| Clubname: | Fort Lauderdale Sun |
| Fullname: | South Florida Sun |
| Founded: | 1984 |
| Stadium: | Lockhart Stadium |
| Capacity: | 19,020 |
| Owner: | Ronnie Sharp |
| Chairman: | Jeff Sarkin (General Manager) |
| Mgrtitle: | Head Coach |
| Manager: | Keith Weller |
| League: | United Soccer League (1984–1985) |
| Position: | Champions |
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Fort Lauderdale/South Florida Sun was a professional U.S. soccer team which played two seasons in the United Soccer League.
In November of 1983, The Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League, motivated in part by the lack of a suitable arena in the Fort Lauderdale area for the league's winter indoor season, announced that they would be moving to Minnesota.[1] The outdoor version of the Strikers had attracted a relatively robust fan base in the late 1970s and early 80s, and former Strikers and Miami Toros player Ronnie Sharp headed up a group that believed that the area was still a good market for the game. They applied to field an expansion team in the de facto second division American Soccer League in 1984. Despite the league being down to only four active teams, their application was rejected at the league meetings in January of 1984 because ASL by-laws allowed the owner of a "dormant" franchise in Miami to retain territorial control over the area. This rejection would be the catalyst for a seismic change in the second tier of pro soccer, as the owners of the ASL's Jacksonville Tea Men and Dallas Americans would see it as confirmation that the ASL was too hampered by unwieldy league rules and not financially disciplined enough to have much of a future. They broke away to form a more stable, financially sound league that they would call the United Soccer League. The USL accepted Sharp and Co.'s application for membership, and the rest of the teams in the ASL either also defected to the new league or folded over the next few months. The new Fort Lauderdale club chose the name Sun, and they joined the Tea Men and Charlotte Gold in the Southern Division of the nine team USL.[2]
When the Sun built its team for the 1984 season, they were able to secure the services of several former Strikers who had chosen not to go north with the NASL club. Teófilo Cubillas, Jim Tietjens, Ernst-Jean Baptiste, and player-coach Keith Weller all returned to Lockhart Stadium with the Sun, and they were joined by former English international Dave Watson and Scottish international Asa Hartford, giving the Sun one of the most talented rosters in the league.[3] This paid dividends, as they played to a 15–9 record, scoring fifty-three goals and giving up only thirty-four. The Sun finished at the top of the Southern Division and just a few standings points behind the Oklahoma City Stampede for the top seed in the playoffs. They would achieve this on-field success despite primary owner Ronnie Sharp's arrest less than a month into the season for alleged participation in a large drug smuggling operation.
In the playoff semifinals, the Sun crushed the Buffalo Storm by scores of 3-0 and 5-1. The championship round against the Houston Dynamos would be much more closely contested. Houston won the first game at home in a shootout. The Sun won Game 2 by a score of 3-0, setting up a decisive Game 3 on September 1st. This game also ended tied after regulation and overtime, but the Sun would win the shootout round this time to clinch the first USL championship.[4] Later in the month, an investors group comprised primarily of local doctors who had sat together at Strikers games purchased the team from the troubled Ronnie Sharp.
Though the USL tried very hard to control costs through strict salary caps and schedules that heavily featured regional play to reduce travel expenses, virtually all of its teams were losing money during their first season. Several teams failed to post a performance bond to guarantee their return for 1985.[5] The first division NASL was also in deep trouble, with only a few of its remaining nine teams willing to commit to another outdoor season. A last-ditch idea to merge the USL and NASL to salvage some form of professional outdoor soccer that summer was discussed, but USL commissioner William Burfeind announced that this merger would not go through on March 5th. Within a few weeks the NASL had cancelled its upcoming season and five USL teams (including the Sun's division rivals in Charlotte and Jacksonville) had officially folded, while another had withdrawn to become an independent club.
The renamed South Florida Sun were joined by only the Dallas Americans, Tulsa Tornado's (who had moved from Oklahoma City and re-branded), and an expansion team in El Paso/Juarez for the USL's 1985 season. To buy time to try and attract a few more members, the USL decided to re-arrange the schedule by splitting the season into two parts. In the first part of the season, the four teams would compete for the "USL Cup" in a round-robin style tournament capped off by a championship between the top two teams. The "regular season" (hopefully with new members) was scheduled to begin a week later. Play got underway on May 19th, but the league's future looked bleak. League commissioner Burfeind resigned just as the games were starting. The teams in Tulsa and Dallas were both having trouble making payroll, and unpaid players in Tulsa refused to participate in one exhibition and one USL Cup game. South Florida finished at the top of the table in round robin play with a 4-2 record. The league abandoned plans for the championship round of the USL Cup, so when the Sun defeated Tulsa 1-0 at Lockhart Stadium on June 15th, they were declared cup winners due to having clinched the best record. As a harbinger of things to come, the acting commissioner was not there nor was an actual trophy presented to them, causing Sun player-coach, Keith Weller, to quip, "There ain't no cup."[6] The Sun did their best to proceed as though it was business as usual, even managing to sign former New York Cosmos and Dutch national team star Johan Neeskens to a three-year contract in mid-June. On June 22nd, with no new teams having joined the league, the Sun began regular season play at home against Dallas. The 3-1 victory would turn out to be the final USL game and the only game in which Neeskens would suit up for South Florida (despite the "three-year contract," he would never receive a paycheck).[7] Before the Sun's next scheduled match on the 26th, creditors foreclosed on the league and locked officials out of their offices. The USL voted to suspend play on June 25th.[8]
Following the league’s collapse, the Sun were the only USL club that did not immediately fold. The ownership group, who had just taken over the previous September, scrambled to find a new way forward. They began to tentatively plan exhibition matches against a Haitian Select team, the Minnesota Strikers and Tampa Bay Rowdies, among others, hoping to earn enough in ticket sales to cover back pay that was owed to players and staff. The only one of these matches that would actually be played, though, was a July 4th match against the Topez-Haitian All-Stars in which the soccer game preceded the town's Independence Day fireworks.[9] The Sun rallied to win what was to be their final game, 4–3, before a crowd of 3,529. After the game, the Sun players voted on how to equitably share the gate receipts from the match. Team owners soon came to grips with the fact that the organization simply did not have the means to carry on. They officially announced the suspension of operations a few days later, and the players began to disperse back into everyday life.[10] [11] [12] [13]
On June 27, 1984 the Sun made their only appearance in the Florida Derby, falling to the Tampa Bay Rowdies, 5–1, in an inter-league friendly.[14] Two more derby matches were planned for in 1985, but the Sun closed up shop before those games could materialize.
Champion
USL Invitational Cup
Rookie of the Year
Top Goalkeeper
| Year | Team Name | Division | League | Reg. Season | Playoffs | League Cup | National Cup | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Fort Lauderdale Sun | 2 | USL | 1st, Southern (15–9) | Champions | none | Did not enter | |
| 1985 | South Florida Sun | 2 | USL | 1st (1–0) | none | Champions (4–2) | Did not enter |
| Place | 1985 League Cup | GP | W | T | L | GF | GA | % | Avg. Att.[15] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Florida Sun | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 8 | .667 | 2,195 | |
| 2 | Dallas Americans | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 9 | .500 | 2,400 | |
| 3 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 7 | .500 | 500 | ||
| 4 | El Paso/Juarez Gamecocks | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 15 | .333 | 1,430 |
| USL Rank | Scorer | GP | Goals | Assists | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2(tied) | Hassan Nazari | 5 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| 7 | Wolfgang Rausch | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 9 | Tom Fazekas | 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 |