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5/5/2006
Grand Rapids Press
Kelly Hill
Indoor soccer league eyes Grand Rapids
Professional soccer could be the next sport to find a home in Grand Rapids. The city is high on the Major Indoor Soccer League's list of communities into which it would like to expand. According to the league's vice president of marketing, Jaye Cavallo, Grand Rapids offers everything the league is looking for in an expansion market. "We are considering Grand Rapids. It is a market that we are very interested in," Cavallo said. "Grand Rapids fits very well into what our product offers, which is family-oriented sports entertainment." The MISL, whose 2005-06 season concluded Sunday when the Baltimore Blast beat the St. Louis Steamers in front of 16,000 fans and an ESPN2 national television audience, featured six teams. Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Stockton, Calif., were league members in addition to the championship-game participants. The league, which plays indoors on a surface roughly the size of an Arena Football League field, is scheduled to add the Detroit Ignition next season and expects to add teams in Newark and Orlando for the 2007-08 season. The Kansas City Comets, who did not play this season, also are expected to return to action in 2007-08. While Detroit is planning to play in the 3,000-seat Compuware Sports Arena in Plymouth, Van Andel Arena could be home for a Grand Rapids team. "Grand Rapids is being considered and conversations are ongoing," Van Andel Arena general manager Rich MacKeigan said. "They have not said that they are 100 percent coming here, but conversations are ongoing." Rich Bradley, the president of the new Orlando team, mentioned Grand Rapids as a prime expansion target of the MISL in a story last weekend in the Orlando Sentinel. The league's expansion to Orlando was announced Sunday at the MISL Championship Series in St. Louis. If Grand Rapids is to land a team, it is unlikely that it would play before the 2008-09 season. "There is nothing substantial at this point," Cavallo said. "Grand Rapids is a good market because, beginning next year, there will be a team in Detroit, so it could create a good rivalry. Also, it is already a good area for us, because of our teams in Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis. "We haven't gotten very far down the road yet, except to say that we are very interested in Grand Rapids." No ownership individual nor group from Grand Rapids has applied to the MISL for an expansion franchise. "There has been some interest, but no formal presentation has been made to the management committee," Cavallo said. "There has to be an official membership application and that has not happened." Dan DeVos, who owns the Grand Rapids Griffins and Rampage, both of whom play at Van Andel Arena, said: "As a family, we've never discussed owning a soccer team." The MISL first opened play in 1978, but folded in 1992. It was revived in 2001 when the National Professional Soccer League disbanded and the six remaining teams formed the MISL. Press reporter Joe Conklin contributed to this story.
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