Edmonton Drillers (NPSL)
Green/Black/White – Blue/Yellow/Red
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| Founded | 1996 | ||
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| Dissolved | 2000 | ||
| Stadium |
Skyreach Centre Edmonton, Alberta |
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| Coach | Ross Ongaro | ||
| League | National Professional Soccer League | ||
The Edmonton Drillers, a Canadian indoor soccer team, was reconstituted in August 1996 under the ownership of Peter Pocklington. The team ("Drillers") was based at Edmonton Coliseum and played in the National Professional Soccer League. Ownership passed to Wojtek Wojcicki in 1998 and Drillers won the NPSL National Conference in the 1998–1999 season. The franchise ended in November 2000 owing to financial difficulties.
On August 23, 1996, at a hastily arranged press conference at Telus Field it was announced that Peter Pocklington had purchased the Chicago Power of the National Professional Soccer League and was moving them to Edmonton for the rapidly approaching 96/97 season. The team was to play out of Edmonton Coliseum and play under the name "Drillers" which had been used by the NASL entry in Edmonton many years earlier, that was also owned by Pocklington.
The acquisition was to produce further synergies between Pocklington's other sports holdings in Edmonton. Pocklington has recently negotiated control of the Coliseum, and was looking to fill dates in the building whose main tenant was his NHL team, the Edmonton Oilers. The Drillers shared office space with the Oilers, and as the NPSL season nicely juxtaposed with the baseball season it allowed for significant crossover of office staff between the Drillers and Pocklington's Pacific Coast League team the Edmonton Trappers.
Another more vindictive motivation for bringing in the indoor soccer side was to make life more difficult for the expansion Western Hockey League team, the Edmonton Ice. Pocklington had wanted a WHL franchise in Edmonton for himself, but was never granted one. So when Ed Chynoweth stepped down as WHL commissioner and was promptly granted a franchise in Edmonton, needless to say it rubbed Pocklington the wrong way. As a result, the Ice were not allowed to play at the Pocklington controlled Coliseum, and were instead left to play their games at the somewhat less fan friendly Northlands Agricom. On top of that it was standard practice to schedule Driller games head-to-head with Ice games, and distribute large quantities of complimentary tickets.
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Wikipedia