Miami Fusion Facts for Kids

This page is about the former Major League Soccer franchise. For the former National Premier Soccer League club, see Miami Fusion FC (2015–2017).

Quick facts for kids
Miami Fusion

Full name

Miami Fusion Football Club

Nickname(s)

Fusion

Founded

April 9, 1997; 28 years ago

Dissolved

January 8, 2002; 23 years ago

Chairman

Ken Horowitz

League

Major League Soccer

Home colors

Away colors

The Miami Fusion was a professional soccer team from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They played in Major League Soccer (MLS), which is the top soccer league in the United States and Canada. The team played for four seasons, from 1998 to 2001.

The Fusion was one of the first two new teams to join MLS after the league started. Their best season was in 2001. That year, they won the Supporters' Shield for having the best record in the regular season. However, in 2002, the MLS decided to close down the Fusion. This happened because the team didn't sell enough tickets or make enough money. The Fusion played their home games at Lockhart Stadium.

Team History: Miami Fusion
Home Stadium: Lockhart Stadium
Team Achievements
Season-by-Season Results
Team Records
Head Coaches
See also

Team History: Miami Fusion

Starting the Team

Major League Soccer announced that a team would be created in South Florida in 1997. This was one of the first two new teams, called "expansion teams," to join the league. The other new team was the Chicago Fire.

A businessman from Miami named Ken Horowitz became the owner of the team. On July 8, 1997, the team's name, the Miami Fusion, was announced in New York City. The Fusion started playing in the 1998 MLS season. Their home stadium was the newly updated Lockhart Stadium. This stadium was special because it was designed just for soccer, which was a new idea for MLS at the time.

First Seasons and Challenges

The Fusion started their first season well. A famous midfielder named Carlos Valderrama was a star player for the team. Their very first game at Lockhart Stadium brought in 20,450 fans. This showed how exciting a smaller, soccer-focused stadium could be. In fact, about 3,000 more people couldn't get in because the stadium was full.

However, as the season went on, fewer people came to games. The team's performance on the field was also just average. The Fusion changed their head coach, Carlos "Cacho" Cordoba, to Ivo Wortmann after 19 games. The team still made it to the playoffs but lost to D.C. United. By the end of the year, the average number of fans at games had dropped to 10,284.

The team continued to have difficulties for the next two years. In 1999, star player Carlos Valderrama moved back to the Tampa Bay team. In 2000, the team got a new head coach, Ray Hudson, who replaced Ivo Wortmann.

A Strong Season and Financial Troubles

The team improved a lot in the 2001 season. They won the Supporters' Shield for having the best regular season record. They also won the Eastern Conference and made it to the league semifinals. More fans started coming to games, but the team still had the fourth-lowest attendance in the league, with an average of 11,177 fans.

Behind the scenes, the owner, Ken Horowitz, was having money problems. He wanted to keep spending low, unlike some other MLS owners who wanted to invest more in the league's future. Even though the team played much better, by the end of 2001, the Fusion had the fewest season ticket sales and the least money from sponsors in the entire league.

Why the Team Closed Down

Major League Soccer had lost a lot of money in its first five years. Because of these financial problems, the league had to make some tough decisions. Reports started in 2000 that MLS might reduce the number of teams from 12 to 10.

In January 2002, MLS announced that it was closing down the two Florida teams: the Fusion and the Tampa Bay Mutiny. Both teams stopped playing and were removed from the league. This reduced MLS from 12 teams to 10. The league decided to close the Miami Fusion partly because the team's owner reportedly didn't have enough money. The owner had been trying to run the team with a very small budget and had even asked the league to help pay some of the team's costs. The league commissioner said that the Fusion had the lowest income in the league. This was due to fewer season tickets and almost no money from company sponsorships.

The Fusion's owner, Ken Horowitz, said it was hard to run an MLS team in South Florida. Many people in Miami were not from the area, so they didn't always support local sports teams. Also, the MLS season is in the summer, which is different from when youth soccer teams play. This made it hard to get young soccer players to attend Fusion games. The hot summer weather and rain in Florida also caused issues. Finally, there wasn't much support from local businesses for the team.

Soccer Returns to South Florida

On April 2, 2015, a new club called Miami Fusion FC started playing in a lower-level league called the National Premier Soccer League. However, this club also closed down in 2018.

MLS returned to the South Florida area in 2018. That's when Inter Miami CF was announced. On January 29, 2018, a group led by David Beckham was given the twenty-fifth MLS team. This new team started playing in the 2020 season.

Home Stadium: Lockhart Stadium

Lockhart Stadium

The Miami Fusion played their home games at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. The team originally wanted to play at the Orange Bowl Stadium in downtown Miami. However, they couldn't agree with the city of Miami. The city wanted a 10-year lease and didn't want the team to move to another stadium in South Florida.

So, the Fusion made a deal with the Broward County School Board and the city of Fort Lauderdale to use Lockhart Stadium instead. Lockhart Stadium was built in 1959 for high school football and track. It had also hosted the Fort Lauderdale Strikers from the old North American Soccer League from 1977 to 1983.

Fusion owner Ken Horowitz led a $5 million project to update Lockhart Stadium. It was turned into a 20,000-seat stadium made just for soccer. This new stadium was the first of its kind in Major League Soccer. At that time, all other MLS teams played in much larger football stadiums. This idea of having smaller, soccer-specific stadiums became a trend for the league and is still common today.

The area where Lockhart Stadium was located was rebuilt in 2019 and 2020. Now, DRV PNK Stadium stands there and is home to the current Major League Soccer club Inter Miami CF.