Sometimes so much water has traveled beneath the bridge that it’s hard to find the starting point of the stream. The story of Tulsa Athletic’s battle with the NPSL is longer than any one writer’s patience or memory. It’s hard to pinpoint when things went sour, but the last week has been especially TART and might be the end of a decade-long relationship.

The State of Play

The last couple of seasons have been testy between the NPSL and Tulsa, but particularly on the issue of the club’s home field, Hick’s Park. The league claims that the field doesn’t meet league standards, but when the club requests specifics to fix the problem, claim to be stonewalled. It’s a mess (which we’ve written about in the past). That mess got bigger last month, when Tulsa Athletic filed an injunction in court against the league regarding the field (we also wrote about that). And mind you, all this drama has done nothing to stymie the success of the team on the field. Last year, the team had one of the best years any NPSL team has had, winning the league title and advancing the furthest of any amateur team in the US Open Cup.

Leaked email from the NPSL to Tulsa Athletic.

Last week, everything really hit the fan. Through a source, we broke the story that the NPSL was preparing to suspend the club for the 2024 season. Soon after our social media post, the league announced the suspension and the club responded to the league with a series of posts from the the cofounder of the team, Sonny Dalesandro. Soccer historian and Protagonist contributor, Dan Creel, couldn’t point to another time in American soccer that this has happened. “Our country's soccer history is replete with teams not returning for financial reasons. But for such a prominent, national league, I think it's fair to say that straight up suspending a champion is a rare occurrence.”

While the league has announced the suspension, the reason for the decision hasn’t been given publicly and Sonny claims to still not know why the punishment was handed out. The public has overwhelmingly assumed that it’s connected to Hicks Park, but the reality is that the league hasn’t offered any specifics. We’ve reached out to the league for details regarding the suspension and they responded: “Due to pending litigation, the league is not making any further comments or doing any interviews at this time. “

Finding Solutions and Motivation

“We are working on friendlies for the summer. We're finalizing a summer schedule,” Sonny responded when asked about immediate plans for the team he cofounded. “We received some news about the Steinbrecher Cup that we are fighting to retain. That was sort of the cherry on top part of our season, I guess. It's kind of a two prong attack. We're staying present and doing what we need to do to defend our club on all fronts and then we're being active and looking at what the future holds for us as well.”

Having spoken with Sonny multiple times over the last couple of years, I can hear the tiredness in his voice. His team was supposed to be revving up to kick off their season and instead, the whole thing is in limbo. He’s clearly trying to find his equilibrium again and it isn’t easy. “Things like this take energy. I am a human being and I do as much as I can and I love what we do. I have to invest a lot of energy into being able to continue to fight the other side of me…I was sort of built to be thrown into the fire. Our club is a club of surviving, of a survival mentality, and all they're [NPSL] really doing is pouring fuel on it.” He chuckles as he says it, then continues. “One of the proudest moments of my entire life was when they put us through what we went through last year and they took our venue and everything, and then my boys and this club and everyone around it raised the national championship trophy. So at some point they need to realize that every time they attack myself or this club, our alarm clock goes off five minutes earlier and we wake up with that much more motivation to overcome, because at the end of the day, you're a product of what you overcome.”

Tulsa players celebrating an NPSL title. *Image courtesy of Lori Scholl.*

When Sonny gets going, you have to let him speak, and he’s gotten going at this point, so I did my part and let him speak. “What we wanna be known as, when it's all said and done, at the end of the day is "that little club had a lot of spirit, a lot of heart, a great culture, and they were willing to fight with it for what they believed in. That's who we are. So, yeah, in the times when you know it's depressing and you feel taxed and your energy is low, we use stuff like that for fuel and we dig deeper and we dig deeper and we dig deeper.” He’s cresting at this point, I can imagine him behind a pulpit or in front of a brigade of soldiers. “At the end of the day, we're the defending fucking Protagonist Club of the Year. And that didn't come out of nothing! That came out of being inspired on a multitude of levels, both good and bad.” He get’s a little quieter and then says, “So, yeah, if they wanna keep dealing, we'll keep playing.”

Next Steps

Sonny says the team plans to put together a series of friendlies (full list to be announced next week, but already selling tickets to the first one against OKC 1889). On such a short notice, it’s a working solution to the problem of being outside a league when most leagues have kicked off their seasons. The team would be a jewel for any league and some have already started courting the Athletic, should things continue to stay in the current state. But Sonny still believes in the league, less so in the current leadership. The chances of an NPSL return for Tulsa Athletic? “If it's with the current leadership, zero. At its core, we still believe that the foundation of what the NPSL is is the best platform in the country for the way we conduct our business and the way our club is run.”

The NPSL seems to be holding firm in its decision so far, regardless of some social media backlash. The league was taking so much flack on social media (specifically Twitter) that it turned off comments on its posts, which fanned the flames, of course. Yesterday, it was revealed that the league had sent an email to all the players registered to Tulsa Athletic, encouraging them to sign with other NPSL teams. Decide for yourself why the league did this, but the public certainly didn’t see any good intent in the move. Neither did Dalesandro. “At this point, I feel like I'm in seventh grade to a degree…I found it to be really kind of petty and snarky.”

It seems clear that the current NPSL leadership is done dealing with one of the best clubs in its league. And, for their part, Tulsa seems done dealing with the current NPSL leadership as well. If that holds, Tulsa will add its name to the growing list of high-functioning clubs that have exited the NPSL. Where they end up is just one of the remaining questions in this story. Given their record of success, I’d expect them to have many leagues paying a visit.

- Dan Vaughn