[3][4] After one season, the team was sold to a group of 25 local business leaders[5] including Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie and his wife Elizabeth and renamed the Toros.

[13] Finishing the 1978 season in third place with a record of sixteen wins and fourteen losses, the Strikers made it to the third round of the playoffs, losing the Conference Championship to the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

[14] The team was one of four to participate in the 1979 NASL Budweiser Indoor Soccer Invitational, losing both games the played[15] The 1979 North American Soccer League season ended with the Strikers in second place of the Eastern Division behind the Rowdies with a record of seventeen wins, thirteen losses and averaging 13,774 attendance per game.

[17] After Newman declined the front office position, the Strikers hired Bob Lemieux who had been working as an executive for the Detroit Red Wings as the team's General Manager.

[19] During the 1980 NASL Season there were several reports of arguments between van der Hart and the players as well as publicity referencing a drinking problem, both issues led to difficulties with the head office.

[20][21] Finishing with a record of eighteen wins and fourteen loses, the team ended the season in second place of the Eastern Division, behind the Tampa Bay Rowdies again.

[14] The Strikers advanced to Soccer Bowl '80 against the New York Cosmos after defeating the California Surf, Edmonton Drillers, and San Diego Sockers in the first three rounds of the playoffs.

[14] After defeating the Calgary Boomers and Minnesota Kicks in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Strikers lost in the Semifinals to the Cosmos.

[14] After defeating the Montreal Manic in the first round of the playoffs, the Strikers failed to qualify for Soccer Bowl '82 when they lost the semifinals to Seattle Sounders.