Salt Lake Sting

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Salt Lake Sting
0
Full name Salt Lake Sting
place Salt Lake City , Utah
Founded 1989
Dissolved 1991
Club colors Turquoise, black, white or green, blue
Stadion Derks Field
Top league Western Soccer League
(WSL; 1989–1990)
American Professional Soccer League
(APSL; 1990–1991)
successes k. A.

Salt Lake Sting was an American soccer franchise from Salt Lake City , the largest city and capital of the US state of Utah . The franchise was founded in September 1989 and belonged to the Western Soccer League from that year until the beginning of the following year . Without ever having played a game in this league, the franchise was active in the latter league until its dissolution in July 1991 after the merger of the Western Soccer League with the American Soccer League to form the American Professional Soccer League .

history

The Salt Lake Sting franchise was founded in September 1989 as an expansion team for the Western Soccer League , a short-lived professional league on the west coast of the United States and Western Canada . Jack Donovan and other business partners appeared as the owner, all of whom were also partners in the Salt Lake Trappers , a minor league baseball team that existed from 1985 to 1992 . One of the best known shareholders in the baseball team was actor and comedian Bill Murray , who owned five percent of the franchise but did not invest in the soccer team. Its venue, Derks Field , which is over 40 years old , was shared by the soccer team with the baseball team. The soccer field was pulled over the baseball field , which is now described as awkward , with the result that not the entire area was covered by grass, but rather loose earth, especially in the area of ​​the infield . Immediately after the franchise was founded, it joined the Western Soccer League towards the end of 1989. This was just about to merge with the American Soccer League based on the east coast of the United States . Together, the two leagues finally formed the American Professional Soccer League , or APSL for short, for the first time in 1990 . It should be noted that the Western Soccer League functioned simultaneously as the Western Conference of the league this year and the American Soccer League, on the other hand, represented the Eastern Conference . This was changed again in the following game year 1991, when the two original leagues had already dissolved, so that from now on there was an American Conference and an Eastern Conference .

Under the head coach Laurie Calloway Sting started the game year 1990 and brought it about a competitive squad, which brought it in the final classification of the regular time to twelve wins and eight losses from 20 championship games. As runner-up in the North Division , one of two divisions of the Western Soccer League (Western Conference) and one of four divisions of the entire league, Salt Lake Sting made it into the season-closing play-offs. A 2-0 defeat in the first leg of the first round match was followed by an even clearer 4-1 defeat in the second leg, which meant the premature end for Sting in the play-offs. Nevertheless, the franchise had some of the most attacking players this year. Behind Chance Fry of Seattle Storm of Sting striker and -Mittelfeldspieler was George Pastor with 14 goals, nine assists and 37 points scorer second top scorer in the league. With Derek Sanderson , who finished fifth with eleven goals, six assists and 28 scorer points, the franchise had another strong offensive player in the squad. George Pastor was elected to the Western Soccer League (Western Conference) First Team All League at the end of the season , his teammate Dzung Tran made it to the Western Soccer League (Western Conference) Second Team All League as a midfielder . During this time, Salt Lake Sting still had a large number of spectators and recorded 9,439 viewers in the first home game against the San Diego Nomads in April, which meant a WSL record. The franchise set another league record at the end of the season, when the ten home games of this year saw almost 54,000 spectators.

Although this was a very successful year for Sting, the owner Donovan and the other investors lost a lot of money. Therefore, in December 1990, the investment team decided to sell the franchise. However, after no buyer could be found in the course of time, Salt Lake Sting was reorganized and henceforth operated as a non-profit organization under the direction of Mike Silva . In the meantime, the franchise should be managed until new investors were found. The so-called Sting Foundation subsequently asked company sponsors to support the team financially, although the sponsors acted only hesitantly, as the number of viewers had plummeted the following year after the record year 1990. The first game at Derks Field in 1991 was watched by fewer than 1,000 visitors on a rainy day. Two weeks after the beginning of the 1991 game year, the organization led by Silva ran out of money and was forced to withdraw. As a result, the American Professional Soccer League had to step in and pay the salaries of the franchise. In the meantime, head coach Laurie Calloway had also migrated and found a new coaching job at league rivals San Francisco Bay Blackhawks .

The new coach of Salt Lake Sting was the Soviet émigré Valery Volostnykh , coming from the men's soccer team at UC Santa Barbara . The top offensive forces of the previous year, George Pastor and Derek Sanderson, hung on for another year with the Salt Lake City franchise and were at least temporarily able to appear at a similar level to 1990. Fred Gray , Sports Director of Sting ( Director of Soccer Operations ), said at the beginning of the 1991 season that the organization was now much better positioned than it was a year earlier. However, on July 5, 1991, the story of Salt Lake Sting ended abruptly. The league leadership of the APSL was tired of the franchise, which at the time recorded three wins and seven losses from ten championship games, and stopped paying the money to the hopeless franchise and dissolved it in the middle of the current season. The most dangerous players from Sting at this point were again Pastor (with six goals) and Sanderson (with three goals). The remaining ten championship games were counted as defeats by Salt Lake Sting and thus as victories of their opponents. For this reason, the game year 1991 ended the franchise far behind in last place in the Western Conference (divisions as a subdivision no longer existed this year).

More than 20 years after it was founded, the then Assistant General Manager of the franchise, Dave Baggott , said he hated football at the time and wasn't really enthusiastic when Jack Donovan brought him on to the team. Baggott was already fond of baseball back then and, after having played a key role in the Salt Lake City Trappers , brought the Ogden Raptors to Ogden in 1993 . General Manager of Salt Lake Sting was Mark Hugo .

successes

Western Soccer League (Western Conference) First Team All League
Western Soccer League (Western Conference) Second Team All League

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Twenty years ago: Sting show pro soccer can thrive in SL , accessed on January 9, 2018
  2. ↑ Storm's Home Edge Rips Real Santa Barbara (Report by Joel Gillman in the Seattle Times, July 7, 1990)
  3. ↑ MUCH-IMPROVED STING TO PLAY EXHIBITION GAME (report by Richard Evans in Deseret News of April 27, 1991), accessed on January 9, 2018
  4. ↑ The Evolution of Dinosaurs in Utah: The Story Behind the Ogden Raptors , accessed January 9, 2018