The Wave kicks off its 25th season of indoor soccer Saturday night at U.S. Cellular Arena and, in many ways, it will be "business as usual."

Longtime coach Keith Tozer will make impassioned suggestions to players (and occasionally to officials) from his perch behind the bench. Certified athletic trainer Larry Sayles will tend to injured players and wave a towel in support. Hundreds of kids will file into the building wearing their own soccer jerseys, gobbling popcorn and squealing at the sight of Brad Beach, the team's mascot.

While many familiar elements will be present, there will be one gigantic difference:

The matchup Saturday against the Detroit Ignition will mark the Wave's first game as a member of the new Xtreme Soccer League (XSL), a cooperative venture launched three months ago following the dissolution of the Major Indoor Soccer League.

The Wave joins Detroit, the Chicago Storm and the New Jersey Ironmen in a four-team circuit that will focus on various forms of soccer, including futsal, street soccer and beach soccer.

Unlike other leagues in which teams operate independently and the competition doesn't end on the field, the XSL features a streamlined approach which takes decision-making power from the individual clubs and centralizes it in the league office.

"We are in the entertainment business and our platform happens to be sports," said XSL commissioner Brian Loftin, a former Wave player. "If we focus on trying to establish ourselves in the traditional way that sports are perceived, we're missing the bigger picture.

"By working together as a collective, essentially we are one business, able to look at acquiring other entertainment properties that add to our overall experience."

Though the folding of the MISL was painful, Lofton and Mike Lafferty, the former Wave president who serves as the league's chief operating officer, felt philosophical differences made it necessary.

"Under the old model, teams truly were on their own," Lafferty said. "There wasn't anything that pulled them all together. It was one of those necessary divorces. You get differences of opinions. The people involved with the other clubs were good people. But, if you don't have the same vision, it's just not going to work.

"We are totally focused on the idea that we are one organization. We have spin-offs with different teams, but we're all under one umbrella."

The XSL office is responsible for signing and assigning players, cutting equipment deals, finding national and local sponsors, tailoring the presentation of games and just about every detail down to logos, letterhead and office furniture.

"What's great about it is that at the team level, they're able to focus on sales now," Loftin said. "They don't have to worry about things from merchandise ordering to print collateral to web development ... all of that is all centralized now."

Said Lafferty, "We all have to care about each other as teams. That's how strong we have to be. Behind the scenes, you'll see people from different teams supporting each other. If Chicago has a game and we've got people in the Milwaukee office, they can go down and help them out. You'll see that.

"Even if you take a little thing like ticket stock. We were able to do one central order and have it shipped to four places. That's not a big thing, but it probably saved us a couple thousand dollars. If you take a look at some of the costs that we've been able to reduce, it's night and day for us to go out and market to prospective owners."

Lofton agreed.

"We're more of a turnkey operation now," he said. "It's not a situation where you pay a fee for the right to pay more. It's a business and soccer happens to be the central piece. How are we different? When we have all our pieces in place, the games will be 10 to 15 percent of what we are, as opposed to the past, when it was 50 to 70 percent.

"We were able to look at all the aspects of the business. Do we really need to have a season that starts in September and ends in late May? Do we need 20 home dates if we're not at capacity? Is it better to do 15 dates or even 10 and then fill them?"

Rather than competing with outdoor soccer, which consumed the indoor game since the inception of Major League Soccer, Loftin wants to use his platform to branch into different areas.

"In the past, we never spent time developing other things. The real growth is not in the arena. In a way, you're capped in terms of how much you can grow because you are limited by the capacity of the arena and the number of games you can play. The growth is in the other aspects.

"That's where we need to develop things like youth camps and futsal and 3 v. 3 tournaments and beach soccer and things like freestyle juggling. Remember the old hacky-sack craze? There is a whole underground movement that is all about juggling the ball. It's really viral.

"We want to tap into the soccer lifestyle. If you want to come and watch a game, you can do that with us. We've got a great game. If you want to get involved with playing, not just with kids but for adults, we can do that. If you don't want to run up and down the field but you like to juggle the ball, you can do that and come to an event and show one of our star players your trick. Then he'll probably learn it in a few seconds and show you one that will take three or four weeks to learn.

"We need to capitalize on what we've done best. Our game is exciting. Our players are accessible. We're very good at building on a grassroots level. Why should we worry about trying to compare ourselves to something we are not and don't want to be?

"I'm really excited about the direction we're headed."