New York Nationals (USL)

The North American Soccer League was in significant decline following the "boom years" of the late 1970s, undone by a period of over-expansion and overspending that created an unstable environment in which teams were constantly folding or moving to new cities.

Their vision was a stable league in which teams could operate within their means and take a more "grass roots" approach to building a fan base in their communities.

Year-round operation (with an indoor season in the winter), a strict salary cap, a focus on American players and a mostly regional schedule to reduce travel costs were all pillars on which this new league was to be founded.

[1] The Nationals were founded by a group of mostly Greek-American owners and executives and had connections to the defunct New York Apollo/United (in the form of head coach Jimmy McGeough and players Andy Papoulias and Michael Collins[2][3]).

He was willing to come lend his support to the upstart league, but the other owners voted against granting the Nationals a salary cap exemption so that they could afford to sign him.

A last-ditch set of USL/NASL merger discussions to shore up USL team finances and keep the NASL from shrinking to non-existence was called off without an agreement on March 5th of 1985, and shortly after that the Nationals failed to meet the league's financial requirements and dropped out along with the clubs in Rochester and Buffalo.