Arena Football News & Updates

[ProfessorBigShots]

How is Arena Football not more popular? Its not like its a boring sport, its actually fun to watch, and it gi s a chance for small cities to have sports. Maybe back in the day it was more well knoen but now days its something you find on ESPN 8: The Ocho.

[GDAWG]

A lot of it has to do with instability.  The league has had a history of a bunch of teams folding at once, and even suspended operations in 2009.  That's why they are not more popular.  Right now it's a niche league owned by two men: Ron Jaworski and Ted Leonsis.  They had 4 teams last year and now have added two more teams but who knows how long that's going to last.  It also doesn't help that there are another 1,000 indoor leagues as well. 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

I will repeat a comment that I have made before on this topic.

 

While I like arena football (you'll notice the logos of two AFL teams in my sig), I also see the flaws in the game. I have come to realise that it is possible to have too much scoring.  When a touchdown becomes the expected result of every possession, and when you talk of "defensive stops" as you would do in basketball, then you know that something is seriously off-kilter. Even though every game of arena football will feature examples of tremendous skill, the games can get fatiguing.

 

Arena football was most interesting when it was iron man football; seeing the wide receiver who just beat the defensive back have to turn around and guard him, seeing the linebacker who just tackled the running back now have to carry the ball and be tackled by that same player, this was fun.  Without those built-in storylines, the game can become boring, even if it is a 56-49 game.  I'll take a 14-10 game in which red zone plays have some tension to them and scoring is not a foregone conclusion, a game that can feature goal-line stands. 

 

New York has a new arena football team: the New York Streets of the NAL. They play at the Westchester County Center, where the Liberty play; and their games are televised on the MSG Network, with the games called by former Dragons announcer Peter Schwartz. I am pleased to say that the Streets have started their existence with wins in their first two games, including one against a well-stocked Jacksonville Sharks team that joined the NAL from the AFL a couple of years ago. This coming weekend they will face the defending NAL champion Carolina Cobras.

 

The NAL has two nice rules: it uses the CFL rouge/single for a kick returned who cannot get out of the end zone; and it awards a two-point "deuce" to the kicking team if a kickoff goes through the uprights.

 

These are good ideas. But I propose a radical reform to make arena football even more interesting: the elimination of first downs. Just have a single reset line at midfield; a team has four downs to get to that line, and then four more downs to get to the endzone. This way there would be a serious doubt about whether a team could score on any given possession. 

And of course bring back iron man play — though I could understand not having it for linemen, for the sake of sparing their heads too many hits.  (When the Arena League had linemen playing both ways, it spawned an amusing little aphorism: How do you tell an offensive lineman from a defensive lineman? Line them up and slap each one on his helmet; the ones who don't flinch are offensive linemen.)

[JH42XCC]

I think the Arena Football League needs to bring back the "Ironman" rule, where all players (with the exception of the QB, the kicker, and the specialists) play both on offense and defense.

[Seadragon76]

I like to think that when the Arena League botched it on two separate occasions, it helped turn the indoor game from a national level to more of a regional level sport.

 

With the indoor game being more regional, it helps to cut down on costs. Why do you think that the Arena League's farthest location is Columbus? It helps to cut down on costs.

 

You will have outliers in any league. In the NAL, where @Ferdinand Cesarano's Streets reside in, the farthest north you have to go is Worcester, MA. The farthest south is Orlando.

 

In the IFL, you could go to either San Diego, Phoenix or Tucson for a game.

[ReesDaKing]

Here's the thing, its the same length as an NFL game. If it were 10, maybe 8 minutes, and a mistake wouldn't lose you the game, it'd be a lot more interesting and fun.

[FiddySicks]

I've been to two Arena Football games in my life. The first one was a San Jose SaberCats game somewhat in the league's "heyday" in 2007 when they were one of the most successful teams around. Even then, the whole thing felt like a glorified sideshow and the actual football was mediocre at very best. The second game was a post suspension Arizona Rattlers game around 2013 or 2014 and there were maybe fifty people there. The actual football made the first game I went to look like Super Bowl XXXII. 

[Red Comet]

C David Baker basically gave a team to anyone who could pay the expansion fee regardless if they could continue running the team and what a 5-year old would expect to happen out of that did. Since then, arena football has sort of become a version of minor league football without any official relationship to professional teams.

[Gothamite]

8 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

New York has a new arena football team: the New York Streets of the NAL. They play at the Westchester County Center

 

 

Oh, you’re gritty, White Plains.  So gritty. 

[rams80]

33 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

C David Baker basically gave a team to anyone who could pay the expansion fee regardless if they could continue running the team and what a 5-year old would expect to happen out of that did. Since then, arena football has sort of become a version of minor league football without any official relationship to professional teams.

 

Let's back up a little.  This wasn't an ABA 2000 situation; the Arena League charged comparatively exorbitant franchise fees...which is where they got into trouble, because league revenues and franchise valuations did not come close to matching what the newer owners were kicking in.  Ownership groups weren't undercapitalized though-with the possible exception of Austin.

[GDAWG]

5 hours ago, Red Comet said:

C David Baker basically gave a team to anyone who could pay the expansion fee regardless if they could continue running the team and what a 5-year old would expect to happen out of that did. Since then, arena football has sort of become a version of minor league football without any official relationship to professional teams.

 

And Baker parlayed that "success" (and I use that term loosely) to run the Pro Football Hall of Fame a decade later.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

NEW YORK STREETS!!! OMG OMG OMG YES love it!  That's wassup!

 

The short field kinda bugs me, too weird.  If it was a shorter length game, yea, but to finish a game 70-31, come on man.

 

@ProfessorBigShots What's the Miami Suns?

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

2 minutes ago, CaliforniaGlowin said:

NEW YORK STREETS!!! OMG OMG OMG YES love it!  That's wassup!

 

Indeed it is.  I am still trying to work out how to fit the Streets' logo into my sig.  It is a nice logo that is meant to resemble a manhole cover.

 

And, because the team's online store is inoperatve, I have been in touch with someone at their offices in an effort to buy a cap and a polo shirt.

 

 

[Red Comet]

3 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

And Baker parlayed that "success" (and I use that term loosely) to run the Pro Football Hall of Fame a decade later.

 

I guess your only solace regarding punishment for him would have to wait until he dies. Then again, doesn't hurt that he networked with NFL owners and that's probably why he's still near the game at all. At least the amount of damage he can do here is minimized. 

[GDAWG]

6 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

 

I guess your only solace regarding punishment for him would have to wait until he dies. Then again, doesn't hurt that he networked with NFL owners and that's probably why he's still near the game at all. At least the amount of damage he can do here is minimized. 

 

His punishment would be if he got fired and somehow ended up in the XFL.

 

I don't know what his exact role is outside of notifying the Hall of Famers of their inductions but that may be it. 

[Sykotyk]

2 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

His punishment would be if he got fired and somehow ended up in the XFL.

 

I don't know what his exact role is outside of notifying the Hall of Famers of their inductions but that may be it. 

He's been heavily involved in the Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village that's basically a giant scam on the city of Canton. The school district signed over their stadium to them with condition they could use it but the hall won't let the team use the locker rooms. Insisting that a new locker room be built for the school but still haven't built it. And the new stadium still isn't finished. And all the houses they bought have basically left an open hole around the hall now. 

[CaliforniaGlowin]

6 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

Indeed it is.  I am still trying to work out how to fit the Streets' logo into my sig.  It is a nice logo that is meant to resemble a manhole cover.

 

And, because the team's online store is inoperatve, I have been in touch with someone at their offices in an effort to buy a cap and a polo shirt.

 

 

This logo is dope!!!

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

2 hours ago, CaliforniaGlowin said:

This logo is dope!!!

 

Eh, I don't dig that one. It may be an early prototype, because the team doesn't seem to make use of it.

 

The wordmark logo that they use looks like this:

 

 

This looks a lot better to me. Any type of arching clashes with an aesthetic that is meant to evoke metal.

[Red Comet]

5 hours ago, Sykotyk said:

He's been heavily involved in the Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village that's basically a giant scam on the city of Canton. The school district signed over their stadium to them with condition they could use it but the hall won't let the team use the locker rooms. Insisting that a new locker room be built for the school but still haven't built it. And the new stadium still isn't finished. And all the houses they bought have basically left an open hole around the hall now.  

 

At least C David Baker is an equal opportunity scammer. He'll rip you off if you're rich or poor. Oh no, I've never had memories of going to Brigade games the three years they were in town. I'm not bitter at all.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Red Comet

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