American Star Defects from NASL to Steamers
by Dave Lange (10/21/1983) St. Louis Globe-Democrat
The Steamers have signed one of outdoor soccer's premier American-born
players, Rick Davis, the Globe-Democrat has learned.
An announcement of the signing will be made at a press conference Friday.
The 24-year-old Davis, who was born in Denver, is a midfielder who has played
outdoors the last six seasons with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League.
He logged one season of professional indoor soccer when the Cosmos and the NASL
staged an 18-game indoor schedule in 1981-1982.
It was not known if Davis would be in uniform for Friday's exhibition
between the Steamers and the Kansas ity Comets. His debut may not come
until the club plays at Kansas City Sunday or against Memphis in
exhibitions Tuesday and Wednesday at Just for Kicks Soccer Club in
Bridgeton. The regular season begins Nov.4.
Davis was in St. Louis to close the deal Thursday, sources said. His
signing is viewed as a major triumph for the Major Indoor Soccer league in
its rivalry with the older NASL. The NASL had escalated its skirmishes
with the MISL by launching its own indoor league to run concurrently with
the MISL's this season.
Davis is one of the few top Americans playing in the foreign-dominated NASL and enjoyed his best
season last summer. He was a third-team NASL All-Star selection, one of
only two U.S. natives named to NASL all-star teams.
That the MISL highly values Davis' signing is underlined by the fact that
commissioner Earl Foreman is scheduled to attend Friday's announcement.
Davis had been negotiating a new contract with New York, but on
Monday he told the New York Post, "Negotiations were taking so long, and suddenly it seemed the Cosmos
became offended. They pulled their offer off the table." Davis added the
Cosmos' new offer was significantly less than the first.
The Cosmos seemed stunned by Davis' signing with the Steamers.
"I've got to think our offer is more substantial than St. Louis'," Cosmos
general manager Tom Werblm said. "I can't see them giving him any more
money. If they do, they are following the same path of madness as the
NASL."
According to a source with another MISL club, Davis had been pitching
himself to a number of teams for a six-figure salary. "We're not going to
distort our team salary structure for the benefit of one player," the source
said.
At New York, Davis became caught in a new belt-tightening policy. About
a dozen Cosmos players, including Davis, were asked to take pay cuts of
up to 50 percent because of sagging Cosmos attendance and dipping
Warner Communications Inc. stock. Warner owns the Cosmos as well as
Atari; the video game enterprise, which is suffering financially.
It is speculated that Davis will attempt to return to the NASL for its
outdoor season. That would challenge an NASL policy established last season
that prohibits its players from competing in both leagues. The MISL
season overlaps the early portion of the NASL outdoor schedule.
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