Jeff DiVeronica

@RocDevo

In May, Salvatore "Soccer Sam" Fantauzzo was sky high on the potential of a new indoor soccer league that his Rochester Lancers were going to play in next season. But on Saturday he pulled the plug on playing in the Major Arena Soccer League, or any other in 2014-15, because "I can't do something I don't believe in," the Lancers CEO said on Saturday.

The major sticking point is the one-point scoring system the MASL wants to use compared to the two- and three-point system the Lancers played with during their first three seasons in the defunct Major Indoor Soccer League. Using a one-point system would lower scores, make indoor feel more like outdoor soccer and diminish the chance for exciting comebacks. Imagine removing the 3-point shot from basketball, Fantauzzo said.

"Soccer purists will come to games no matter what. The people who come for the party and the music and the fun, which is what we had at Lancers games, those are the casual fans who you need to make it bigger," Fantauzzo said, "and scoring is one of the biggest selling points to those fans."

The Lancers posted a letter from him on their website on Saturday announcing that the team wouldn't play this season. The team's founder, Fantauzzo thanked his staff, former co-owners and fans. It's a decision he has been agonizing over for several weeks, since the scoring flap started, because he knows that over three seasons the Lancers built a strong local fan base playing at Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester Community War Memorial.

"I appreciate everyone's support," Fantauzzo wrote in the letter. "I've had the greatest three years of my new life. Each and every one of you helped me reconnect with my past and I fell in love with pro indoor soccer again. I hope you will cherish these amazing memories for life and smile thinking about all the great Lancers times we had."

Baltimore Blast owner Ed Hale, the chairman of the board for the MASL, could not be reached for comment.

The Lancers made the playoffs in their 2011-12 inaugural season in the MISL, but went 10-16 and 6-14 the past two and didn't. They signed former indoor star Marco Terminesi in the offseason and hoped he could be the lynchpin to get them back into the playoffs with veterans Doug Miller and Mauricio Salles under second-year coach Josh Rife.

Rife did not return a phone message seeking comment.

With owners unhappy after last season with a lack of expansion by the United Soccer Leagues, which operated the seven-team MISL, the Lancers and five other teams decided not to return to the MISL after fulfilling their three-year agreement. In May, Rochester and the other MISL defectors — longstanding clubs such as the Baltimore Blast, Milwaukee Wave and Lancers' rival Syracuse Silver Knights, among others — announced they'd join the new MASL.

The new league would merge those MISL teams with 18 from the Premier Arena Soccer League. With several clubs on the West Coast, such as San Diego and Dallas, it'd give the MASL more of national footprint compared to the predominantly East Coast-based MISL.

Miller said there were some "false promises" made by the PASL side to the former MISL owners, one being the scoring system.

"This is terrible. Losing the No. 1 franchise (attendance-wise) in the league hurts. We were going to play six games against the Lancers this season," said Syracuse co-owner and coach Tommy Tanner, a former Rhinos star like Miller. "Will we go forward? Of course, we have to, but it's not easy ... the (Rochester) rivalry was getting great."

Tanner said he's hoping Lancers fans do their best to convince Fantauzzo to change his mind. Miller, 45, who was named MVP of the MISL in 2012 but was plagued by injuries last season, already has begun trying to sway Fantauzzo.

"I'm not going to let this go down lightly," he said, adding that a year off would damage the Lancers brand too severely to bring it back with any degree of success. Fantauzzo wouldn't rule out a return one day. He said he built the Salvatore's Old Fashioned Pizzeria chain by doing it his way. He couldn't try to do indoor soccer someone else's way, so "I'm hitting the highway," he said.

Lancers season-ticket holders and sponsors will be contacted for account credits on Monday, the team said.

"I plan to personally invest my soccer time helping youth soccer in the community and my staff and I will continue to support local charities, clubs and events," pledged Fantauzzo, whose pizza chain's success has recently been bolstered by new Arthur Treachers Fish and Chips restaurants. "We will keep the Lancers name and heritage alive."

JDIVERON@DemocratandChronicle.com

www.Twitter.com/@RocDevo