Santa Barbara Condors Explained

Santa Barbara Condors was an American soccer club that was a member of the American Soccer League for part of the 1977 season.

The club had brought in top players, but folded halfway through their only season with the league's highest payroll but players who hadn't been paid for two months.^[1]

Notes and References

1. Behrens, Woody. "Tale of 2 teams: One dead but one thriving", Ventura County Star, July 12, 1977. Accessed February 4, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "The Santa Barbara Condors suffered an untimely death recently. After barely two months in existence as an expansion franchise in the American Soccer League's Western Division severe financial problems have left the Condors extinct. There are differing views on the exact cause of death — whether it was Commentary financial homicide by the management and league or impatient suicide by the players.... Whiteside named Yeats player-coach and urged him to recruit the best he could find from his native England. Yeats did a fine job landing seven English veterans to fill the league's foreign player quota But it also resulted in what Otto Radich, a spokesman for ASL commissioner Bob Cousy, called the highest payroll in the league."