Major Arena Soccer League 2

Last updated
Major Arena Soccer League 2
Founded2017
Country United States
Other club(s) from Mexico
Number of teams21
Level on pyramid2
Current champions Iowa Demon Hawks (2023-24)
Most championships San Diego Sockers 2 (two titles)
Website www.m2soccer.com

The Major Arena Soccer League 2 is a North American indoor soccer league that serves as the developmental league of the Major Arena Soccer League.

Contents

History

M2 launched in 2017 to "provide an outlet for teams to either reorganize for a re-emergence in the MASL or an avenue for teams to compete in smaller markets in hopes of rising to MASL status." [1] It was announced that MASL 2 would have between 8 and 12 teams. [2]

The 2018–19 season brought the total number of teams participating in the season up from 10 to 15. Stockton, California was announced as a market and held a team naming contest, but all news stories from the league website and all mention of the Stockton franchised were dropped. The league changed from having "Conferences" to "Divisions." Expanding from the Eastern and Western conference's the MASL 2 now had the Eastern Division, Mountain Division, and Pacific Division.

On February 25, 2021, MASL 2 announced the return of the RGV Barracudas FC to the league to compete in the 2021–2022 season. [3]

On March 11, 2021, MASL 2 officially welcomed the Cleveland Crunch to the league. [4]

Sponsorship

The official game ball is made by Mitre, [5] [6] based in Wakefield, England.

Teams

Overview of Major Arena Soccer League 2 teams
DivisionTeamCity/StateArenaFoundedJoinedHead coachMASL affiliate
EastAtletico Orlando Orlando, Florida TBD20172023Alex Flores
Baltimore Arsenal Towson, Maryland SECU Arena 20232023Tarik Walker Baltimore Blast
Rochester Lancers East Rochester, New York Total Sports Experience20102018 Doug Miller
United Elite Krajisnik FC Utica, NY Adirondack Bank Center 20172023Anel Pajazetovic Utica City FC
North Iowa Demon Hawks Des Moines, Iowa Buccaneer Arena 20212022Francisco Fernandes, Jr.
Iowa Raptors FC Cedar Rapids, Iowa Alliant Energy PowerHouse 20222022Curt Lewis Kansas City Comets
Muskegon Risers Muskegon, Michigan Mercy Health Arena 20142017Ben Ritsema Milwaukee Wave
St. Louis Ambush II St Charles, Missouri Family Arena 20232023Donnie Alberty St. Louis Ambush
MidwestAmarillo Bombers Amarillo, Texas Amarillo Civic Center 20182019Chad Webb Mesquite Outlaws
Colorado Inferno FC Colorado Springs, Colorado SoccerHaus COS20172017John Wells
El Paso Rhino FC El Paso, Texas La Frontera Indoor Soccer2023
Kansas Bandits Dodge City, Kansas United Wireless Arena 20222022Isais De La Torre
New Mexico Runners Rio Rancho, New Mexico Rio Rancho Events Center 20182018Steve Famiglietta
Wichita Wings Wichita, Kansas Hartman Arena 20192019Roger Downing
Western Conference Chihuahua Savage II Chihuahua, Chihuahua Arena Corner Sport20192019Alan Domínguez Chihuahua Savage
Empire Jets Upland, California Upland Arena20172017Anthony Perez Empire Strykers
RGV Barracudas FC Hidalgo, Texas Payne Arena 20042021Genoni Martinez Monterrey Flash
San Diego Sockers 2 San Diego, California Pechanga Arena 20172017Rene Ortiz San Diego Sockers
Turlock Cal Express Turlock, California Turlock Soccer Complex20112021Arturo Pulido
Overview of planned Major Arena Soccer League 2 teams
TeamCity/StateArenaFoundedJoinedHead coachMASL affiliate
Wisconsin Conquerors Marshfield, Wisconsin Greenheck Fieldhouse20232024
Minnesota Blizzard St. Paul, Minnesota Warner Coliseum 20242024
Spice City FC Danbury, Connecticut Danbury Ice Arena 20242024 Onua Obasi
Overview of defunct Major Arena Soccer League 2 teams
TeamCity/stateArenaYears played
Arizona Impact Glendale, Arizona Arizona Sports Complex2017–2018
Arizona Lightning Avondale, Arizona Randall McDaniel Sports Complex2018–2019
Austin Power Austin, Texas Travis County Expo Center 2019–2020
Cincinnati Swerve Fairfield, Ohio Gametime Training Center2017–2019
Chicago Mustangs Hoffman Estates, Illinois Grand Sports Arena2017–2019, 2021–2022
Cleveland Crunch North Olmsted, Ohio Soccer Sportsplex2021–2022
Club Deportivo de Baja California Tijuana, Baja California Furati Planet Gol2022–2023
Colorado Rumble FC Denver, Colorado Foothills Fieldhouse2017–2020
Cuervos de Juarez El Paso, Texas El Paso County Coliseum 2018–2019
Las Vegas Knights SC Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas SportsPark2017–2019
New Mexico Elite Santa Fe, New Mexico Shellaberger Center2018–2019
Stockton Rush Stockton, California Stockton Arena 2018–2019
Waza Flo Detroit, Michigan Detroit City Fieldhouse2017–2019
Wichita Falls Flyers Wichita Falls, Texas Kay Yeager Coliseum 2019

Champions

Overview of Major Arena Soccer League 2 champions
SeasonChampionsRunner-upScore(s)Playoffs / host
2017–18 Chicago MustangsSan Diego Sockers 27–0Colorado Springs, Colorado
2018–19 San Diego Sockers 2Cuervos de Juarez7–5Upland, California
Ontario, California
2019–20Chihuahua Savage II [7] Playoffs cancelled due to COVID-19
2020–21 Cleveland Crunch [8] Wichita Wings11–6 [9] Wichita, Kansas
2021–22San Diego Sockers 2 [10] Cleveland Crunch7–4Muskegon, Michigan
2022–23Chihuahua Savage IIIowa Raptors FC10–4Mesquite, Texas
2023–24Iowa Demon HawksRochester Lancers8–3Wichita, Kansas

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltimore Blast</span> Soccer club

The Baltimore Blast is an American professional indoor soccer team based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The team is a part of the Major Arena Soccer League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major Arena Soccer League</span> Football league

The Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) is a North American professional indoor soccer league. The MASL features teams playing coast-to-coast in the United States and Mexico. MASL is the highest level of arena soccer in North America. The league draw talent from a global talent pool with players from MLS, LigaMX and many national teams. With a new management team, the league has grown in popularity and commercially. Former USMNT and MLS star Landon Donovan played in MASL as do multiple international players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hidalgo La Fiera</span> Soccer club

Hidalgo La Fiera was an American professional indoor soccer team based in Hidalgo, Texas. They played in the Southern Division of the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL). The team was founded in 2012 as the Rio Grande Valley Flash when the Monterrey Flash left the Liga Mexicana de Futbol Rápido Profesional to move to Texas and the Professional Arena Soccer League. The PASL was rebranded as the MASL in May 2014. The team fell into financial disarray and, unable to reorganize, resigned their membership in the MASL effective December 23, 2014.

RGV Barracudas FC is an American soccer club based in Hidalgo, Texas. Founded in 2004 as an amateur team, the men's indoor squad made its professional debut at the Barracudas Sports Complex as the Brownsville Barracudas in the Major Arena Soccer League during the 2014–15 season. The club signed Luis Ángel Landín the following year, and that season advanced to the Division Final vs. Las Vegas Legends after his golden goal against Atlético Baja at Tijuana.

The 2014–15 Dallas Sidekicks season was the third season of the relaunched Dallas Sidekicks professional indoor soccer club. The Sidekicks, a Southern Division team in the Major Arena Soccer League, played their home games in the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas.

The 2014–15 Hidalgo La Fiera season was the third season for the professional indoor soccer club and second under the Hidalgo La Fiera branding. The franchise was founded in 2012 as the Rio Grande Valley Flash. La Fiera, a Southern Division team in the Major Arena Soccer League, played most of their home games in the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas.

The 2014–15 Monterrey Flash season was the second season of the Monterrey Flash professional indoor soccer club. The Monterrey Flash, a Southern Division team in the Major Arena Soccer League, played their home games in Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

The 2014–15 Brownsville Barracudas season was the inaugural season for the Brownsville Barracudas professional indoor soccer club. The Barracudas, a Southern Division team in the Major Arena Soccer League, played their home games at the Barracudas Sports Complex in Brownsville, Texas.

The 2014–15 Oxford City FC of Texas season was the third season for the Beaumont, Texas-based professional indoor soccer franchise. Founded as the Texas Strikers in 2012, new ownership rebranded the team as Oxford City FC of Texas in July 2014.

The 2015–16 Major Arena Soccer League season was the eighth season for the league and the second since six teams from the former Major Indoor Soccer League defected to what was formerly called the Professional Arena Soccer League. The regular season started on October 24, 2015, and ended on March 4, 2016. Each team played a 20-game schedule. It was also the 38th season of professional indoor soccer in the United States.

The 2016–17 Major Arena Soccer League season was the ninth season for the league and the third since six teams from the former Major Indoor Soccer League defected to what was formerly called the Professional Arena Soccer League. The regular season started on October 29, 2016, and ended on March 5, 2017. Each team played a 20-game schedule. The defending champions were the Baltimore Blast. The Blast repeated in 2016–17, defeating the Sonora Suns in the Ron Newman Cup, 2–1.

The 2017–18 Major Arena Soccer League 2 season is the first season for the league M2. The regular season started on December 2, 2017, and ended on March 4, 2018. Each team will play a 12-game schedule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario Fury II</span> Soccer club

The Empire Jets are the name of an American professional indoor soccer team based in Upland, California and an outdoor team based in Eastvale, California. Like their parent club, the Empire Strykers, they're both run by the general manager.

The 2018–19 Major Arena Soccer League 2 season is the second season for the league M2. The regular season started on December 1, 2018, and ended on March 16, 2019. For the second year in a row, each team played a 12-game schedule. This season, the M2 expanded from 10 to 15 teams.

The 2018–19 Major Arena Soccer League season was the eleventh season for the league. The regular season started on November 30, 2018, and ended on April 14, 2019. Each team played a 24-game schedule.

The 2019–20 Major Arena Soccer League season is the twelfth season for the league. The league adopted a new format during the offseason, merging the four divisions into two conferences and eliminating the divisional format. On 12 March 2020, the league announced they would end the regular season early due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. On July 1, 2020, MASL announced that the Board of Directors had voted to conclude the 2019–20 season with the recognition of the Monterrey Flash and Florida Tropics being the winners of the Western and Eastern Conferences, respectively.

The 2019–20 Major Arena Soccer League 2 season was the third season for the league also known as M2. The regular season started on December 1, 2019, and ended on March 13, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 Major Arena Soccer League 2 season is the fourth season for the league also known as M2. The regular season started on January 22, 2021, and ended on July 11, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021–22 Major Arena Soccer League season is the fourteenth season for the league. The regular season started on November 26, 2021, and ended on April 3, 2022. Each team was scheduled to play a 24-game schedule. However, two Baltimore Blast games in December were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a Florida Tropics SC game at the end of the season was cancelled due to a Southwest Airlines outage preventing the visiting Blast from arriving.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major Arena Soccer League 3</span> Football league

The Major Arena Soccer League 3 (MASL3) is a North American indoor soccer league that serves as the developmental league of the Major Arena Soccer League and MASL2.

References

  1. ↑ Schaub, Joshua (19 September 2017). "From the desk of Commissioner Schaub". MASL. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  2. ↑ "Digest (Sept. 19): MASL places Blast in Eastern Division". The Baltimore Sun. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  3. ↑ "MASL 2 WELCOMES BACK THE RETURN OF THE RGV BARRACUDAS FC FOR THE 2021-2022 SEASON". MASL 2 Website. 25 February 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  4. ↑ "Return of the Crunch: After nearly 20 years, professional indoor soccer is returning to Cleveland". News 5 Cleveland. September 19, 2020.
  5. ↑ Husted, Jeff (13 October 2017). "MASL ANNOUNCES LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIP WITH MITRE". MASL. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  6. ↑ "MASL Announces Long-Term Partnership With Mitre". Harrisburg Heat. 13 October 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  7. ↑ "Chihuahua 2019-20 regular season champs, M2 season completed". Major Arena Soccer League 2. September 18, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Cleveland Crunch wins title in its first season back". Spectrum News 1. July 19, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Led by Blue Streaks, Cleveland Crunch Wins MASL2 Championship". John Carroll Blue Streaks. July 19, 2021.
  10. ↑ "San Diego takes home MASL2 title after championship weekend in Muskegon, tops defending champs Cleveland". Local Sports Journal. April 11, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.