National Independent Soccer Association

National Independent Soccer Association

Founded	June 6, 2017;7 years ago (2017-06-06)
First season	2019–20
Country	United States
Confederation	CONCACAF (North American Football Union)
Number of clubs	9
Level on pyramid	3
Domestic cup(s)	U.S. Open Cup
International cup(s)	CONCACAF Champions Cup (via U.S. Open Cup)
Current champions	Los Angeles Force (1st title) (2024)
Most championships	Detroit City FC (2 titles)
Website	nisaofficial.com
Current: 2024 NISA Season

The National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States. The league is in the third tier of American soccer and began play in 2019. ^{[1] [2] [3]} NISA initially used a fall-to-spring season format with a winter break but have switched to spring-to-fall which is more common in the United States. ^[4]

History

League beginnings

Original league logo (2017–2021)

On June 6, 2017, it was announced that the newly formed National Independent Soccer Association would begin play in 2018 targeting an initial 8 to 10 teams, later revised to 8 to 12 teams. ^[5] Initially, the league outlined plans to introduce a promotion/relegation system, once they reach their goal of 24 teams, the first in US professional soccer and in doing so act as a feeder league to the North American Soccer League (NASL); ^{[6] [7]} however, the NASL ceased operations prior to those plans being implemented.

On February 13, 2018, NISA co-founder Jack Cummins died suddenly. ^[8] On May 17, 2018, NISA co-founder Peter Wilt left the NISA to help start up Forward Madison FC in Madison, Wisconsin in USL League One. ^[9] A committee of club owners has been formed to elect new leadership within the organization. ^[10]

Reorganization and start of play

On August 31, 2018, NISA filed an application with the United States Soccer Federation for sanctioning as a men's professional league, playing at the third division. ^[11] On February 16, 2019, NISA was provisionally sanctioned as a Division III league by the United States Soccer Federation. ^[12] In May 2019, it was announced that clubs were not happy with the silence from the league and that Bob Watkins was no longer the President of NISA and that John Prutch had taken the helm as commissioner. ^[3] During this same timeframe, the league's start date was pushed back from August 2019 to a targeted September start date. ^[3]

On June 10, 2019, it became known that both Miami FC and California United Strikers FC were approved at the recent board of governors meeting to join NISA, while the previously identified club in Central Florida would play in Baton Rouge, Louisiana instead of Daytona Beach, Florida. ^[13] However, it was unclear whether either of the teams would start before the league's September start date. ^[13] On June 27, 2019, it was announced that Oakland Roots SC would have their inaugural season with the league in the spring season, rather than the previously announced NPSL Founders Cup. ^[14] On August 15, 2019, the league officially announced the addition of Oakland Roots for the 2019 season and Chattanooga FC, Detroit City FC, and Michigan Stars FC for early 2020. ^[15]

The inaugural season began on August 31, 2019, with a 3–3 draw for Oakland Roots SC and California United Strikers FC in Oakland. ^[16] On April 27, 2020, following previous postponements, the remainder of the 2019–20 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[17]

On September 10, 2020, the league announced that one of the original co-founders of the league, Peter Wilt, would be rejoining the league in a club operations capacity by attempting to establish a club in Chicago. ^[18] On September 15, 2020, one of the founding teams, Oakland Roots, announced that they were leaving the league to join the USL Championship, a league in the second division of professional soccer. ^[19]

Development of the amateur and semi-professional game

On April 27, 2020, NISA revealed a new tournament called the NISA Independent Cup that would have member teams face off against high quality amateur and independent professional sides in a regional format. ^[20] The tournament and 15 participating teams were announced on July 1. ^[21]

NISA announced its first affiliation agreement with the Gulf Coast Premier League, a USASA affiliated amateur league based in the gulf coast of the United States, on August 13, 2020. ^{[22] [23]} The partnership is set to provide a pathway to professional status for both clubs and players, while also allowing two GCPL teams to qualify for future editions of the Independent Cup based on league play. This was expanded to include the Midwest Premier League and Eastern Premier Soccer League on September 3 and 4, 2020, respectively. ^{[24] [25]} On November 23, NISA announced a fourth agreement with the Mountain Premier League. ^[26]

On September 17, 2020, the league announced that it was establishing a full-year amateur league, the NISA Nation, that would serve as an incubator for amateur and semi-professional clubs that wish to move into NISA's professional league. ^[27] NISA stated that this full-season amateur league and its previously announced league affiliations would serve as the foundation of a fully open professional to amateur pyramid in the United States. ^[28]

The league announced an "alliance" with semi-professional women's soccer league United Women's Soccer on January 28, 2021, ^{[29] [30]} with the target of launching a professional women's league in 2022. This proposed league would occupy the at the time vacant second tier of professional women's soccer in the United States. Many NISA clubs, including Detroit City FC, ^{[31] [32]} Michigan Stars FC, ^[33] and NJ Teamsterz FC ^[34] field or had announced fielding UWS and UWS2 teams. However, on March 20, 2021, it was reported that the alliance had broken down and the leagues had gone their separate ways.^{[ citation needed ]}

Teams

Current

Team [35]	City	Stadium	Capacity	Founded	First season	Head coach
East Conference teams
Club de Lyon	Daytona Beach, Florida	Showalter Field	NA	2022	2023	Hector Almandoz
Georgia FC [36]	Conyers, Georgia	Dalton Academy Stadium	TBD	2024	2024	Kerem Daser
Maryland Bobcats FC	Boyds, Maryland	Maryland SoccerPlex	4,000	2016	2021	Alex Kao
Michigan Stars FC	Washington, Michigan	Barnabo Field	4,000	1982	2020	Enis Dokovic
Savannah Clovers FC	Savannah, Georgia	Memorial Stadium [37]	5,000	2016	2023	David Proctor
West Conference teams
Arizona Monsoon FC	Glendale, Arizona	Matt O. Hanhila Field	TBD	2023	2024	Carlos Padilla (interim)
Capo FC	San Juan Capistrano, California	JSerra Catholic High School	TBD	2006	2024	Peter Carey
Irvine Zeta FC	Irvine, California	Championship Soccer Stadium	5,000	2022	2024	Tyler Silva
Los Angeles Force	Long Beach, California	Veterans Memorial Stadium [38]	11,600	2019	2019	Dekel Keinan
Clubs on hiatus
Albion San Diego	San Diego, California	Canyon Crest Academy Stadium	5,000	2017	2019
Gold Star FC	Livonia, Michigan	Madonna Athletic Complex	5,000	2022	2023	Alex Lubyansky
Future teams
Las Vegas Legends	Paradise, Nevada	TBD	TBD	2012	2025
Calabasas FC	Thousand Oaks, California	Moorpark High School [39]		1979	TBD

Location map

Southern California

Maryland Bobcats

Michigan Stars

Savannah Clovers

Gold Star

Club de Lyon

Arizona Monsoon FC

Georgia FC

Las Vegas Legends

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Locations of announced clubs

• 2023 club
• Future club
• Club on hiatus
• See inset map

Capo FC

Calabasas

Irvine Zeta

Albion San Diego

Los Angeles Force

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Locations of announced clubs

• 2023 club
• Future club
• Club on hiatus

Former

Team	City	Joined	Final season	Fate
Atlanta SC	Alpharetta, Georgia	Fall 2019		Folded
Bay Cities FC	Redwood City, California	2021	2022	Folded
California United Strikers FC	Irvine, California	Fall 2019	2022	On hiatus
Chattanooga FC	Chattanooga, Tennessee	2020	2023	Moved to MLS Next Pro
Chicago House AC	Bridgeview, Illinois	Fall 2021		Moved to Midwest Premier League
Detroit City FC	Hamtramck, Michigan	Spring 2020	Fall 2021	Moved to USL Championship [40]
Flower City Union	Rochester, New York Auburn, New York	2022	2023	Moved to National Premier Soccer League [41] [42]
Miami FC	Miami, Florida	Fall 2019		Moved to USL Championship [43]
New Amsterdam FC	Hempstead, New York	2020	2022	Folded
New York Cosmos	Uniondale, New York	2020		On hiatus
Philadelphia Fury	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Fall 2019		Folded
Oakland Roots SC	Oakland, California	Fall 2019	Fall 2020	Moved to USL Championship [44]
San Diego 1904 FC	San Diego, California	Fall 2019	Fall 2021	Merged with Albion SC San Diego [45]
Stumptown AC	Matthews, North Carolina	Fall 2019	Fall 2021	Folded
Syracuse Pulse	Syracuse, New York	2021	2022	Merged with Flower City Union and rebranded as Salt City Union
Valley United FC	Mesa, Arizona	2020	2022	Folded

Timeline

Champions

Teams that no longer participate in the National Independent Soccer Association are in italics.

Team	Championships	Year(s)	Runners-up	Year(s)	NISA seasons
Detroit City FC	2	2020–21, 2021			2
Michigan Stars	1	2022	1	2023	5
Flower City Union	1	2023			2
Los Angeles Force	1	2024	1	2020–21	5.5
Albion San Diego			1	2022	4.5
California United Strikers FC			1	2021	3.5
Irvine Zeta FC			1	2024	1.0

NISA Finals results

Season	Champions	Score	Runner Up	Venue	Attendance	Date
2019–20	Season abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21	Detroit City FC	1–0	Los Angeles Force	Keyworth Stadium	7,231	July 3, 2021 [46] [47]
2021	Detroit City FC	N/A	California United Strikers FC	Season champion determined by final table results
2022	Michigan Stars FC	1–0	Albion San Diego	Romeo Stadium	1,178	November 6, 2022
2023	Flower City Union	1–0	Michigan Stars FC	Romeo Stadium	1,016	November 11, 2023
2024	Los Angeles Force	1–1 (3–2 p)	Irvine Zeta FC	Veterans Memorial Stadium	1,447	October 19, 2024

NISA Independent Cup Champions

Year	Great Lakes	Midwest	Central Plains/South Central	Southeast	Southern	Florida	Mid-Atlantic/East	New England/Northeast	Empire	Pacific	Southwest	West Coast	SoCal
2020	Detroit City FC	N/A	Gaffa FC (GCPL)	Chattanooga FC	N/A		Maryland Bobcats FC (NPSL)	N/A					N/A
2021	Detroit City FC	Milwaukee Torrent (NPSL)	Louisiana Krewe FC (GCPL)	Chattanooga FC			Maryland Bobcats FC	Lansdowne Yonkers FC (EPSL)	N/A	PDX FC (USL2)	California United Strikers FC	Los Angeles Force
2022	Michigan Stars FC	N/A	N/A	Chattanooga FC			Maryland Bobcats FC	Flower City Union	Syracuse Pulse	Wenatchee All-Stars FC (Cascadia Premier League)	Valley FC Raiders (NISA Nation)	Los Angeles Force	ASC San Diego
2023	Michigan Stars FC	Gold Star FC		Chattanooga FC	Savannah Clovers FC	Club de Lyon	Maryland Bobcats FC	Flower City Union	N/A	Los Angeles Force	N/A		ASC San Diego
2024	FC Milwaukee Torrent (NPSL) [48]	N/A		Club de Lyon	N/A	N/A	Maryland Bobcats FC	N/A		Irvine Zeta FC		Los Angeles Force	N/A

NISA Nation and affiliates

See also: NISA Nation

In addition to its professional division, NISA operates a full-season amateur league called NISA Nation. NISA's stated long-term goal is to have promotion and relegation between the professional division and NISA Nation, as well as between NISA Nation and seven affiliated regional leagues. Some of those affiliated leagues have entered into promotion and relegation agreements with other leagues, and so a pyramid can be constructed with NISA's Division III professional league at the top.^{[ citation needed ]}

See also

• NISA Nation
• United Soccer League, operator of several leagues in the US system, including:
  • USL Championship, the current second level
  • USL League One, also playing at the third level
• NPSL Members Cup
• Soccer in the United States
• Professional sports leagues in the United States

References

1. "EXCLUSIVE: The National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) – A New Division III Professional Soccer League Expects to Launch in 2018". NISA. June 6, 2017. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
2. "Inaugural Applicant Markets Announced for New US Pro Third Division Soccer League – NISA". nisaofficial.com. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
3. Kivlehan, Chris (May 28, 2019). "With New Leadership In Place, NISA Breaks Its Silence". Midfield Press. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
4. "NISA Formally Announces Shift to Spring/Fall Season". www.nisasoccer.com. September 14, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
5. "About". NISA. June 6, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
6. "New league seeks to finally bring pro/rel to US soccer". NISA. June 14, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
7. "City said to be ripe for pro soccer". June 28, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
8. "Obituary: NISA co-founder Jack Cummins". February 13, 2018. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
9. "Big Top hires Peter Wilt to launch pro soccer team at Breese Stevens Field in 2019". May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
10. "Committee Formed to Select New NISA Leadership". May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
11. "NISA Submits Application For Division III Pro League Sanctioning". Midfield Press. September 4, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
12. Kivlehan, Chris (February 17, 2019). "Breaking: NISA Sanctioned By USSF, To Start In August" . Retrieved February 17, 2019.
13. Kivlehan, Chris (June 11, 2019). "Miami FC, Cal United Accepted Into NISA, Pro Soccer For Baton Rouge & Other News From NISA Board of Governors Meeting". Midfield Press. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
14. "Oakland Roots Statement: League and Membership". Oakland Roots SC. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
15. "NISA Announces Chattanooga FC, Detroit City FC & Oakland Roots SC". NISA. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
16. Zimmerman, Douglas (September 1, 2019). "Oakland Roots tie first ever game 3-3". SFGate . Retrieved September 1, 2019.
17. "NISA Official Update". NISA Homepage. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
18. "Soccer Pioneer Peter Wilt Applies for NISA Club in Chicago". www.nisasoccer.com. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
19. Zimmerman, Douglas; SFGATE (September 15, 2020). "It's official: Oakland Roots moving to higher league, the USL Championship". SFGate. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
20. Kennedy, Paul (April 28, 2020). "NISA cancels spring season, sets sights on August start to fall championship". www.socceramerica.com. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
21. "NISA Independent Cup". www.nisaofficial.com. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
22. "NISA Announces First Amateur Affiliation With Gulf Coast Premier League (GCPL)". www.nisasoccer.com. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
23. Kennedy, Paul (August 15, 2020). "NISA reaches first amateur league affiliation with GCPL". www.socceramerica.com. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
24. "MWPL Joins Forces with NISA". Midwest Premier League. September 3, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
25. "NISA EXPANDS AMATEUR AFFILIATIONS WITH THE EASTERN PREMIER SOCCER LEAGUE AGREEMENT". Eastern Premier Soccer League. September 4, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
26. "NISA Scales up With Mountain Premier League Amateur Affiliation". www.nisasoccer.com. December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
27. "NISA Announces NISA Nation". Protagonist Soccer. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
28. Norling, Ashle (September 15, 2020). "2021 US Soccer Expansion/Departure Tracker". E Pluribus Loonum. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
29. "Equity and Opportunity at Heart of NISA Alliance with United Women's Soccer". NISA Homepage. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
30. "UWS & NISA Announce The Launch Of A Professional Women's League". UWS Homepage. January 28, 2021. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
31. "Detroit City FC announces women's team". Detroit City FC Homepage. September 28, 2019. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
32. "Detroit City FC Adds Women's Reserve Side, Set to Compete in UWS League Two". Detroit City FC Homepage. December 17, 2020. Archived from the original on February 7, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
33. "Michigan Stars FC Announces a Women's Team in United Women's Soccer (UWS)". Michigan Stars FC Homepage. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
34. "Expansion News: NJTFC Joins Women's Pro-Am League UWS". NJ Teamsterz FC Homepage. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
35. "NISA Announces 2024 Clubs and Format". www.nisasoccer.com. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
36. "Media Alert: Atlanta Club Re-Organizes Front Office to Begin Inaugural NISA Season as Georgia FC". nisasoccer.com. April 4, 2024. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
37. "Savannah Clovers FC and Chatham County confirm deal to play at Memorial Stadium". savannahclovers.com. October 20, 2022. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
38. Haro Garcia, Fernando (February 1, 2024). "Pro soccer team LA Force names Long Beach home for its 2024 season". LBPost. Long Beach. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
39. "Schedule". Oaks FC. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
40. "Detroit City FC to Join USL Championship for 2022 Season". uslchampionship.com. USL. November 13, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
41. Flower City Union🏆 [@FlowerCityUnion] (February 15, 2024). "Our time in NISA will forever be a substantial part of our history. We are grateful to NISA and we wish the league nothing but the best moving forward. That being said, stay tuned for an announcement coming next week! #rochesterny #uptheunion #rootedinrochester" (Tweet). Retrieved February 15, 2024– via Twitter.
42. "Flower City Union joins the NPSL". Flower City Union. February 20, 2024. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
43. "Ottawa Fury FC Announce Relocation, Sale of Franchise Rights to The Miami FC". uslchampionship.com. USL. December 11, 2019. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
44. "USL Championship Welcomes Oakland Roots for 2021 Season". uslchampionship.com. USL. September 15, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
45. Mark Zeigler (December 15, 2021). "San Diego pro men's soccer team 1904 FC merges with youth club Albion". www.sandiegouniontribune.com. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
46. NISA Official [@NISALeague] (July 3, 2021). "Final. #NISAChampionship https://t.co/QxdHL4yDna" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 31, 2022. Retrieved April 14, 2022– via Twitter.
47. local sports news DCFC https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/soccer/2021/07/03/own-goal-la-force-gives-detroit-city-fc-1-0-win-nisa-championship/7855972002/
48. "Media Alert : FC Milwaukee Torrent Takes Independent Cup Great Lakes Title in Forfeit". National Independent Soccer Association. August 1, 2024. Retrieved August 14, 2024.

External links

• Official website