Major Arena Soccer League Announced

Today at a press conference, the new indoor soccer league made up of teams from the PASL and MISL was announced. The new Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) will consist of 24 teams in the US and Mexico. The league will begin play this fall, with the league's first game occurring on October 25th, when the Missouri Comets travel to Dallas to take on the side kicks.

The league will divide the 24 teams into four six team divisions based on geography. According to Sam McDowell with the KC Star, the Comets will fall into a division that will include the last PASL champions, the Chicago Mustangs, former MISL rivals, Milwaukee Wave and St. Louis Ambush, the Wichita B-52's and Tulsa Revolution. That seems the obvious set up based on the layout of the teams.

Each team will play 20 games, 10 home and 10 away, and three teams from each division will make the playoffs for a total of 12, half the league.

The league's release said that the official announcement of the divisions will come in June along with the league logo and rules. But based on the map that was included in the release, but again, it's easy to break up the four geographic divisions. The rules will be the interesting announcement, as one of the big questions is whether the new league will utilize the MISL's multi-point system or the PASL's where each goal is just worth one point. Each side of that debate has it's supporters, although the single point system fans seem to be the majority from conversations I see.

Since it is a new league, new contracts are needed for all the players, but the Comets are looking to bring back their MISL championship team to the new league.