The Portland Pride were an American indoor soccer team based in Portland, Oregon , that played in the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) from 1993 to 1997.
8-518: In 1993, a new league, the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) began its first season. Traditionally, indoor soccer has been a winter sport, but the CISL decided to play a summer season. This would keep it from competing with the more established National Professional Soccer League . Portland was announced as a founding member city for CISL on February 3, 1993. Owned by Brian Parrott,
16-556: The Premier Soccer Alliance where the team played under the name Portland Pythons . First Team All Star Continental Indoor Soccer League The Continental Indoor Soccer League ( CISL ) was a professional indoor soccer league that played from 1993 to 1997. In the summer of 1989 Dr Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and California Sports, told his executive Vice President, Ron Weinstein, he
24-493: The NBA/NHL owners and three of the leagues non NBA/NHL teams: Dallas, Portland and Houston. They collaborated in an effort to leave the CISL and form their own league, The Premier Soccer Alliance. It is the opinion of many executives within the sports world, that indoor Soccer has never again reached the pinnacle of the CISL since operations formally ceased in the winter of 1998. The Continental Indoor Soccer League Championship Trophy
32-606: The necessary franchise documents to bring the league into fruition and create what was the first professional sports league to operate under the "single entity" formula in 1991. Buss later took a leave of absence from the project and was temporarily replaced by Phoenix Suns owner, Jerry Colangelo, who joined as one of the inaugural members of the league. Colangelo and Weinstein took the lead role in working to attract NBA and NHL owners. Through Buss's and Colangelo's cooperative efforts they orchestrated two CISL meetings in conjunction with their own NBA Board of Governors meetings. The first
40-508: The team was named the "Pride" and played its home games in Portland, Oregon 's Memorial Coliseum . In 1995, Parrott sold the team to a group led by Norm Daniels. In 1997, the team and the league played its last season. At the end of the season, the Pride withdrew from the league due to a $ 2 million loss and a lack of confidence in the CISL, which later folded. The Pride ownership moved the team to
48-464: The third year of the league, 50% of the teams were already profitable. In 1996, CISL signed a three-year agreement with FOX Sports to televise a game of the week nationally in prime time. That same year, the Indiana Twisters became the next expansion franchise admitted to the league. In the fall of 1997, the surprising demise of the league took place primarily due to differences of direction between
56-716: Was closing the doors on the Los Angeles Lazers of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and that if he ever wanted to "create a professional indoor soccer league that played in the summer months, out from under the shadow of the NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball", he would support the endeavor. One year later, in late 1990, Ron Weinstein incorporated the Continental Indoor Soccer League with his business partner Jorge Ragde. They drafted all
64-574: Was held in 1991 in Marina Del Rey and the second in New York City in 1992. CISL was launched with 7 teams committed to begin playing in the summer of 1993 with another eight contracted for 1994. Monterrey La Raza made the CISL the first US league to have a team from Mexico participating. In 1995, a second Mexican team entered the league, the Mexico City Toros. By the end of the 1995 season,
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