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Jacksonville Tea Men

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Jacksonville Tea Men
Full nameJacksonville Tea Men
Founded1980
Dissolved1984
StadiumGator Bowl Stadium,
Jacksonville Coliseum (indoor)
Capacity70,000
9,200 (indoor)
CoachNoel Cantwell
LeagueNASL (1980–1982)
American Soccer League (1983–1984)
United Soccer League (1984)

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

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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 in reference to the Boston Tea Party.[1][2] In their first season the Tea Men had a contract to play at Foxboro Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the New England Patriots National Football League (NFL) team. The team made the league playoffs and sold well in their first season. In 1979, the team was unable to renew their lease for Foxboro and were forced to play home games at the much smaller Nickerson Field, leading to a precipitous decline in ticket sales.[3] They were able to return to Foxboro 1980, but under a new, restrictive lease that forced them to play many games at off times. Ticket sales plummeted even further, and Lipton decided to relocate the club to Jacksonville, Florida, drawn in by pledges of season ticket sales of 14,000 seats.[1][4][5]

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.[1]

North American Soccer League (1980-82)

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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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[1]

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.[8] 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 possibly 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.[9][10] 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.[1][11]

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)

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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 ASL heading into its 1983 season.[12] Despite the fact that Lipton now had nothing to do with the team at all, 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.[13] 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.[14]

At the ASL's annual meeting the following January, league owners voted down an application for an expansion team in Fort Lauderdale because ASL by-laws allowed the owner of the "dormant" Miami franchise to retain rights to the region and voting privileges. Ingo Krieg chaired the expansion committee and was frustrated that the shrinking league (Oklahoma City and Pennsylvania had just announced plans to go dormant) was unable to prevent its seeming collapse. 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 league 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 the Fort Lauderdale group rejected by the ASL). The ASL was left with no active teams and closed down.[12]

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 Jacksonville was unable to replicate the success of the previous year. They finished last in the league's Southern Division with an 11-13 record and missed the playoffs.[15] 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. Later that month, Krieg closed down the Jacksonville Tea Men once and for all. Four teams would try to stage a 1985 USL season, but they only made it through about six weeks of play before the bankrupt league was forced to shut down.[12]

Year-by-year

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Year League W L Pts Reg. Season Playoffs Avg Attend
1980–81 NASL Indoor 8 10 — 3rd, Eastern Division did not qualify —
1981 NASL 18 14 141 3rd, Southern Division Won 1st Round (Atlanta)
Lost Quarterfinal (San Diego) 		9,507
1981–82 NASL Indoor 7 11 — 3rd, American Conference, East Division did not qualify —
1982 NASL 11 21 105 4th, Southern Division did not qualify 7,160

All-time results

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

Honors

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League Goal Scoring Champion

League Leading Goaltender

NASL All-Stars

U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame

ASL/USL

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Year-by-year

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Year Division League Reg. Season Playoffs U.S. Open Cup
1983 2 ASL 1st, Eastern Champion did not enter
1984 N/A USL 3rd, Southern did not qualify

Honors (ASL)

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ASL MVP

ASL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Players (ASL)

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Bart Hubbuch (June 25, 2006). "Remember the Tea Men? A pro kickoff". The Florida Times-Union. Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  2. ^ Wangerin, p. 187
  3. ^ "The Year in American Soccer - 1979". Soccer History USA – Audio Essays on the Beautiful Game. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  4. ^ "Gainesville Sun - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  5. ^ Garry, Smits (June 7, 2010). "Summer of 10: The top 10 little-known sports franchises in Jacksonville history". The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  6. ^ "The Year in American Soccer - 1981". Soccer History USA – Audio Essays on the Beautiful Game. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  7. ^ "Gainesville Sun - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  8. ^ a b "The Year in American Soccer - 1982". Soccer History USA – Audio Essays on the Beautiful Game. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  9. ^ monkfromhavana (November 22, 2011). "History of the Carolina Lightnin'". NASLhistory. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
  10. ^ "No Headline". Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
  11. ^ Crossley, Drew (June 6, 2015). "Jacksonville Tea Men (1980-1984)". Fun While It Lasted. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  12. ^ a b c "What can only be described as "Soccapocalypse"". Protagonist Soccer. March 6, 2019. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  13. ^ "NASL New England Tea Men Rosters". www.nasljerseys.com. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  14. ^ "The Year in American Soccer - 1983". Soccer History USA – Audio Essays on the Beautiful Game. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  15. ^ "The Year in American Soccer - 1984". Soccer History USA – Audio Essays on the Beautiful Game. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  16. ^ "US Soccer Hall of Fame Membership". Archived from the original on September 23, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
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