Last January, we posted about The Tulsa Athletic, an amateur soccer team member of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) since 2013. Although The Athletic was league champion in 2023, in 2024, the NPSL booted The Athletic from the league because its stadium did not meet the leagues’ specifications. The Athletic insists that its field is fine, and alleges that the NPSL has refused to even inspect the premises. Our last post was about Tulsa Athletics, LLC v. National Premiere Soccer League, Inc., in which the federal district court denied the Athletic’s motion for a preliminary injunction while the case proceeds.
In August, 2025, the District Court ruled on cross motions for summary judgment in Tulsa Athletics, LLC v. National Premier Soccer League, Inc. Given that the new season of Ted Lasso has arrived, you might be expecting an uplifting tale of an underdog team overcoming all obstacles and emerging victorious or at least somewhat vindicated. Well, this is real life, not England. In the preliminary injunction ruling the Court found that The Athletic had not established a likelihood that it could prevail on the merits. Sure enough, when it came time to decide the merits, the Court remained unpersuaded that The Athletic had met his burden on any of its causes of action. The breach of contract claim failed here as it did on the motion for a preliminary injunction: the league’s bylaws are too vague to give rise to contractual obligations. Some other documents might create such obligations, but The Athletic could not specify which document did so, perhaps because they failed to “file a motion to compel the production of the current league policies under FED. R. CIV. P. 37(a)(3)(B)(iv), or a FED. R. CIV. P. 56(d) affidavit showing that it required additional discovery to respond to defendants’ motion for summary judgment.”
But where it counts, on the pitch, The Athletic continue to prosper. This season the team made it to the Central Region Championship match, where they, as they did in court, came in second. Still, a strong showing against their in-state rival, Oklahoma United FC.
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