Major Arena Soccer League

The Major Arena Soccer League is a professional indoor soccer league in North America. The MASL features teams playing coast-to-coast in the United States and Mexico. The league is the highest level of arena soccer in North America. The league draws talent from a global talent pool with players from Major League Soccer, Liga MX, and many national teams. With a new management team, the league has grown in popularity and commercially. Former USMNT and MLS star Landon Donovan played in the MASL, as do multiple international players.

History

The league was organized as the Professional Arena Soccer League on May 18, 2008, as an offshoot of the Premier Arena Soccer League, the largest amateur league in the United States. The league was originally nicknamed "PASL-Pro" to distinguish it from PASL-Premier. The first league game was played on October 25, 2008, in front of a crowd of 3,239 at Stockton Arena, in Stockton, California, with the California Cougars defeating the Colorado Lightning 10–5. In 2011, it was announced the professional league would officially be referred to as simply PASL, while the amateur league would still be referred to as the PASL-Premier.
On March 17, 2014, one day after the 2013–2014 Major Indoor Soccer League Championship finale, United Soccer Leagues President Tim Holt announced "a number" of teams would not be returning to MISL the following year. In April 2014 it was officially announced that six teams joined PASL for the 2014–2015 season.
The league announced a change in its name from the Professional Arena Soccer League to the Major Arena Soccer League on May 18, 2014. This represents a merging of the MISL and PASL names. MASL fielded 23 teams for the 2014–15 season.

Split and re-merger into the MASL

In February 2016, the current owner of the Baltimore Blast, Ed Hale, announced his intentions to leave the MASL and form a new league, the Indoor Professional League. Hale was later announced as the chairman of the league, and Sam Fantauzzo, former owner of the Rochester Lancers, was announced as the first commissioner of the league. The St. Louis Ambush, Baltimore Blast, and Harrisburg Heat announced plans to join, along with the expansion Florida Tropics SC. In July 2016, the MASL was reformed as a new not-for-profit entity , a new entity separate from the previous MASL, LLC.
In August 2016, the new MASL announced that the Blast, Heat, and Ambush would return to the MASL while the Tropics would join the MASL as an expansion team. This effectively ended the IPL split with the MASL.
In a repeat of the 2015-16 Newman Cup the Baltimore Blast would go on to once again defeat Soles de Sonora 2–1.

Launch of MASL 2

In October 2017 it was officially announced the Major Arena Soccer League 2 would launch in December 2017. MASL 2 serves as the developmental league for the MASL. The initial lineup of this league consisted of former MASL clubs Chicago Mustangs, Waza Flo, the reserve teams for the Ontario Fury, San Diego Sockers, former PASL clubs, and new expansion teams.

High-profile players

In the 2018–19 season, the MASL saw an influx of players to the arena game with past MLS experience, headlined by the additions of Landon Donovan to the San Diego Sockers, Jermaine Jones to the Ontario Fury, and Dwayne De Rosario with the Mississauga MetroStars. The Empire Strykers signed Marco Fabián to the second-largest contract in league history in December 2023 in an attempt to lure more professional players to the league.

End of the 2019–20 season

Like many sports leagues, the MASL ended its regular 2019–20 season early because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May, the league announced that it was looking at conducting its playoffs in a centralized location. However, this did not take place, and the remainder of the season was cancelled.

Formation of the Major Arena Soccer League 3

On July 20, 2020, the MASL launched a new semi-professional/amateur developmental league known as MASL 3 set to kick off in 2021. The anticipated conferences expected to play were to be in the North East, Mid-Atlantic, South East, Great Lakes, Central North, Central South, Heartland Conference, Mountain North, Mountain South, Southwest, Pacific North, and Pacific South regions. The Omaha Kings FC, Sunflower State FC, Grand Rapids Wanderers FC and Muskegon Risers SC were announced as the first members of the league. However, the Risers were dropped from M3 and replaced by the Springfield Demize and Wichita Wings 2. The league launched their new website on January 30, 2017.

Formation of the Major Arena Soccer League Women (2024)

On September 3, 2024, the MASL launched a new women's league known as MASL W set to kick off in 2024.

2027 Expansion to Sacramento

On September 23, 2025, the league announced the it is expanding to the Sacramento/Rancho Cordova region in 2027. A new arena is planned for Rancho Cordova as a part of the deal.

Teams

Team	Location	Arena	Capacity	Joined	Coach	MASL2 Affiliate
Baltimore Blast	Towson, Maryland	TU Arena	3,580	2014	David Bascome	FC Baltimore 1729
Empire Strykers	Ontario, California	Toyota Arena	9,736	2013	Onua Obasi
Kansas City Comets	Independence, Missouri	Cable Dahmer Arena	5,800	2014	Stefan Stokic	Minnesota Blizzard
Milwaukee Wave	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena	9,500	2014	Marcio Leite
San Diego Sockers	Oceanside, California	Frontwave Arena	7,500	2024	Paul Salvagio
St. Louis Ambush	St. Charles, Missouri	Family Arena	9,643	2014	Jeff Locker
Tacoma Stars	Kent, Washington	accesso ShoWare Center	7,141	2010	Adam Becker
Utica City FC	Utica, New York	Adirondack Bank Center	3,860	2014	Hewerton Moriera	United Elite Krajisnik FC

Teams on Hiatus

Champions

Season	Champions	Score	Runner-Up	Playoffs / Host
2008–09	Stockton Cougars	13–5	1790 Cincinnati	Stockton, California
2009–10	San Diego Sockers	9–8	La Raza de Guadalajara	San Diego, California
2010–11	San Diego Sockers	10–6	La Raza de Guadalajara	Cincinnati, Ohio

Attendance

Sponsorship

The official game ball was made by Puma SE through the 2016–17 season. Starting in the 2017–18 season, Mitre became the official ball sponsor of both the MASL and M2.

Broadcast rights

Select 2018–2019 MASL matches were broadcast on Eleven Sports Network in the United States.
Some matches are also broadcast regionally throughout the United States.
All matches since 2016–2017 season are archived on , the MASL's YouTube Channel
For the 2022-23 Season, MASL announced broadcast partnerships with Amazon / Twitch, CanelaTV and AtmosphereTV.
At the start of the 2024-25 season MASL announced that they would partner with CBS Golazo network which premiered 40 games in their first full season.

Staff

Commissioner

Office of the Commissioner

– Chairman
JP Dellacamera – President of Communications/Media
Lindsay Mogle – Director of Communications/Team Services
Jon Ramin – Vice-President of Operations
Werner Roth – Advisor
Dennis Fry – Chief Financial Officer
Ken Stanley – Content Director
Ryan Cigich - Head of MASL Officials
Jesse Meehan - Operations Manager
Pete Richmire – League Statistician
Óscar Sánchez – Spanish Content Manager
Phil Lavanco – Video Production Manager
Jack Williams – Social Media Manager
Christian Filimon - ''Director of Corporate Sponsorships''

Executive committee

Jeff Burum – President
Lane Smith – Vice-President
Shelly Clark – Secretary
Kevin Healey – Treasurer
Phil Salvagio – ''Member-at-Large''