New England Tea Men

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New England Tea Men was a professional football club in Foxborough , Massachusetts , both outdoor and indoor - soccer practice. It was founded in 1978 and transplanted to Jacksonville , Florida in late 1980 , where it appeared as the Jacksonville Tea Men .

history

In January 1978, the Lipton Tea Company acquired a license to participate in the NASL , which was available due to the upcoming expansion of the league. The increase in the number of participants completed at this time resulted from the boom made possible by the spectacular engagements of New York Cosmos , in which Pelé (from 1975 to 1977) and Beckenbauer (1977 to 1980) were under contract.

Lipton Inc. installed its new club in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and named it New England Tea Men . The company not only wanted to advertise its products, but also to refer to the revolutionary roots of this region , which found expression in the so-called Boston Tea Party of 1773, among other things .

In their first season the team reached the semi-finals of the NASL and achieved an average attendance of over 11,000. The best player of the season was English striker Mike Flanagan , on loan from Charlton Athletic , who scored 30 goals in 28 games and was voted best player in the NASL.

But the Tea Men had to accept the first setbacks even before their second season. Flanagan had to be returned to Charlton Athletic and the club was ordered by court order to give up its usual home ground. The club moved to Nickerson Field in Boston , where he had a bad 1979 season and missed the play-offs .

In December 1979, the club registered for the first indoor season in the winter of 1979/80, which, however, was a sporting and financial disaster.

The home games of the 1980 season were allowed to play the New England Tea Men again in the familiar Schaefer Stadium , but could no longer gain a foothold there and were transplanted from Lipton to Jacksonville, Florida at the end of the year. There the club got its new name Jacksonville Tea Men .

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