows took the league by storm, led by the 1984 NASL MVP, Steve Zungul. “The Lord of All Indoors” put the sport on the map, creating his own Pele like legacy, as his NY Arrows won four straight MISL crowns from 1979-1982.
Fun fact: The New York Arrows home arena? None other than the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. Long Island. That’s right! They were winning MISL Championships at the same time the Al Arbour/Mike Bossy led New York Islanders were winning Stanley Cups back then.
LONG ISLAND LEGACIES
Zungul had a lasting legacy on the sport, especially for his fellow countrymen from Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia) in the years to come. Players such Zoran Karic, Preki, Stephen Stokic, and many others are owed to Steve’s legacy and paved a path for Slavic born players, both indoor and outdoors.
The outdoor game also felt it’s impact not too long afterwards, as Preki would lead the Kansas City Wizards to the 2000 MLS Cup Championship. He also led the now defunct Miami Fusion to the MLS Supporters Shield Title in 2001.
Zungul’s impact has left a lasting legacy in ways similar to the greatest that played the outdoor game left, when he walked off the Civic Stadium turf in Portland back in 1977, a Soccer Bowl victory for his New York Cosmos vs Seattle.
The impact also led to the 1981 MISL All-Star Game being played at Madison Square Garden. That event ultimately led to the creation of the sport of arena football and subsequently, the Arena Football League, by none other than Jim Foster, who attended that game.
Years later, the late Dick Seuss would create the variety of the sport known as indoor football, thanks in large part to his historical lawsuit victory against Foster. The modern day Indoor Football League exists in large part because of the sports of both arena football and arena soccer. Not only that, but the aforementioned individuals who helped to put them on the map.
While a return to the NYC Metropolitan Area is great news and it certainly does provide the MLIS and the sport a massive opportunity to grow it’s market feasibility, how will the league be able to capitalize on a market that is bound to have numerous facilities and neighborhoods that they could choose to represent as their home market?
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE
There’s close to eight million people that reside in Long Island. That’s a LOT of potential fans with numerous communities and ethnic backgrounds to tap into.
While Chiorando has been negotiating with local colleges and universities “in and around Long Island” for the team’s potential home pitch, the return of arena soccer to the NYC area is likely to open up other avenues that could have a ripple effect in the future, especially as it comes to league facilities and home fields.
The team in Long Island could provide a potentially new avenue for league and ownership groups to look at the business side of operations, particularly as it relates to facilities going forward.
Are college campus facilities the way to go? The MASL’s Baltimore Blast have already proven that it can be, having played up north at Towson’s SECU Arena since 2017.
The Milwaukee Wave technically do play at a facility that houses a college team in the Milwaukee Panthers. The Wave played at the old Milwaukee Auditorium from 1984-88 before playing at the now demolished Bradley Center until 2003, when they began playing at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. That partnership has lasted nearly a quarter century at this point.
And let’s not forget the team that started that trend, the original Cleveland Crunch at the Wolstein Center (although the circumstances behind that were much different back in the pre Gund Arena days)
Could Pittsburgh Bridge City play at Duquesne’s Cooper Fieldhouse? The renovations done recently and the flashy scoreboards provide an attractive option downtown next to other facilities, such as PPG Paints arena and F.N.B. Stadium. With the Pittsburgh Light Rail’s Red, Silver, and Blue lines nearby, families and college kids can easily make the connection for weekend games.
Regardless of what gets decided in the coming months, be it the venue or team name, the Long Island team has a lot to think about. A return of the New York Arrows name, perhaps? The trademark is ready to use, should the MLIS want to capitalize on the region’s rich championship pedigree.
Bringing back the New York Arrows would do wonders for the new ownership looking to get off to a fast start with the fanbase next year. The league has three new teams lined up to play next season.
Regardless of what is decided upon, there is little doubt of the direction the league is taking heading into the yet to be realized 2027-28 MLIS season. MLIS has weathered the storm quite well from it’s Lima Ohio beat down days of 2023-24.
With Scranton, Nashville, and Mesquite (who will begin play this season, in 2026-27) in the folds, the MLIS has began to increase it’s footprint in multiple regions.
The DFW market (and Texas for that matter) that once belonged to MASL, is now theirs for the taking. Central Florida with Tampa and Orlando, the Rockies with Salt Lake, Colorado, and Las Vegas, and finally, their bread and butter in the Northeast, strengthened by the return of the NYC Metropolitan Area for the 2027-28 season.
And let’s not forget about Toronto, where the Canadian Crusaders will look to defend their title this upcoming 2026-27 MLIS season.
The growth of the league could provide some competitive expansion within the MASL umbrella going forward as well.
The New York Arrows helped point arena soccer, arena football, and indoor football to where it is today.
Long Island MLIS has a chance to point a league and a sport back in the right direction when it kicks off.
For more news and information regarding the Long Island team and the MLIS, head to mlispro.com.
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