posted Apr 25th, 2021 - The NSL News is going back in time once again before the next rounds of contemporary 8-way world class performances will get all the attention. There are still many events in the NSL archives which have not been covered yet. One of them was the integration of the Americas Cup into the NSL Network.

Alan Metni had joined Arizona Airspeed and launched the Americas Cup event series in 1998, a few years after the first season of the Florida Skydiving League in 1996. It was the same year when the National Skydiving League invited the first league champions from Florida (DeLand Genesis), Texas (Convergence) and Georgia (Mr. Pink) to the first NSL Championship at Skydive DeLand.

The NSL Championship 1998 was sponsored by SkyVenture Orlando, the first wind-tunnel in the world that was soon swamped by 4-way teams for indoor training. Alan Metni had also created the Airspeed tunnel camps, which ran parallel with NSL tunnel camps and many other indoor camps of international teams at SkyVenture Orlando.

The Airspeed tunnel camps were very successful, and Alan Metni eventually purchased the wind-tunnel as his starting point for building the worldwide SkyVenture/iFLY wind-tunnel empire. He won a world championship title with Airspeed's 8-way lineup in 1999 and did not come back to outdoor training and competition after the next world meet in 2001. He had set his focus on wind-tunnel business and merged the Americas Cup into the NSL Network. The merger happened at the beginning of the 2001 season. The Americas Cup continued as the NSL Playoffs until the NSL had to drop the name when the America's Cup sailing event demanded to cease and desist the use of the name.

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NSL Championship 1998		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	9,G,11	21,10,18	24,20,1	O,B,15,17	22,14,M	16,19,6	2,A,H,P	5,4,3	Q,13,12	D,8,K,C	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Genesis	13	11	14	16	11	9	16	12	11	11	124	12.4
2	ZSpot	15	9	11	15	10	11	13	10	12	11	117	11.7
3	Frost	14	10	10	13	12	10	15	11	7	14	116	11.6
4	Convergence	10	10	9	9	9	9	11	9	9	9	94	9.4
5	Fluid Motion	10	5	8	12	7	5	7	7	11	10	82	8.2
6	Optik Nerve	9	5	10	9	8	8	11	7	4	8	79	7.9
7	Mr. Pink	7	1	4	10	8	7	10	6	6	9	68	6.8
8	Space Center FX	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21	2.1

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NSL News on 4 January 2001: NATIONAL SKYDIVING LEAGUE AND AMERICAS CUP TO MERGE

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After years of silent cooperation between National Skydiving League and the Americas Cup tour, both organizations have decided to officially combine their efforts. Over the course of 2001 AC President Alan Metni and NSL President Kurt Gaebel will integrate the currently scheduled Americas Cup events into the NSL. Currently scheduled Americas Cup events will become the NSL Playoffs of the 2001 season.

The NSL introduced the playoffs concept at the end of the 2000 season. Due to its success, and in an effort to broaden participation and reduce travel distances, the NSL recently decided to increase the number of playoff events for 2001. The merger with the Americas Cup offers the perfect opportunity to continue the AC concept of higher-level competitions and integrate them into the overall NSL structure.

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THE HISTORY

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The combination of Americas Cup and National Skydiving League was natural and inevitable. Both organizations began their efforts at almost exactly the same time. Both were built to achieve the same basic goals: increase the number of competitions in the United States and drive Formation Skydiving into mainstream of the sports world.

The Florida Skydiving League began its first season in late 1996 while the first Americas Cup event was held in the spring of 1997. Texas Skydiving League and Georgia Skydiving League launched their first events in 1997. With the combination of the Florida, Georgia and Texas leagues, the National Skydiving League was born in 1998. While the Americas Cup continued with its concept of holding a smaller number of larger competitions, the NSL built a far-reaching network of regional leagues for teams at all levels of performance. The NSL grew to eight leagues in 1999 and thirteen in 2000. Five more leagues are preparing their start in 2001.

Over the years, the Americas Cup owed much of its popularity to the attendance of world-class teams locked into a series of ferocious battles building up to the USPA Nationals. At the same time, the well developed competition structure and organization of the National Skydiving League network has included teams and competitors of all levels across the country. As a direct result of both competition projects, the amount and quality of Formation Skydiving competition has grown dramatically in the last four years.

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Americas Cup August 1998		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	F,15,E,K	9,A,J,6	13,H,17	Q,1,14	19,22,21	8,7,10	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	23	28	23	22	17	17	130	21.7
2	Airspeed Purple	21	23	15	19	15	16	109	18.2
3	Golden Knights Gold	18	22	18	18	15	15	106	17.7
4	DeLand Genesis	18	18	16	17	14	11	94	15.7
5	FX2	17	17	14	12	11	8	79	13.2
5	Ranch Air Traffic	15	18	14	12	9	11	79	13.2
7	Equinox	12	16	11	9	9	9	66	11.0
8	Shockpoint	10	13	9	9	10	9	60	10.0
9	Animosity	9	11	5	11	8	9	53	8.8
10	Raeford Frigid Air	10	11	8	9	6	7	51	8.5
11	Mass Transit	11	7	9	7	9	7	50	8.3
12	Block Heads	5	9	6	7	7	7	41	6.8
13	Sonic Force	5	10	1	9	1	7	33	5.5
14	Fusion	4	4	6	6	6	6	32	5.3
15	Nancy and the Boys	3	5	4	2	3	4	21	3.5
16	Good Vibrations	2	4	3	3	1	0	13	2.2

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THE FUTURE

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All of the Americas Cup assets were merged into the National Skydiving League, and Alan Metni has become a business partner of the NSL. The two Americas Cup trophies, which were generously donated by Dr. Joel Shugar, will continue to be used for the U.S. skydiving community as each year's trophies for the best teams in 4-way and 8-way. The NSL will continue exclusively with the management of 4-way events.

Alan Metni and Kurt Gaebel expect the National Skydiving League to continue with its rapid growth as it improves the environment for teams and competitors with the goal to move Formation Skydiving competition into the mainstream sports world. They have already begun working together in the key areas of marketing, public relations, media coverage, and relations with USPA.

They have developed plans to host five different NSL Americas Cup playoff events at various locations across the country in 2001. The playoffs will serve as the qualifiers for the NSL Championship 2001. The complete format for the 2001 season will be posted soon. Depending on the outcome of further discussions between USPA and NSL, the NSL Championship may run concurrently with the USPA Nationals 2001. Merging the NSL Championship with the USPA Nationals seems to be the next natural step on the way to a well-functioning and progressive nationwide structure of Formation Skydiving competition in the United States.

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USPA Nationals 1998		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	5,10,11	12,C,6	N,19,4	F,22,20	J,17,G,A	23,13,21	E,7,B,P	1,14,3	15,2,8	L,M,O,K,Q	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	16	19	20	17	28	17	32	19	16	29	213	21.3
2	Space Center FX	14	13	17	17	24	17	31	15	17	27	192	19.2
3	DeLand Genesis	9	15	17	14	19	15	24	15	11	23	162	16.2
4	Elsinore Storm	11	16	14	12	18	13	24	15	13	21	157	15.7
5	Arizona Edge	9	12	16	14	18	13	22	14	12	20	150	15.0
6	Ranch Air Traffic	12	11	16	12	18	11	23	12	12	21	148	14.8
7	Golden Knights	11	12	14	12	15	11	22	14	11	20	142	14.2
8	Perris Cruis-O-Matic	10	11	15	13	17	11	17	11	11	18	134	13.4
9	Entity	6	12	11	11	13	11	22	13	11	19	129	12.9
10	Space Center FX 2	10	9	10	12	13	12	20	8	12	20	126	12.6
10	Frost	11	11	14	12	15	9	19	11	9	15	126	12.6
12	TETRAD	9	9	12	12	13	8	17	12	11	17	120	12.0
13	Sebastian 4NB	10	9	12	12	12	10	16	11	7	16	115	11.5
14	Terminal Ecstacy	10	11	6	11	13	8	16	11	10	16	112	11.2
15	Ranch Equinox	9	10	10	9	15	8	17	9	9	14	110	11.0
16	Optik Nerve	9	11	9	9	14	9	17	11	9	11	109	10.9
17	Lebanon Mass Transit	2	11	10	9	10	10	15	9	9	13	98	9.8
18	Houston Pyro4ic	4	10	9	9	11	11	14	9	5	13	95	9.5
18	Elsinore High Pressure	9	8	10	9	8	7	15	9	8	12	95	9.5
20	Perris Valley Eclipse	7	9	9	9	9	8	14	9	7	11	92	9.2
21	Incognito	10	9	13	11	13	6	17	7	-	-	86	10.8
22	Mr. Pink	7	8	8	5	10	7	13	7	7	10	82	8.2
23	Flat Feet Team	9	9	7	7	8	6	15	9	3	8	81	8.1
24	Moe-Bo-Jay Airspeed	6	9	9	3	6	5	11	7	7	4	67	6.7
25	Sublime	3	8	9	5	11	5	15	8	-	-	64	8.0

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Sports Business Journal on 20 January 2001: SKYDIVING LEAGUE BUYS OUT CUP TOUR

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For the first time, the National Skydiving League enjoyed recognition by the major sports business in the country. The Sports Business Journal published a short article on the merger of NSL and Americas Cup in this week's issue. The NSL had sent press releases to the print media, including the skydiving publications and the Sports Business Journal. The Sports Business Journal is the voice of the industry in sports and provides an effective business tool for the sports' marketplace.

It is a much respected source of business information for the leading marketers in sports and an efficient advertising medium. Each week the Sports Business Journal provides 80,000 readers with news and information they need to make smarter business decisions. Top management positions are held by 77% of the subscribers, and 76% of the subscribers are reading four out of four issues (44 minutes average reading time). There is a good chance that this article may have caught the attention of the corporate executives that the NSL would like to work with. Hopefully, there will be more exciting news soon coming from the same direction.

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Written by by John Rofe, Staff Writer:

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"The National Skydiving League has bought the competing Americas Cup tour and will combine the two circuits' business operations and event schedules, executives from both said. Former Americas Cup owner and president Alan Metni will become a minority partner in the NSL. The new league will hold yearlong competitions in four-person skydiving. Kurt Gaebel, president of the NSL said combining the two organizations was a "natural", because of the Americas Cup experience in hosting a series of year-end-playoff competitions, while NSL sponsored a year-long tour. Under the new NSL, the Americas Cup events will be renamed the NSL playoffs, Gaebel said. The USPA Nationals will continue to host eight-way skydiving events. "Merging the NSL Championship with the USPA Nationals seems to be the next natural step on the way to a well-functioning and progressive nationwide structure of U.S. Formation Skydiving competition," Gaebel said. The NSL and Americas Cup have already started working together to market and publicize the new circuit, Gaebel said. The NSL started as the Florida Skydiving League in late 1996 and went national when it merged with leagues in Georgia and Texas in 1998. The Americas Cup series started in early 1997."