6/3/09 - The Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL-Pro) held its spring league meetings on May 31-June 1 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Owners and league officials from across the PASL-Pro and FIFRA were represented as well as ownership groups from two potential expansion markets.
The meetings covered a wide variety of topics from rule changes, playoffs, expansion, broadcasting, US Open Arena Soccer Championships, and the US National Arena Soccer Team (USNAST).
The LLC owners formally accepted the resignation of the Colorado Lightning, as expected. The league, however, is growing as the San Diego Sockers will begin play this year as well as the Colorado Cavaliers, based in Colorado Springs. Eight additional markets are also being considered for admission for either the 2009-10 season or 2010-11, and those groups were given a limited period of time to meet certain league requirements for membership.
1790 Cincinnati exercised its right to host the PASL-Pro North American Championships in 2010. Cincinnati earned the right by virtue of finishing the 2008-09 season with the league’s best record.
The owners also agreed to name 1790 coach Craig Rhodis as Head Coach of the USNAST, replacing outgoing coach Bernie Lilavois. To prevent any one coach from using the USNAST position as a competitive advantage in the league, the league owners placed a two year term limit on the position.
A number of minor rule changes were adopted:
--Goalkeepers will be required to wear traditional indoor long pants extending below the knee.
--The penalty for four individual fouls in a half has been eliminated.
--A player removing his jersey after a goal celebration will no longer warrant an automatic misconduct penalty.
--Any defensive penalty occurring in the goalkeeper arc will now result in a shootout, rather than a penalty kick. Penalty kicks will now take place only in the event of a severe foul of a player attempting a shootout.
--The time clock will stop on all whistles and start when the ball when the ball is restarted and play is "live."
--Penalties will no longer contribute to teams’ foul count.
--Team fouls will no longer start over at halftime and teams will still be given a two-minute penalty for six fouls. However, team fouls will reset to zero at the beginning of overtime. Additionally, any unexpired penalty will be eliminated at the start of overtime.
--Players receiving a five-minute misconduct penalty will now be released from the penalty box upon the first whistle following the expiration of their penalty. In the past players had to wait until an official timeout to be released.
"The rules we adopted last year were unequivocally successful last year," said PASL-Pro Commissioner Kevin Milliken. "The game was wide-open and high-scoring and we significantly reduced the number of injuries that had been attributed to the indoor game in the past."
"These changes should make managing the game easier on the officials."
The league will finalize its membership for the 2009/10 season in the next few weeks followed closely by the announcement of the regular season schedule.
The PASL-Pro is a professional league which began play on October 25, 2008 when the Stockton Cougars defeated the Colorado Lightning 10-5 at Stockton Arena. The 2008-09 season concluded with the North American Championships March 13-15 at Stockton Arena. The Stockton Cougars defeated 1790 Cincinnati 13-5 to win the inaugural PASL-Pro Championship. The PASL-Pro consists of US teams, the CMISL (Canada), and LMFR (Mexico). The San Diego Sockers have been added for the 2009/10 season. PASL-Premier just began its 12th season as the nation’s top amateur arena soccer league. PASL-Pro and PASL-Premier are members of Federacion Internacional de Futbol Rapido (FIFRA).
