Milwaukee Wave Cancels 2020-2021 Season

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Photo via Facebook / MilwaukeeWaveSoccer

Milwaukee Wave

The longest continually operating indoor soccer franchise in the United States has seen a lot of adversity in its time. While the Milwaukee Wave has persevered through league collapses, financial uncertainty, and arena changes, health regulations around the COVID-19 pandemic have forced the team to not have a season for the first time in 36 years. The team is also the current reigning Major Arena Soccer League champions, winning in 2018-2019. The 2019-2020 season was cut short due to the pandemic.

In a statement released on Monday, the team noted that the Wisconsin Center District, who operate the team’s home at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena as well as Fiserv Forum, predicted that no sports events at their venues would have fans until fall of 2021. To compound that, budget cuts resulted in furloughs or layoffs for 88% of the arena’s staff. Current city restrictions would limit capacity for Wave games to about 250 people at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, with the team needing to average around 4,000 fans per home game to make it financially viable. The team has been a core tenant of the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena since moving back there from the Bradley Center in 2003. With an immense amount of uncertainty, as well as a league hoping to resume play as early as December 31^st around the country, the Wave were forced to call off play for this year.

The Wave, who are owned by ROC Ventures, notified season ticket holders of the cancellation shortly before releasing their official statement on Monday. The team plans to resume play for the 2021-2022 slate, joining fellow MASL teams Monterrey Flash and Soles De Sonara in sitting out for one year. The other two clubs, both located in Mexico, cited travel restrictions in canceling their seasons. As it stands, the MASL is still looking to operate in some capacity for this season, though an official schedule has not been released.