Indoor soccer is coming, but will the SharX have teeth?

Call it the return of the Land Shark, though it has nothing to do with those old "Saturday Night Live" routines.

The mascot for the Norfolk SharX, the new indoor pro soccer team, has been sighted roaming Granby Street. Instead of offering empty promises of Candygrams, the costumed creature hands out schedules, stickers and koozies to the downtown lunch crowd.

For now, the shark, as yet unnamed, is the most identifiable feature of the team.

"Double-booked," said Marcie Laumann, CEO and president of the franchise that kicks off its season Nov. 11 at Scope. "There's a person who just books the shark."

Laumann recently bought a second shark suit to keep up with the team's aggressive promotional campaign, but starting with the opener against the Syracuse Silver Knights, we'll get a better idea if this franchise has teeth.

On Saturday and Sunday, the SharX conducted tryouts at Scope. From the 70 players on hand, many of them the weekend-warrior variety, coach Jon Hall hoped to find two or three to fill out his 18-man roster.

Hall's scouting missions haven't all been so close to home. While in Brazil, he came across talent in places, said Laumann, "that aren't even on the map."

Each club in the Major Indoor Soccer League is permitted six international players, and Hall is eager to incorporate as much foreign flamboyance as rules permit.

"We've been putting out feelers all over the country, outside the country and locally," he said. "You need the athleticism of the big, strong American players, but when it comes to flair, touch and technical ability, you've got to go with South American players."

With training camp opening on Oct. 15, Hall said he's "about halfway there" in putting together a roster. To get a better understanding for what awaits his team, he's been scouting the opposition via YouTube videos.

Indoor soccer has been around too long in the U.S. to be treated as some sort of strange hybrid. Baltimore, one of the teams the SharX will face, has had a successful franchise for decades.

Indoor soccer is its own game, with players whose skills suit the close quarters and dizzying pace. Depending on where they grew up, some of the fans the SharX hope to attract may even have played the sport on an amateur level.

For those less familiar with soccer, the appeal could simply be the nonstop action and high scoring.

Mixed in with the three tryout sessions over the weekend was Saturday's open house, where fans interested in purchasing season tickets for the 12 home games could choose where they'd like to sit. T-shirts and other souvenirs were given away. Free hot dogs and drinks were served. The shark mingled.

The SharX will be at Scope until the first week of March. It's too early to project what they'll draw, but Laumann, a soccer survivor who has kept her Piranhas outdoor teams afloat for 17 years, is typically upbeat.

"If you can gauge anything by the emails we've gotten, the phone calls and the response on Facebook," she said, "I think we've got a ton of interest."

Soon enough, it will be time to sink or swim.

"Nobody gets a day off between now and Nov. 11th," Laumann said, "not even the shark."

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com

Twitter@BobMolinaro