United Indoor Football Association

[preeths]

According to a source, the UIFA may be the name of the new 12-team league which includes Peoria, Lexington, Dayton, Ohio Valley and possibly Show Me. The league is said to be Midwest-based. As for possible confirmation, Dayton has called a press conference for tomorrow to "announce new direction."

[Jamie]

Dang! We need more letters in the alphabet... We're going to run out soon...

[wncsport.com]

Let's use the o with the line in it... :lol:

[Y2KOMETS32]

Fort Wayne is also apart of the new league... :D

[preeths]

The new UIF section is now up on OSC. All 12 teams are set, 10 from the NIFL and two from af2.

[Jamie]

Sweet!

Great work, Paul.

[Y2KOMETS32]

http://www.ibforfree.com/members/index.php?mforum=niflfreedom



This used to be a Freedom only Board but it's now dedicated to the UIF....come join us.

[Fran]

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/sports/10206366.htm

Some interesting points in the article.

By helping form UIF, the Freedom will be able to maintain its $5 ticket prices, keep its travel expenses down and form rivalries within this part of the country, Coffey said. Coffey disagreed with the NIFL’s decision to expand to 32 teams, including teams in Washington and Texas.

“All that’s going to do is drive travel costs up and those costs have to be absorbed somewhere,” Coffey said. “Do you pass it along to your season-ticket holders? I’m not going to do that. When the NIFL announced teams from Texas were coming in, they said it was the world’s largest football league. That was never my goal. My goal has always been to be the best league, not the biggest.”

and

“We’re not going to go to Staten Island and play in an ice rink with one shower because (NIFL officials) decided to let them in for the expansion money,” Coffey said. “We’re going to do things right. Already, this is a more professional league."

I totally agree with his comments its about time the NIFL got a wakeup call.

As they say biggest by sure is not best.

Fran

[afdave]

My two favorite quotes:

“The impetus was, I didn’t want to get into a situation where we were going to be dictated to by an Isiah Thomas,” Freedom owner Rich Coffey said. “The most important thing was to do what was best for our fans. We felt a new direction was in order, and other teams felt that way, too.”

Interesting comparison to Isiah. Although, I know someone who used to worked for Coffey with the FW Fury, and he got into some trouble himself.

“We’re not going to go to Staten Island and play in an ice rink with one shower because (NIFL officials) decided to let them in for the expansion money,” Coffey said. “We’re going to do things right. Already, this is a more professional league."

If that is even close to true, I think that says it all right there.

[Micro67]

Why didn't the Believers jump ship? or did they want to an the other teams said no because of the instability of the franchise?

[Jamie]

Why didn't the Believers jump ship? or did they want to an the other teams said no because of the instability of the franchise?

I strongly suspect that the Believers were not invited to join the new league.

1- Financial instability?

2- Worst team name, ever!

[Doug4566]

WOW!!

This new league on paper looks strong.

I have to agree with Rich C.

Biggest in not always the best.

[woooooo]

Well before recently I only liked to admit to being an arena fan......
I really did not like the NIFL and the way their league is ran (which I'm not going to go through all of them) but I always saw a "need" for them. After having my ear to the ground for a awhile I'm very impressed with what I've seen as far from the UIF. Looking back you can see signs of this league taking shape up to 2 seasons ago. It's just about right from what I woould expect from a minor league. Yeah there's still a lot of holes to fill and you know there will be some bumps especially for that first season but the way these teams are going about things has made me perk up a little to the Indoor-side of things.
From the Omaha Beef press release, "League Management will feature owners working as partners off the field rather than competitors. Committees have already been formed on all major areas of operation. A non-affiliated executive director and a full office staff have been hired through an independent sports-marketing and management firm. There will be a comprehensive search for a non-partisan, non-affliliated, non-biased commissioner soon." Then add to that the strength of the individual franchises coming in......I'm very interested in what's going on here.
You just might see me admit to being a fan of Indoor football once again.....even though I still prefer the arena style of play :wink:

Watch out Beef fans you might be seeing even more of me. :twisted:

[Sykotyk]

Well, wooo, I like the sport, but I always hated the NIFL as a league because of the ineptness to correct glaring areas with anything more than a quick fix or outright lying (the TNN/ESPN rumors to quell dissent amongst the owners before last offseason). And again, the same problems with ownership again and again.

This league, the UIF, is a great base with which to build a league. 9 very strong teams (yeah, so you have Evansville with the small field,... more on that in a bit), with a decent Black Hills and Tupelo (who at least have experience, if not the greatest of successes at the gate), and the lone expansion team, Dayton. Peoria were runner-ups last year in the AF2, while both of the Indoor Bowl participants from last year, plus two-time champion Ohio Valley, in the league.

As for Evansville, which could be the only initial black eye, would to me, be easily overlooked if the team was truthful with it being a 50-yd field from endline to endline. Just divide the field up into 5 yard endzones and have a 20-yd line at midfield and truthfully represent the size of the field. At least statistics would be accurate, and no 'shots' could be taken by outsiders over 'short yards'.

Sykotyk

[woooooo]

True that, on the Evanvilles issue but I don't think it even matters anymore......especially after the Austin Wranglers/AFL scenerio :? Plus if the truth came out there's still more 50-yard fields out there, from every league, let skimp out an inch or two here and there between the yard markers. But when it's painfully obvious then yeah, maybe something should be done to correct that.

My only surprise is the acceptance of Dayton (sorry Jamie) an on-again off-again city when the league is really hyping the individual success of the individual teams. Dayton does fit in well geographically, but is this league that boasts team stability ready to help out an expansion team before they themselves are still getting organized?

[Sykotyk]

Yeah, that's the question mark. But they're in a four team division that can get as close geographically as one could hope.

If things go well, I expect the Erie and Johnstown AIFL teams to look towards joining the UIF, or an outright. I'm looking forward to attending Ohio Valley UIF games as well as Johstown and Erie AIFL games next season.

Sykotyk

P.S., thanks Paul, seems my login is finally keeping me logged in. Part of my resistance to posting frequently here is that I would seemingly get logged off every time I left.

[preeths]

I'm glad to hear it's working. Probably was a cookie issue. We'll have more direct control over that sort of thing starting next month.

[Jamie]

My only surprise is the acceptance of Dayton (sorry Jamie) an on-again off-again city when the league is really hyping the individual success of the individual teams. Dayton does fit in well geographically, but is this league that boasts team stability ready to help out an expansion team before they themselves are still getting organized?

From the outside looking in, I can see why you might scratch your head at Dayton, but...

I think the makeup of this league has as much to do with the personal relationships between owners as it does the proven stability. These owners do not get along with CS, and they think they can get along with each other. Which teams were not invited to the secret meetings? The ones the UIF owners don't want to play with?

As far as Dayton goes, the "personal relationship" factor is that the Warbirds owner used to work for the Freedom owner.

Finally, as you mention, geography is a factor. Ft. Wayne and Wheeling are going to love the short road trips to Dayton.

[Pounder]

What a scream!

Many people here are characterizing this as a fight between commissioner/owner and other owners, but I find it interesting that almost all of the teams leaving were in the upper half of attendance in the NIFL. That's not an accident. That's escaping incompetence. Frankly, I'll be surprised if this doesn't finish the NIFL within 12 months.

Well, I suspect Tupelo is there because Tennessee Valley is there. Everyone wants a rival.

[exit322]

If the UIF has a wildly successful first season, that will likely be a huge blow to the NIFL *and* the af2 (remember, two af2 teams are in this mix, too).

I'd say that's probably why the lawsuits will be flying sooner than later...