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Graham Tutt, former professional goalkeeper
for the Atlanta Chiefs, intends to organize a
new indoor soccer league based primarily in the
Southeast. Birmingham is among the cities Tutt
wants to place a team. Nashville, Chattanooga,
Charlotte, Memphis, Atlanta, Mobile, Tampa and
Jacksonville are a some of the other target
cities. Tutt, a standout English Premier
League goalkeeper for Charlton Athletic in the
1970's, has run numerous soccer camps since the
early 1980's and also has been active in
coaching at the club and high school levels. But
he is best known for having played with the
Chiefs, Atlanta's North American Soccer League
franchise that lived briefly in the early
1980's.
The Chiefs played outdoor and indoor games at
two now extinct buildings, Atlanta-Fulton County
Stadium and The Omni, and Tutt always remembered
how the indoor games typically drew better than
the outdoor ones, even 25 years ago. With that
in mind, he put his heart and money (his
mountain cabin hangs in the balance on this
venture) into the International Indoor Soccer
League, his newly formed indoor league that
hopes to begin play in 2008.
Tutt is the commissioner and president of the
IISL's Atlanta Action and has been working to
start up an indoor league in the Southeast for
five years and is now taking steps to do just
that. Tutt thinks that now is a good time for
such a league, with America essentially being in
its second generation of soccer popularity.
He said the league would be more
investor-friendly than the Major Indoor Soccer
League. The financial structure of the league
would allow college players to compete without
losing their eligibility.
The sport is played essentially on the same
dimensions as indoor hockey and football, using
an Astroturf surface. The season would run from
April to July. |
