It’s only one game into the 2015-2016 Major Arena Soccer League, but it’s looking bleak already for the St Louis Ambush. Despite off season moves to garner some talent with the acquisition of Kentaro “Taka” Takada and Freddy Moojen, trouble seems to be on the horizon not just on the field, but off it too.
Owner Andrew Haines sold off his arena football team, the Saint Louis Attack to a local MMA consortium and renamed the team immediately to the River City Raiders. Meanwhile Haines company STL Sports Ventures was involved in a lawsuit brought by Executive Properties ETC which was filed at the end of July (case number 1511-AC04249). Missouri Sports Holdings are being sued by Travelers Property (case number 1511-CC00800). This is in addition to the judgement brought against Missouri Sports Holdings by Lamar Advertising for $6,476.32 (case number 1511-AC02517)
Judgement against Missouri Sports Holdings
According to Missouri Department of Revenue, Missouri Sports Holdings also have some issues with paying their taxes with a case brought against Missouri Sports Holdings on June 5th 2015, it is unclear if this has been settled at this time. This is in keeping with previous exploits as described in the article below from the Reading Eagle from March 2nd 2014
For fans of the team, this should sound the alarm bells for an owner with a storied history of starting teams in cities (such as Saginaw Michigan and Canton Ohio) only to have them collapse at indeterminate dates. Only for the owner to reappear in another city and start up again, whilst claiming to be a reformed character.
Could the same be about to happen in St Charles?
Meanwhile on the field, it is the same old story. An initial season, which only garnered 4 wins and 16 losses in 2013, of which one win was against another Haines owned and since collapsed franchise, (Pennsylvania Roar.) Despite good attendances, it was a rough start for head coach Daryl Doran and the players, who struggled to find their place in the competitive MISL league.
The 2014 season started a similar path for the team, again with decent attendances. The team struggled to compete with the teams like Chicago Mustangs and Wichita B-52’s on a regular basis. With the team floundering at 5-14, it managed to win it’s remaining 3 games against Tulsa and Tacoma, who were elevated to the league when Seattle dissolved after their owner was accused of being a sexual predator.
The 8-14 record, and the “official” average attendance of 6,000 paints a rosy picture for the team going into the new season. With standout Gordy Gurson (46 goals 18 assists) retained and Moojen (39 goals 13 assists) added to the roster it looked like the Ambush could compete. However, it must be said that Moojen and Gurson scored the majority of their points last season against very weak western conference teams, which never troubled to make inroads towards a championship.
It was the same story last Saturday night as the Chicago Mustangs rolled into town for the start of the 2015 season.
Once again the Ambush, despite all the bluster in the off season about being able to compete lost 9-7. That aside the attendances just simply weren’t anywhere close to being on a par of seasons past. While no official numbers have been forthcoming, a rough estimate of 1,500 was given when I inquired from another journalist at the game. This has to be of concern for a team in a league with perennial issues in keeping teams solvent and an owner with a history for just leaving town with a carcass of a franchise in his wake. With the next four games coming against the league powers of Milwaukee Wave, Missouri Comets (2) and the Chicago Mustangs again the Ambush could potentially be 0-5 before registering their first win when they play Tacoma.
A very empty Family Arena for the Ambush v Mustangs game 11/14/15. Picture via Twitter
For comparison, if Hitchcock or Matheny had a win percentage of 29% then I presume the Cardinals and Blues fanbase would escort said coaches to the state line for banishment. Yet the Ambush fans seemed to enjoy the futility of the season campaigns past, even when fan favorites such as Corey Adamson and Stefan St Louis were traded away. The Ambush are still not competitive and the owner Andrew Haines looks set to do what he always does, and that is to leave town.
However that may not be the case as it looks like the fans have finally caught on.
Arch City Staff has requested Mr Haines for an interview and is ongoing with the request.
11 comments
[…] Trouble Brewing for the Ambush […]
Good article!
The Ambush were riding the rippled waves from the 90’s era. In fact, almost every team in the area has tried to capture those years. Realistically, people watched the Ambush in the 90’s because they won. There is no real interest in Indoor Soccer, let alone Soccer in general.
There is some talent in the MISL, but it is still semi-pro/Busch league level. Hell, as an avid soccer fan and player myself, the MLS is barely on the radar.
Ultimately, there was never going to be a “re-birth” of the old Ambush. From a business perspective, sports like this are rendered as gimmicks, and are at best trying to stay afloat.
Indoor soccer has declined for a variety of reasons over the last 20 years. The rise of outdoor soccer has decreased the talent base, though there is some talent in the MASL. The indoor soccer leagues have been terribly mismanaged, leading to individual teams being unstable year over year. Rules and scoring systems have frequently changed as well. All this makes for a ‘sports product’ that is unattractive to the ESPNs and regional sports networks, as well as deep-pocket national sponsors. Many fans had already moved on by the mid-1990s.
Indoor soccer is in a classic Catch-22: there are not enough consistent fans to push indoor soccer into the realm of ‘legit fringe’ sports like skateboarding, airplane racing, billiards, etc. that do get some national cable deals and good sponsor money. Without more money to promote the sport and stabilize the league (whoever it is in a given year), the sport can’t grow. There is enough regional interest in enough areas to support the minimal hard-scrabble existence of many of the MASL teams. I love the sport but I don’t see a way for the sport to grow much further than where it is now (semi-pro players, some unstable franchises, no league wide sustainable revenue streams).
Outdoor soccer is ascending the ‘sports ladder’ in the USA and will likely continue to do so. Whether or not indoor soccer will exist long-term at a ‘pro’ level is hard to predict. Side note – some people are trying to start a ‘pro futsal’ league pretty soon in the USA. Supposedly futsal is a ‘rising’ sport in the US. We will see.
I think that total first game attendance was actually 3,000 to 4,000 (though they did a buy one, get one free deal on tickets if a person brought a toy for charity). Certainly the fans are aware of wins & losses – the fans were patient for 2 seasons of building a team without the benefit of an expansion draft. However, if the current season disappoints, I expect a real drop off in ticket sales. This is supposed to be a playoff year, still could be. Obviously there is concern with these lawsuits and unpaid bills. Hopefully the sale of the football team gives them enough money to resolve these serious issues. I would like to see Haines comment on these lawsuits, tax issues, etc.
We requested an interviee but we’re declindd.
Thanks, I did see in the article that you tried to get Haines’ comments. I was just adding my ‘two cents’. Why would the owner dodge reasonable questions about current litigation involving his team? Fair questions great facts, and a good article, though I dispute the attendance estimate of 1,500(looked like 3 – 4,000 to me, still less than announced attendance of 5,000+). I was at the first game. You also never know how many tickets were ‘paid’ & how many are freebies. If the owner was paying his taxes & bills, there would not be articles about nonpayment. Good work.
Yeah there did seem to be more there later. The official number was 5300 but that is just tickets out. Like in a sponsor deal with a biz they might give 500 tickets… if nobody comes they still count 500. Should be tickets scanned but then Haines wouldn’t be able to say it’s as valuable when he sells the team.
He just registered a new LLC in Florida.
As George Takei would say – Oh myyyy….
Ambush lose to the Comets 9-4. Ambush fall to 0-3, play Chicago Mustangs in Chicago tonight. Official attendance of 4,391 – lower bowl was more than half full so probably 3,500 to 4,000 ‘people in seats’. A player told me after the game, ” We have to win in Chicago, we are out of time”. Agreed. He was likely referring to chances to make the playoffs.
Ambush lose a heartbreaker on the road to the Chicago Mustangs on Nov. 28 by a score of 9-5. The Ambush had pulled to within one goal with a few minutes left, but Chicago scored 3 empty net goals while the Ambush were in the 6th attacker mode. Oh boy. A record of 0-4 in a 20 game season.
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