Just over a week after announcing the format for the 2023 playoffs, those very same National Indoor Soccer League playoffs appear to have been canceled. The tournament was set for this coming Sunday, May 14 at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida (home of the league’s Central Florida Crusaders). However, a source has confirmed to Bluff City Media that the tournament will not happen.
In what has become an unfortunate reality in this day and age where athletes scrub their social media profiles of all references to teams they are unhappy with, so too has the NISL scrubbed their social media pages of any and all references to the postseason tournament in Orlando. There is no longer anything on Twitter, on Facebook or on the league website about a postseason tournament. Furthermore, a picture of the website for Addition Financial Arena (sent to Bluff City Media by Tim Van Horn who, along with Jeff Brightwell, calls the Memphis Americans home games for the YouTube stream) shows that the event has indeed been canceled.
This comes as a huge disappointment for the Americans who are one of the few organizations in the NISL to have successful seasons for both their men’s and women’s teams in each of their two seasons of existence. Both teams were on win streaks heading into the playoffs. The women’s team was the reigning champions and the #1-seed looking to defend their title while the men’s team was the #2-seed and qualified for the playoffs for the second straight season.
In a statement to Bluff City Media, the NISL said the following: “After considering feedback from teams and contracted personnel, members of both team and league ownership groups decided that no postseason tournament will be played and the final regular season standings will determine both divisional champions. The league will be announcing 2023 awards in the coming days in addition to some exciting announcements around expansion.”