In 1894, the American Association of Professional Football was formed. It died the same year. In 1921, the American Soccer League, home of Bethlehem Steel and Fall River Marksmen was born. In 1933, facing the financial stress of the Great Depression, it collapsed. In 1960, the International Soccer League was born and in 1965 it withered away. The North American Soccer League, the league that brought Pele to the United States, lived from 1968 to 1984. In 2019, the NPSL Founders Cup, due to the exit of multiple clubs, was renamed and reformulated, effectively killing the competition in its crib. There is a long list (a much, much longer than this very brief list) of men’s and women’s soccer leagues in this country which have died. And there are a hundred different varieties of causes of those deaths, and even that list doesn’t include all of the women’s leagues that have come and gone. So maybe, instead of focusing on the league that died this week (and the new one that took its place), it’s time we found a new perspective of the American idea of soccer leagues.

The collapse of NPSL Founders Cup (and the NPSL may deny it collapsed, but that’s what happened) was brought about by a better resourced, flashier league, and, most importantly, one that has officially earned D3 sanctioning from U.S. Soccer. That league is the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) and when it was originally formed there was a massive buzz within the lower league soccer press. At its formation, clubs had not been named formally, but NISA announced it would begin play in the Fall of 2018 with 8 teams in multiple markets across the country.

Then the league effectively went silent. So much so that it became a running joke on social media. However, in May of this year there was a shakeup in leadership which led to the exit of Bob Watkins and John Prutch taking over the commissioner’s chair. Since Prutch took over, the league has become much more active online and has quickly gathered new clubs into the league, mostly at the expense of the NPSL and Founders Cup. First, Miami FC and California United Strikers were approved to join the league in the beginning of June. Then, just a couple of weeks later, Oakland Roots, one of the gems of the upcoming Founders Cup, announced they too would be joining NISA in the Spring of 2020.