The Milwaukee Wave's hopes of defending their 2018-19 Major Arena Soccer League title will stop before they even start, as the team announced today that the indoor soccer team has cancelled plans for a 2020-21 season. 

According to the team, the cancellation is the result of the Wave and Wisconsin Center District unable to come to an agreement on terms for the upcoming season due to uncertainty surrounding allowed crowd capacity. 

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as far as when and if the Milwaukee Health Department will allow attendance at live sports events, and, if so, how many people can safely share a space,” said Milwaukee Wave owner Mike Zimmerman, in the release. “So, the District can’t give us a line of sight past Jan. 1 to open the arena at capacity limits that work for us. Currently the limit is 250, and we need closer to 4,000.

“The bottom line for sports entertainment is you have to be able to sell tickets and provide advance group sales opportunities in order to ‘feed the beast.' We also need a schedule and the ability to start selling 90 days in advance. Right now, there is too much uncertainty to accomplish any of that.”

The Wave won the MASL championship in the 2018-19 and were in second place in the Eastern Division before the league stopped its season on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rest of the league is aiming to begin a 2020-21 season by Dec. 31 with most of its teams participating. (In addition to the Wave's cancellation, the Monterrey Flash and Soles de Sonora were granted a sabbatical from any upcoming season due to uncertainty with immigration rules and international travel restrictions.)

As for the future of the Wave and the UWM Panther Arena, a recently reported budget is working under the assumption that the building will not host sports, concerts or events until the fall of next year.