So Long Sidekicks!

[Evan]

from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Soccer Insider

Demise of Sidekicks sad day for area fans

By Tobias Lopez

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Listen closely to the whispers of Sidekicks fans past, the voices, now ghostly echoes of a franchise gone after 19 years.

"Man, I heard one time Doc Lawson kicked the ball so hard, he broke the plexiglass."

"Yeah, one time Tatu scored so many goals that they ran out of jerseys for him to throw into the crowd."

"Mr. Defense, Mike Powers, once blocked 10 shots in a row."

Those were some of the names, the indoor soccer heroes, whose legacy can now disappear.

On Monday, the Major Indoor Soccer League announced that owner Sonny Williams couldn't find a buyer, and the Sidekicks are inactive for the 2004-2005 season.

"It was very disappointing for me," Sidekicks coach Tatu said. "It's a sad day and a sad decision. We tried very hard to find ownership at the last minute, but weren't able to do so."

The Sidekicks reached their heyday during the 1987-88 season with an average crowd of 9,878. The franchise was long propped up as the model for indoor soccer with four championships and the longest streak of consecutive seasons played.

However, since the late 1980s, it's been an up-and-down attendance trend with jumps from the CISL to the WISL to the current MISL, which is a throwback to the original MISL.

"I think the mismanagement of the last five, 10 years put us in a bad position," Tatu said. "To go back to where it was is definitely possible, with a lot of work and a lot of good people involved."

With the growing success of Major League Soccer, there seems little hope the MISL could ever return to prominence in the American soccer landscape.

The MISL features minor league talent compared with MLS, which boasts U.S. national team stars, nationally televised matches and billionaire investors.

Jim Mertz owns Euless' Arena Athletics indoor facility and two minor league soccer teams.

Mertz said Monday he's still interested in purchasing the club.

"We did everything we could," Mertz said. "It tears me up that we couldn't get it done in time to save the season. For the betterment of soccer in the area, we're going to keep plugging away."

Sidekicks historian Alan Balthrop has placed a memorial tombstone on the opening page of his Web site www.kicksfan.com.

Tatu, the former gritty goal scorer who was the face of area soccer long before the Burn's Jason Kreis captured that role, hasn't buried the team just yet.

"I hope that's not it for the team," Tatu said. "I think we've touched a lot of people's lives, a lot of children. The Sidekicks were tremendous role models, and I'd hate for that to go."

well mabye they will be back next year but its a very sad thing to see. Its happening all to often in the MISL....will this league ever succeed?

[-kj]

A sad day, indeed.

[Magus]

i didn't even know the sidekicks even existed.