Unusually Quiet

[Mac the Knife]

The Arena Football League, well known for having information about its comings and goings leaked in advance of official announcements, has been surprisingly mum during and following its owners' meetings late last week.

While we know the Nashville Kats have met with their demise and that rumors abound about the Las Vegas Gladiators being relocated to Cleveland and being headed up by former Browns QB Bernie Kosar, along with a re-signing (perhaps ill-advised) of their Commissioner to a new six-year contract, no other substantive information has come from the meetings - and the league itself, which usually is loaded for bear when it comes to issuing press releases keeping folks up to speed on things, has been surprisingly quiet.

If Reppact and some others here have some inside dope, particularly as to why the AFL is being uncharacteristically tight-lipped, please let me in on it - at this point I'm curious both about what took place, and why they haven't done their usual job of trumpeting what did take place.

[Brian in Boston]

The relocation of the Las Vegas Gladiators to Cleveland, Ohio is more than just a rumor. It has been officially announced that the Arena Football League Board of Directors approved team owner Jim Ferraro's request to move the franchise to Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena in time for the AFL's 2008 season. Ferraro's close friend - and Ohio native - Bernie Kosar will serve as part-owner, President and Chief Executive Officer of the franchise. Season ticket deposits are being taken at www.clevelandafl.com .

The league's Board of Directors has also officially approved the request of the Austin Wranglers franchise to drop down to the arenafootball2 level of competition with the team's name and logos intact. The new af2 Wranglers franchise will begin play in time for the league's 2008 season.

The AFL's new alignment is as follows:

National Conference

Mitsubishi Eastern Division

Cleveland

Columbus Destroyers

Dallas Desperados

New York Dragons

Philadelphia Soul

Mitsubishi Southern Division

Georgia Force

New Orleans VooDoo

Orlando Predators

Tampa Bay Storm

American Conference

Mitsubishi Central Division

Chicago Rush

Colorado Crush

Grand Rapids Rampage

Kansas City Brigade

Mitsubishi Western Division

Arizona Rattlers

Los Angeles Avengers

San Jose SaberCats

Utah Blaze

As for why the AFL hasn't been "trumpeting" what took place at the annual Board of Directors/Owners meetings, I have to believe it is because league officials recognize that there isn't much positive news to report.

* The relocated Cleveland franchise is setting up shop in it's third market. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for franchise stability in the AFL.

* In folding the Nashville Kats, K.S. "Bud" Adams, Jr. revealed that he - an NFL owner - "couldn't put together a viable financial model that would be successful over the long-term". If the owner of an NFL franchise can't make a go of it with an AFL team, that doesn't inspire confidence in other investors being able to turn a profit in the league.

* In allowing the Austin Wranglers to shift their franchise to af2 with the team's name and logo intact, the AFL Board of Directors may well have established a dangerous precedent. What's to prevent the owners of other AFL teams from wanting to switch their operations to the less financially onerous af2 with their respective brands intact? How could AFL officials justify blocking such a move on the part of other teams now that Austin has been given the go-ahead?

[slapshot]

Is that a typo, or did Colorado really change its name to the Crunch? TYPO

Geographically, some of those divisional alignments make no sense.

[DDR]

The only one that really seems off to me would be the Easter division with Dallas in it, and I imagine they just did that for the NFL parallel. If you remove Dallas from that division in your head for a sec, the rest of it pretty much falls in line.

[Dilbert]

In AF2 News apparently Lexington has left the UIF for the AF2

http://www.kentucky.com/298/story/203996.html

[jrh31584]

The only one that really seems off to me would be the Easter division with Dallas in it, and I imagine they just did that for the NFL parallel. If you remove Dallas from that division in your head for a sec, the rest of it pretty much falls in line.

I personally would simply move them to the Southern division...I hope I haven't turned this into a realignment thread.

[TBGKon]

The only one that really seems off to me would be the Easter division with Dallas in it, and I imagine they just did that for the NFL parallel. If you remove Dallas from that division in your head for a sec, the rest of it pretty much falls in line.

I personally would simply move them to the Southern division...I hope I haven't turned this into a realignment thread.

As would I, but the AFL is just trying to play off of the NFL-NFC East rivalries between Philly-Dallas-NY

[rams80]

* In allowing the Austin Wranglers to shift their franchise to af2 with the team's name and logo intact, the AFL Board of Directors may well have established a dangerous precedent. What's to prevent the owners of other AFL teams from wanting to switch their operations to the less financially onerous af2 with their respective brands intact? How could AFL officials justify blocking such a move on the part of other teams now that Austin has been given the go-ahead?

Well that's certainly a different perspective on the af2 than what I am used to... Although personally, I think the folks trumpeting these worries are unfounded; most of the surviving AFL teams are in major league markets. Given the historical precedent of minor league teams performances against major league teams, I doubt they would respond well to a further lowering of the on-field talent.

Oh...and Lexington either just figured out a way to commit spectacular franchise suicide, or Doug MacGregor has yet another toy that he covertly runs behind the scenes.