Jacksonville Tea Men

The Jacksonville Tea Men was a soccer team based in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Overall, the Tea Men played a total of four years in Jacksonville, first in the major league-level North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1980–1982, then in the lower level American Soccer League in 1983 and United Soccer League in 1984. The NASL incarnation of the club was Jacksonville's first professional soccer team, and the first major league-level sport franchise ever based in the city.

History

The team originated as the New England Tea Men, who joined the North American Soccer League (NASL) as an expansion team for the 1978 season. Their owner was the tea company Lipton, who gave the team its unusual name as a dual reference to regional history (the Boston Tea Party) and the company's primary product. The club's run in New England got off to a fairly good start. They qualified for the playoffs after finishing tied for first place in their division and averaged about 11,000 fans per game for home dates at Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts (a home they shared with the NFL's Patriots). Their fortunes took a turn the following spring, however, when their leading scorer failed to return from England amidst a contract dispute, and they also lost access to Schaefer Stadium in a legal dispute with the neighboring harness racing track (their lease prohibited events at the stadium during racing days at the track). This forced The Tea Men into a last minute relocation to Boston University's Nickerson Field for the 1979 season, where they went on to post a losing record. This move and drop-off in performance led to a precipitous decline in ticket sales. They were able to return to Foxborough 1980, but under a new, restrictive lease that forced them to avoid conflicts with the race track by playing games at undesirable times such as Monday evenings. Ticket sales plummeted even further (including a record setting low of just 254 fans coming to an April home fixture), and Lipton decided to relocate the club to Jacksonville, Florida, drawn in by pledges of season ticket sales of 14,000 seats.

By attracting the Tea Men, Jacksonville got its first ever professional soccer team, as well as its first major league-level team in any sport. Lipton, which had already lost $1 million on its franchise, decided to retain the Tea Men name, not wanting to lose the marketing tie-in or spend any further money on rebranding. Many commentators, and even the players themselves, noted the name made no sense in a Florida city with no connection to tea, but it stuck regardless. The team made arrangements to host indoor games at Jacksonville Coliseum and outdoor games at the Gator Bowl Stadium.

North American Soccer League (1980-82)

The Tea Men started their run in Jacksonville two games into the indoor 1980-81 season. An 8-10 record left them out of the playoffs, but their performance would improve during the 1981 outdoor season. They finished with an 18-14 record and qualified for the playoffs, where they defeated the Atlanta Chiefs in the first round and won the first game of a best-of-three series against the San Diego Sockers before being eliminated. Despite drawing strong crowds to their first outdoor games, peaking with a crowd of 17,128 at their Gator Bowl debut, attendance waned later in the season, eventually dropping to around 10,000 per game. Actual season ticket sales topped out at around 4,500, nowhere near the promised 14,000. Lipton, which announced that it had lost $1.7 million since the relocation, wanted out. At the urging of mayor Jake Godbold, a group of Jacksonville investors raised funds to lease the team from Lipton and keep it operating the next season.

The 1981-82 indoor season would see the team take a step backwards, finishing 7-11 and again outside of the playoffs, and they would fare even worse in the 1982 outdoor season. They finished tied for the league's worst record at 11-21. Furthermore, their average attendance of only 7,160 fans per game fell well short of the projection of an average of 12,000 per game that was needed to break even financially. The investment group that had been leasing the Tea Men from Lipton returned the franchise, and Lipton, fed up with all of the red ink, looked to unload the financial albatross for good by selling the team and relocating it again. Charlotte was an early front-runner for the club's new home, and an exhibition game in Charlotte that August against the Carolina Lightnin' of the second-division American Soccer League allowed the company to test both the market and the Carolina roster to see if merging the clubs could work out. Once this option was ruled out in September, Lipton went on to conduct negotiations with groups in both Milwaukee and Detroit, but neither of these deals was completed, either. The franchise was eventually sold to Jacksonville businessman Ingo Krieg. His plan was to see if The Tea Men's economics could be improved by staying in Jacksonville and moving down to the ASL.

During their time in the NASL the Tea Men's coach was Irishman Noel Cantwell, former manager of Coventry City (1967–1972) and Peterborough United (1972–1977). The assistant coach was Dennis Viollet, former player for Manchester United. Notable players include goalkeeper Arnie Mausser, midfielder Archie Gemmill and strikers Alan Green and Ricardo Alonso.

American Soccer League and United Soccer League (1983-84)

Though it had operated since 1933, the ASL was barely hanging on in the early '80s after a long period of decline. The Tea Men were one of just six teams in the league heading into its 1983 season. Despite the fact that Lipton now had nothing to do with the team at all, new owner Ingo Krieg kept the Tea Men name to try to win over existing "Teas" fans. Dennis Viollet stayed in town and assumed head coaching duties for the ASL Tea Men, and four players from the 1982 NASL team would also stay in northern Florida to join him. The reborn Tea Men were the class of the league, finishing the regular season with an 18-7 record (five wins better than the second best team) and winning the championship finals two games to one over the Pennsylvania Stoners.

At the ASL's annual meetings the following January, a dispute arose over rights to an expansion franchise in Fort Lauderdale. Krieg chaired the league's expansion committee, which had granted franchise rights to a group led by former Strikers and Miami Toros player Ronnie Sharp. However, ASL by-laws allowed dormant owners to retain voting privileges and territorial rights, and the owner of the dormant Miami Americans franchise wanted to run a Fort Lauderdale expansion franchise. Krieg was fed up with a power structure that allowed inactive owners to have a say over the direction of the struggling league, and he worked over the weekend with the owner of the Dallas Americans, Bill Spears, to lay the groundwork for a more stable and financially sound second division organization to be called the United Soccer League. Over the course of the spring, the USL attracted three defectors from the ASL (The Tea Men, Dallas Americans and Rochester Flash) as well as two clubs that were effectively carrying on ASL operations in their towns but had re-organized and re-branded (the Charlotte Gold and Oklahoma City Stampede). Four new organizations would play in the new league as well (including Sharp's Fort Lauderdale group). The ASL was left with no active teams and closed down.

The 1984 USL season kicked off in May. The team brought back Ringo Cantillo (who had played with the Tea Men in the NASL days) and about half of the 1983 championship roster, but they were unable to replicate the success of the previous year. The 1984 squad finished last in the league's Southern Division with an 11-13 record and missed the playoffs. They also continued to struggle financially. Despite league-wide measures to control costs such as a tight salary cap and a schedule heavy on regional play to reduce travel expenses, USL owners were still losing money. Last-ditch negotiations took place in February of 1985 to salvage some form of professional outdoor soccer by merging the handful of teams from the USL that were not completely insolvent with the last few NASL teams that were interested in carrying on, but these were called off without an agreement on March 5th. Facing a tax lien from the IRS, Krieg was forced to close down the Jacksonville Tea Men once and for all.

Year-by-year

All-time results

*NASL regular Season: 29–35–0
*NASL Playoffs: 3–2

Honors

League Goal Scoring Champion
*1982 Ricardo Alonso ''(21 goals)''
League Leading Goaltender
* 1981 Arnie Mausser ''(GAA: 1.21)''
NASL All-Stars
*1981 Alan Green, ''Honorable Mention''
*1982 Ricardo Alonso, ''1st Team''
U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame
*2003 Arnie Mausser
*Participations in CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 1984

ASL/USL

Year-by-year

Honors (ASL)

ASL MVP
*1983 – Peter Simonini

ASL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
*1983 – Matt English

Players (ASL)

* Ringo Cantillo (1984)
* Matt English (1983) 11 Goals
* Poli Garcia (1983) 9 Goals
* John Lignos (1984)
* Peter Ioanou (1983) 2 Goals
* Robert Maum (1983)
* Steve Ralbovsky (1983)
* Peter Simonini (1983) 24 Apps 0 Goals
* Nino Zec (1983) 6 Goals
* Micky Zivaljevic (1983) 16 Goals

References

External links

The Year in American Soccer – 1983

{{United Soccer League (1984–85)

American Soccer League (1933–1983) teams
Defunct indoor soccer clubs in the United States
Defunct soccer clubs in Florida
North American Soccer League (1968–1984) teams
Sports clubs and teams in Jacksonville, Florida
United Soccer League (1984–85) teams
1980 establishments in Florida
1984 disestablishments in Florida
Soccer clubs in Florida
Association football clubs established in 1980
Association football clubs disestablished in 1984
U.S. clubs in CONCACAF Champions' Cup