Off-field Antics Overshadow Sting's Worst Ever Indoor Season
1985–86 (Indoor): The season kicked-off with the Chicago Sting able to boast that they were the oldest existing professional soccer franchise. When it concluded it did so with a 23–29 win-loss record for the Sting, the worst in the club's indoor history.
After six indoor seasons at the Chicago Stadium the club had moved to the Rosemont Horizon, a stadium in the northern Chicago suburbs, in a bid to attract more fans. It however had the opposite effect with average attendance falling by almost 1,500 to an all-time low 5,879.
Personnel issues also played their part in a poor season. Head Coach Willy Roy, who had led the Sting to two NASL titles, was replaced by his assistant Eric Geyer in late December, and Karl-Heinz Granitza, the clubs all-time leading goalscorer, who at the beginning of the season had seen his annual salary cut by $100,000 to $65,000, was suspended indefinitely on March 21 after an argument with owner Lee Stern.
While results picked up after Geyer’s appointment – despite the decision on January 12 to trade leading scorer for the season so far, Drago Dumbovic, to the Baltimore Blast – it was not enough to overcome a very poor start and the Sting failed to make the playoffs for the second season running.
Meanwhile, owner Lee Stern entered discussions with representatives of Halo Advertising Specialties that would see them initially become a minor shareholder but have a controlling interest in the franchise within two years, although this ultimately came to nothing.
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