The NASL is back!

Sorta.

Trademarks have been secured, an announcement has been made, and teams are lining up to get in. Everything is coming together for the new NASL, a league born out of the frustration a group of owners felt under their previous structure. The little matter of USSF sanctioning still hangs over their heads (my guess: it's coming shortly), but everything appears to be in line for a new dawn of second division soccer in the United States.


The reasons for choosing the NASL name are obvious. The built-in name recognition gives the TOA a head start on marketing. The history of the old NASL can be leveraged into a trendy retro-style selling point. The legacy of soccer in the United States and Canada isn't wide, but there is some depth to plumb, and the TOA owners have chosen to plumb it. Without much time at their disposal to get things moving, there was no reason not to go with the North American Soccer League moniker.


But there's danger here for both the new NASL and its (potential) fan base. This league will be "NASL" in name only; there won't be any world famous stars, aging or otherwise, there won't be any 60,000+ sellouts, and there won't be any new American fascination with a funny foreign game played by Italians, Germans, and Brazilians. The past is the past and should stay that way; for everything the TOA gains by appropriating the NASL name, there's the chance that by looking back to a league that failed twenty five years ago they'll fail to put enough emphasis on moving forward.


While some of the teams in the TOA/NASL have established fan bases, others will need a little help to convince people to come out to the park. The curiosity factor will only last for so long, and the new NASL good will need more to draw consistent crowds in places like Baltimore, Tampa, and St. Louis; for the long term, it will about the product on the field, the passion in the stands, and the legitimacy of second division soccer. Recalling past glories, defunct clubs, and the kitschy logos and nicknames of the old NASL won't do the new NASL any good if the call back to history isn't augmented by a very real focus on the modern soccer landscape in the United States.


In a word, the new NASL can't become a retrospective of the old NASL.


Let's hope those team trademarks secured for dead clubs like the Los Angeles Aztecs, Baltimore Bays, and Boston Minutemen are just a way to collect NASL legacy items for possible "throwback" games, and not an indication that the TOA are actually trying to recreate the original NASL.


We definitely don't need one-on-one shootouts and 35-yard offside lines.


And for all of you that remember the original NASL fondly and would like to take this opportunity to stroll down memory lane, have at it. Our soccer history, especially one as colorful as American soccer had from '68-'84, should be celebrated and revived periodically. Just remember as you opine about Soccer Bowl '79 and the glories of free-spending insanity that this NASL has very little to do with that NASL.


In 2010, second division soccer will be better off if those involved in "bringing back" the North American Soccer League remember that little fact.