Arena Football League

[Sykotyk]

5 hours ago, dcameronh said:

 

I know, it's pretty bad when your defending champs, San Jose SabreCats, don't even make it to the next season to actually defend their championship.  Although the league did say that they may be back sometime soon with new ownership.

 

http://www.arenafootball.com/sports/a-footbl/spec-rel/111215aae.html

 

SabreCats ownership were basically paying whatever they wanted for players to ensure a good-to-great team. The rest of the league was fed up with being second fiddle to teams skirting the salary rules in place. So, they were forced to pay a fine or be bumped from the league. They decided to walk away. I guess fielding a team with a 1-in-8 shot at a title wasn't as excited as when they can try and stack the deck. And that's not to say Arizona wasn't a team also doing things funny. But, just might not have been as egregious.

 

Either way, they're done. It's just a shame Portland didn't go under first. Much more likely the league would have liked to league-run San Jose to keep 8 teams than to league-run Portland who also required a name change in the process.

[GeauxColonels]

I remember being so excited when the VooDoo started playing in New Orleans. They had a pretty decent team, a fairly good fan following (especially by AFL standards) and were owned by Tom Benson. VooDoo merchandise was all over, all of the games were on TV locally and even regionally. They had a radio contract and got coverage on the local sports outlets. Hurricane Katrina hit and the region's relationship with Tom Benson deteriorated enough that he shut down the team...even though they were still doing fairly well. They tried moving the team from Bossier-Shreveport down here and rebrand them as the VooDoo....but that owner didn't have the operational savvy needed to recapture what we had in the early days of the VooDoo. Sad because it's one of my favorite logos of all time.

 

[kmccarthy27]

18 minutes ago, GeauxColonels said:

I remember being so excited when the VooDoo started playing in New Orleans. They had a pretty decent team, a fairly good fan following (especially by AFL standards) and were owned by Tom Benson. VooDoo merchandise was all over, all of the games were on TV locally and even regionally. They had a radio contract and got coverage on the local sports outlets. Hurricane Katrina hit and the region's relationship with Tom Benson deteriorated enough that he shut down the team...even though they were still doing fairly well. They tried moving the team from Bossier-Shreveport down here and rebrand them as the VooDoo....but that owner didn't have the operational savvy needed to recapture what we had in the early days of the VooDoo. Sad because it's one of my favorite logos of all time.

 

My wife, who lived in Philly at the time, said that is the way it was for the Philadelphia Soul.  At that time Bon Jovi owned it and it was a big damn deal. 

[GeauxColonels]

I think they came in the league at the same time....maybe a year apart...but I believe the VooDoo's first ever game in franchise history was vs the Soul. they had a great logo as well.

[gosioux76]

2 hours ago, GeauxColonels said:

I think they came in the league at the same time....maybe a year apart...but I believe the VooDoo's first ever game in franchise history was vs the Soul. they had a great logo as well.

Of course, at that time, the AFL had a national TV contract that featured them on NBC every Sunday. It was the network's answer to filling the spring-time football abyss. Much like other efforts, it reveled in its brief honeymoon period before fizzling.

[MellowTheMyth]

Just so happened to be watching a game between the L.A. Kiss & Jacksonville Sharks, and I've noticed that some of the sideline apparel is Under Armour, and the Sharks uniforms are manufactured by UA, but the Kiss are still in Russell. Just thought it was interesting to note.

[gosioux76]

I caught a few minutes of the Portland Steel (still a dumb name) game the other night. The uniforms were a solid "meh," but I noticed the endzones were still painted red in the style of the Portland Thunder.

[DaytonBlue]

Still can't believe all 8 teams are making playoffs. 

 

If they're going to do that, at least they should make it like the Aussie Football playoffs so the regular season isn't pointless.

 

1 vs. 4

2 vs. 3

Winners get byes to semis.

Losers to second round.

 

5 vs. 8

6 vs. 7

Winners to semis.

Losers out.

 

And so on..

[Sykotyk]

37 minutes ago, DaytonBlue said:

Still can't believe all 8 teams are making playoffs. 

 

If they're going to do that, at least they should make it like the Aussie Football playoffs so the regular season isn't pointless.

 

1 vs. 4

2 vs. 3

Winners get byes to semis.

Losers to second round.

 

5 vs. 8

6 vs. 7

Winners to semis.

Losers out.

 

And so on..

I always liked the Aussie Football way of using a modified double-elimination tournament. Would work well here as well.

[cajunaggie08]

On 4/3/2016 at 10:32 AM, gosioux76 said:

I caught a few minutes of the Portland Steel (still a dumb name) game the other night. The uniforms were a solid "meh," but I noticed the endzones were still painted red in the style of the Portland Thunder.

I noticed that too. It looks as though they too a giant piece of duct tape and slapped it over the old team name and wrote in the new one. Its sad that the teams couldnt even afford to replace the endzones

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

The Arizona Rattlers have gone back to the great R on the helmet, after having inexplicably worn a (nearly unreadable) wordmark on their helmet for a couple of seasons.  Though they are wearing this logo on only the right side of the helmet, with the number on the left side.  Compare last year to this year:

 

I think that they wore both colour schemes (black and rust; blue and white) last year.  Let's see what they do this year.

 

In unfortunate news, the Tampa Bay Storm have brought back the Zubaz pattern that they wore in the early 1990s.  Compare those early uniforms to the current ones:

    

I really hope that this is a one-off.  

Also, while I generally favour bright colours over dull colours (Rams, Broncos, Brewers, Bucs), I think that the Storm actually look better in the muted shades of blue and gold that they wore up through about 2010, when they switched to bright blue and yellow. 

    

 

 

[Sport]

15 minutes ago, cajunaggie08 said:

I noticed that too. It looks as though they too a giant piece of duct tape and slapped it over the old team name and wrote in the new one. Its sad that the teams couldnt even afford to replace the endzones

I watched some of that game. The Steel logo they laid over the Thunder wordmark didn't entirely cover the Thunder wordmark so the coverup was even more obvious. 

[MJWalker45]

Tampa's Zubaz was a one off. It would have been better if Orlando had been provided with throwbacks as well, though double Zubaz would get annoying really quick.  Cleveland is wearing the same look as Arizona. All black at home vs. Philadelphia. Orlando has the same uniform design as Philadelphia which was released early in March.

[TBGKon]

3 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

Tampa's Zubaz was a one off. It would have been better if Orlando had been provided with throwbacks as well, though double Zubaz would get annoying really quick.  Cleveland is wearing the same look as Arizona. All black at home vs. Philadelphia. Orlando has the same uniform design as Philadelphia which was released early in March.

Yes the Zubaz were a one off for 90s night.  Its the Storm's 25th anniversary season and what a better way to kick it off with the Preds.

[Gold Pinstripes]

3 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

The Arizona Rattlers have gone back to the great R on the helmet, after having inexplicably worn a (nearly unreadable) wordmark on their helmet for a couple of seasons.  Though they are wearing this logo on only the right side of the helmet, with the number on the left side.  Compare last year to this year:

 

I think that they wore both colour schemes (black and rust; blue and white) last year.  Let's see what they do this year.

 

In unfortunate news, the Tampa Bay Storm have brought back the Zubaz pattern that they wore in the early 1990s.  Compare those early uniforms to the current ones:

    

I really hope that this is a one-off.  

Also, while I generally favour bright colours over dull colours (Rams, Broncos, Brewers, Bucs), I think that the Storm actually look better in the muted shades of blue and gold that they wore up through about 2010, when they switched to bright blue and yellow. 

    

 

 

The Storm actually brought the Zubaz back in the mid 1990s when they were wearing a black and silver uniform. The black and silver came after the Zubaz in the early 90s and before the blue and gold of the later 90s. In a game against the Predators, the Storm were trailing at halftime, and changed back to the Zubaz. They kept the silver helmets, though. Tampa Bay came back in the second half to win the game, no one knew the Zubaz were coming back, it was a surprise to nearly everyone.

[Gold Pinstripes]

Just now, Gold Pinstripes said:

The Storm actually brought the Zubaz back in the mid 1990s when they were wearing a black and silver uniform. The black and silver came after the Zubaz in the early 90s and before the blue and gold of the later 90s. In a game against the Predators, the Storm were trailing at halftime, and changed back to the Zubaz. They kept the silver helmets, though. Tampa Bay came back in the second half to win the game, no one knew the Zubaz were coming back, it was a surprise to nearly everyone.

Oops, it appears the Storm went with the Zubaz at least once more wearing the silver helmets. Your photo clearly shows the Storm playing against the Miami Hooters in the mid 1990s.

[Captain Poncho]

Washington DC's new logo and team name.

[LAWeaver]

Not big on the name, but the logo makes up for it. It looks great. Too bad the league's gonna be dead within the next three years though. 

[DTConcepts]

23 minutes ago, mr.nascar13 said:

Not big on the name, but the logo makes up for it. It looks great. Too bad the league's gonna be dead within the next three years though. 

 

Took the words right out of my mouth.

 

I can't imagine there isn't going to be some sort of commotion with a Pokemon Go team and an AFL team coming out within the same week or so, and both of them having the same name.

[Geoff]

40 minutes ago, mr.nascar13 said:

Too bad the league's gonna be dead within the next three years though. 

 

We've been saying that for the better part of a decade now. The AFL is almost reaching NIFL or FHL levels of "how the is this thing still around?!"