Arena Football Is Not Dead
...as reported by the San Francisco Examiner today.
A news conference is planned Monday to announce the formation of a new league called Arena Football 1 with teams from the former AFL and arenafootball2 leagues.
"The owners meetings are Monday morning, and they're really going to line everything out on Monday morning as far as how the divisions go and what teams from the AFL are actually going to join Arena Football 1 and what teams from AF2 are going to join," said Troy Thompson, director of operations for the Arkansas Twisters.
Representatives of the af2 teams in Oklahoma City, Arkansas, and Spokane, Wash., all confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday that they intend to participate. Iowa's af2 franchise also plans to send a representative to the meetings.
"There's still a lot that's going to be finalized over the weekend but everyone's excited about the movement of the league," Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz general manager Christie Cook said.
The AFL had 17 teams during the 2008 season, but the Los Angeles and New Orleans franchises folded before the 2009 season was canceled. There were another 25 teams in af2 last season.
"There could be an upper tier and a lower tier in Arena Football 1, almost like college football has a Division I and a Division II," Thompson said. "Arena Football 1 could have a Division I and a Division II. That's still kind of unclear."
I have ask here, does this seem to anyone else as "trying too hard"? Did people outside those market know about the af2? This is the first I'm hearing of it (not that I'm a font of second-tier sports knowledge, of course).
Don't get me wrong, if this new league is like the AFL was, it will be a great family friendly atmosphere, high intensity, big action event.
I just can't help but smell a hint of desperation...
~ Hath
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3 comments:
We had an afl2 team here where I live once, they didn't last. I'm not holding my breath for this new League.
I enjoyed Arena Football, but I don't think it will ever have the draw that the NFL has.
I read the article you posted a couple of days ago ... I'm still a little worked up about it. You can imagine that I have A LOT to say about this ... but I'm going to try to be "good."
Between the creation of the UFL and now this endeavor of "orphaned arena football teams" I'm wondering what the hell these people are smoking.
As for the UFL, what the heck?! Super short season. No real differentiation from the NFL in terms of the technical aspects of the sport. No permanent venues (people are NOT into gypsy traveling football teams.) And it runs concurrent with the NFL season. Its like Pop Warner for adults.
The af2 tries to keep the focus on the fans and the players (which is where the AFL went wrong.) The thing is many of those teams are completely unstable. These are hard times. Period. Look at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers which just went the the championship and then a week later were told the team was up for sale. (My mom was a season ticket holder for the Cincinnati Jungle Kats who literally closed up shop in the middle of the night and ran out of town with everybody's money. She eventually was able to get a refund via the credit card company.)
I continue to feel that there is a place for arena football. They had a good thing going with the AFL until ... well ... they lost sight of their mission. (I will just leave it at that.)
Okay ... you know what I said about being "good" ... well, then I guess I should just stop now.
Time will tell what will happen with the "next generation of arena football." I miss the games - I miss the energy. I miss the feeling of being part of something special.
I agree with what BAJG said /\. The AFL was a good organization until they 'changed'. We had a team here for the entire 20 some years of the AFL and our team won a number of championships. I enjoyed the games and miss them during the off season of NFL football.
Thing is with the UFL not only are they gypsy teams, nobody cares about it, which dooms it to failure before it gets started. There's a game being played here on Oct. 30th and even with the offer of cut rate tix, I won't be bothering.
Let the AFL die for now with what dignity it had. At some point when the economy can support it, then let them try again.
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