The Jacksonville Tea Men were a soccer team based in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Overall, the Tea Men played a total of four seasons in Jacksonville, first in the major league-level North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1980–1982, then in the lower level American Soccer League and United Soccer League from 1982–1984. The NASL incarnation of the club was Jacksonville's first professional soccer team, and the first major league-level sport franchise ever based in the city.
The team originated as the New England Tea Men, who joined the North American Soccer League (NASL) as an expansion team for the 1978–1979 season. Their owner was the tea company Lipton, who gave the team its unusual name in reference to the Boston Tea Party.[1][2] In their first season the Tea Men had a contract to play at Foxboro Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the New England Patriots National Football League (NFL) team. The team made the league playoffs and sold well in their first season, but were forced out of their stadium the next year, and sales declined precipitously. They were able to return to Foxboro 1980, but under a new, restrictive lease that forced them to play many games at off times. Ticket sales plummeted even further, and Lipton decided to relocate the team to Jacksonville, Florida.[1][3]
As such, Jacksonville got its first ever professional soccer team, as well as its first major league-level team in any sport. Lipton, which had already lost $1 million on its franchise, decided to retain the Tea Men name, not wanting to lose the marketing tie-in or spend any further money on rebranding. Many commentators, and even the players themselves, noted the name made no sense in a Florida city with no connection to tea, but it stuck regardless. The team's indoor games were played at Jacksonville Coliseum, while their outdoor games were played at the Gator Bowl Stadium.[1]
The Tea Men started their run in Jacksonville with the indoor 1980-81 season. An 8-10 record left them out of the playoffs, but their performance would improve during the 1981 outdoor season. They finished with an 18-14 record and qualified for the playoffs, where they defeated the Atlanta Chiefs in the first round and won the first game of the series with the San Diego Sockers before losing the next two to draw the season to a close.[4] Despite drawing strong crowds to their first outdoor games, peaking with a crowd of 17,128 at their Gator Bowl debut, attendance waned later in the season, eventually dropping to around 10,000. Lipton, which announced that it had lost almost $2 million since the relocation, wanted out. At the urging of mayor Jake Godbold, a group of Jacksonville investors raised funds to lease the team from Lipton and keep it operating the next season.[1]
The 1981-82 indoor season would see the team take a step backwards, finishing 7-11 and again outside of the playoffs, and they would fare even worse in the 1982 outdoor season. They finished tied for the league's worst record at 11-21.[5] Furthermore, their average attendance of only 7,160 fans per game fell well short of the projection of about 12,000 per game that was needed to break even. The investment group that had been leasing the Tea Men from Lipton returned the franchise, and Lipton, fed up with all of the red ink, looked to unload the financial albatross for good.[6][7]
During their time in the NASL the Tea Men's coach was Irishman Noel Cantwell, former manager of Coventry City (1967–1972) and Peterborough United (1972–1977). The assistant coach was Dennis Viollet, former player for Manchester United. Notable players include goalkeeper Arnie Mausser, midfielder Archie Gemmill and strikers Alan Green and Ricardo Alonso.
Lipton started shopping the team around and twice announced pending deals: one with a group in Milwaukee and one with a group in Detroit. These deals both fell through before they were completed, though, and the franchise was eventually sold to Jacksonville businessman Ingo Krieg. He decided to see if the The Tea Men's financial fortunes could be improved by staying in Jacksonville and moving down to the de facto second division American Soccer League. Though it had operated since 1933, the ASL was barely hanging on at this point after a long period of decline. The Tea Men were one of just six teams in the ASL for the 1983 season.[8][9] Despite the fact that Lipton now had nothing to do with the team at all, Krieg kept the Tea Men name to try to keep as many fans from the previous iteration of the team as they could. Dennis Violett stayed in town and assumed head coaching duties for the ASL Tea Men, and four players from the 1982 NASL team would also stay in northwestern Florida to join him.[10] The reborn Tea Men were the class of the league, finishing the regular season with an 18-7 record (five wins better than the second best team) and winning the championship finals two games to one over the Pennsylvania Stoners.[11]
At the ASL's annual meeting the following January, Krieg became frustrated when, despite the league's shrinking line up (two teams were planning to go "dormant" for 1984), the other owners voted against a proposal by the league's expansion committee (which he chaired) to approve a new franchise in Fort Lauderdale because league by-laws allowed dormant owners to retain voting rights and territorial control. He worked over the weekend with the owner of the Dallas Americans, Bill Spears, to lay the groundwork for a more stable and financially sound second division league to be called the United Soccer League. Over the course of the spring, the upstart USL attracted three defectors from the ASL (The Tea Men, Dallas Americans and Rochester Flash) as well as two clubs that were effectively carrying on ASL operations in their towns but had re-organized and re-branded (the Charlotte Gold and Oklahoma City Stampede). Four new organizations would play in the new league as well (including the Fort Lauderdale group rejected by the ASL). The ASL was left with no active teams and closed down.[12]
The 1984 USL season kicked off in May. Despite the return of veteran star Ringo Cantillo and about half of the 1983 championship roster, Jacksonville was unable to replicate the successes of the previous year, finishing last in the league's Southern Division with an 11-13 record and missing the playoffs.[13] They also continued to struggle financially. Despite league-wide measures to control costs such as a tight salary cap and a schedule heavy on regional play to reduce travel expenses, USL owners were still losing money. Last-ditch negotiations to preserve some form of professional outdoor soccer by merging the financially struggling USL with the rapidly shrinking NASL were called off on March 5th, and after the NASL cancelled its 1985 season later that month, Krieg threw in the towel and closed down the Jacksonville Tea Men once and for all.[14]
League Goal Scoring Champion
League Leading Goaltender
NASL All-Stars
U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame
ASL MVP
ASL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Ringo Cantillo (1984) Matt English (1983) 11 Goals Poli Garcia (1983) 9 Goals 
John Lignos (1984) Peter Ioanou (1983) 2 Goals .svg/1280px-Flag_of_Yugoslavia_(1946-1992).svg.png){kind=small}
Robert Maum (1983) Steve Ralbovsky (1983) Peter Simonini (1983) 24 Apps 0 Goals Nino Zec (1983) 6 Goals Micky Zivaljevic (1983) 16 Goals