Pro soccer: Soccer comes to Tulsa
By GLENN HIBDON World Sports Writer
7/29/2007
The Tulsa Revolution
will begin its inaugural
season in January.
Hoping for continued growth
around the country, commissioner
Paul Lapointe of the American Indoor Soccer League welcomed the
Tulsa Revolution for the 2007-08
season at a press conference on
Saturday.
Owned by local soccer enthusiast Adam Mellor and coached by
Kerry Shubert, the Revolution will
play an eight-game exhibition season starting in January. Four Saturday night home games will be
played at Soccer City, 5817 S.
118th East Ave.
"We're filling the void for Division I players who come out of college," said Lapointe, who helped
start the AISL five years ago. "The
players can hold jobs and still compete at the highest levels. I think
Tulsa is a fairly untapped market
when it comes to our sport and the
AISL will be ready to come alive
here in January."
The AISL enters 2007-08 with
Massachusetts, Rockford and Cincinnati while adding Northern Illinois and Tulsa. Lapointe said the
league wants to add Oklahoma
City, Grand Rapids and Chicago,
with an ultimate goal of 16 teams.
"The Revolution is the latest link
in the chain to what the Roughnecks started in 1978," said
Mellor, the youngest owner in the
league at 23. "The Tulsa Revs will
give homegrown players something to work toward here.
"Some of our goals are to establish a development team for players coming out of high school.
We're looking at a development
league to coincide with their club
teams so they can get professional
training."
Mellor said Shubert has plenty
of experience coaching. Shubert
began playing for the Broken Arrow Soccer Club, suited up for
Oklahoma Christian and then the
Oklahoma City Warriors from
1990 through 1992. He has
coached at the youth level, at Edmond Santa Fe High School and as
an assistant for the University of
Tulsa women's team.
"We have two Division I schools
here in Tulsa and ORU. Probably
the greatest players at 22 and 23
years old go on to coach club soccer and would still love to play,"
said Shubert. "Now they have the
opportunity.
"Soccer America rated Tulsa as
one of the top 20 hotbeds for soccer in the country and there are
over 3,500 kids playing in the
Green Country program. Now the
kids will have the chance to watch
professional athletes play."
Soccer City can seat 990 for
games and Lapointe said league
players can earn from $100 to $800
per game, depending on the franchise. He said there is no salary
cap and the AISL will attract offseason Major League Soccer players and former Major Indoor Soccer League stars.
"The demographics for our
league is from 5- and 7-year-olds to
adults," Lapointe said. "This
league is built on the grassroots
level and that's where we will stay.
We're a blue-collar league with
white-collar dreams, but . . . we'll
stick to the small arenas."
Glenn Hibdon 581-8396
glenn.hibdon@tulsaworld.com