Wisconsin Soccer Central

The Milwaukee Wave's offseason of change continued Monday with the announcement that the indoor team's new league will be called the Major Arena Soccer League.

And in a news release that included details about the MASL, the Wave reported that their new coach – the successor to Keith Tozer, the winningest coach in indoor soccer history – will be announced next week.

The MASL currently includes 24 teams, but more could be added before the June 1 deadline. Six of the teams played in the Major Indoor Soccer League during the 2013-14 season, while 16 were part of the Professional Arena Soccer League. The group, which held league meetings over the weekend in Baltimore, also includes two new teams in the Brownsville (Texas) Barracudas and the Tacoma Stars.

This will be the sixth league the Wave have played in since taking the field for the first time in 1984. They've also been in the American Indoor Soccer Association (1984 to '90), the second incarnation of the National Professional Soccer League (1990 to 2001), the second and third versions of the Major Indoor Soccer League (2001 to '08 and 2009 to '14) and the Xtreme Soccer League (2008-09).

“This new league will give Milwaukee Wave fans and all soccer fans the stability and growth they have been craving for years," new Wave co-owner Mike Zimmerman said in the news release.

MASL teams will play 20 regular-season games (10 home and 10 away), with teams divided into divisions geographically. The news release indicated that three teams from each division will qualify for the playoffs, but didn't specify how many teams will be in each division.

However, four potential six-team divisions come together when looking at the team locations. It would appear that the Wave could end up in a division with the Chicago Mustangs, St. Louis Ambush, Missouri Comets, Wichita B-52s and Tulsa Revolution, assuming each of the divisions will have the same number of teams. The Mustangs won both the PASL and the U.S. Open Arena Soccer Championship last season, while the Comets beat Milwaukee en route to claiming the MISL title. Other possible divisional foes include the Detroit Waza Flo and Cincinnati Saints.

The league rules – including whether goals will be worth one point or if the MASL will use multiple-point scoring – and divisional placements are expected to be announced in June. Schedules and the playoff format will be released in September.

The inaugural MASL game already is set, with the Dallas Sidekicks to face the Comets on Oct. 25. The playoffs will be concluded in March.

Whenever the Wave play their inaugural MASL match, it will be the franchise's first game since 1992 without Tozer as coach.

He had a 527-280 record in 22 seasons in Milwaukee and owns a 746-449 overall record in 31 seasons as an indoor coach. The Wave went 16-4 and finished second in the MISL during the 2013-14 regular season, then lost to Missouri in a mini-game tiebreaker in the semifinals.

(With 2013-14 league affiliation)