Texas Fold em

[indoor fan]

What a difference a year makes. Last year Texas was the hotbed of arena/indoor football with so many teams. Now the number of teams has been cut in half. Lost Texas arena/indoor teams:

AF2 - Lubbock, Austin, Copperheads, Corpus Christi

APFL - Drillers, Conroe, Regulators, Diablos

This leaves only the AFL Desporados, AF2 Amarillo and Rio Grande and the IFL teams.

[nksports]

What a difference a year makes. Last year Texas was the hotbed of arena/indoor football with so many teams. Now the number of teams has been cut in half. Lost Texas arena/indoor teams:

AF2 - Lubbock, Austin, Copperheads, Corpus Christi

APFL - Drillers, Conroe, Regulators, Diablos

This leaves only the AFL Desporados, AF2 Amarillo and Rio Grande and the IFL teams.

Regulators and Diablos never really were. Conroe was a heartbreak. Talk about a franchise that the locals got behind (yes it was a small, suburban market) and got jerked around by league and folding teams. They could have been a contender.

[Gusher]

That still leaves 10 teams. All of the teams left look to be in pretty good shape. I would love to see Rio Grade and Amarillo back in the IFL. I think it would help their bottom line plus bring back some great regional match-ups.

[phydeaux72]

That still leaves 10 teams. All of the teams left look to be in pretty good shape. I would love to see Rio Grade and Amarillo back in the IFL. I think it would help their bottom line plus bring back some great regional match-ups.

Rio Grande Valley was never in the IFL. I knew the original owners quite well. I don't know how the new owners feel. But I know for a fact that the original owners would seriously be considering a jump to the IFL at this point with all of these Texas teams folding in the af2. RGV threatening to jump ship to the Intense Football League was the main reason that the af2 made such a rapid expansion into Texas several years ago. Now they're right back where they were three years ago with Bossier City being their closest opponent.

[expressfb]

i know yall dont see them as a big time league, but the upstart iifa league will be back in texas with at least ten teams next season. playing at the smaller venues has helped put more teams in different cities. some of the IFL, AF2, and AL teams last season moved players up and down at different points in the season when they needed them. it has the makings of a good feeder or minor league system up and down the line for a few bigger league teams who have already taken advantage of it.

[exit322]

Absolutely. I agree there is a place for the APFL-type leagues as a feeder to the indoor leagues. There just has to be good enough structure to those leagues that it's viable to do so.

[NatePreds05]

There is no indication that Corpus Christi is folding.

[phydeaux72]

There is no indication that Corpus Christi is folding.

The only factor I see is that af2 Corpus did worse than Lubbock, in both attendance and corporate sales. However, there have been no official announcements yet as to the future of the Sharks, whatever that may be.

[chardale]

What a difference a year makes. Last year Texas was the hotbed of arena/indoor football with so many teams. Now the number of teams has been cut in half. Lost Texas arena/indoor teams:

AF2 - Lubbock, Austin, Copperheads, Corpus Christi

APFL - Drillers, Conroe, Regulators, Diablos

This leaves only the AFL Desporados, AF2 Amarillo and Rio Grande and the IFL teams.

There is word that Lubbuck IS moving to Macon, Ga to help out that division, but ownership has yet to be named? Is this true or not?

[Caballo Diablo]

There is word that Lubbuck IS moving to Macon, Ga to help out that division, but ownership has yet to be named? Is this true or not?

Renegades Folding After Two Seasons
Sep 9, 2008 03:45 PM CDT

It's a story NewsChannel 11 sports has been following for the last three weeks and Tuesday it's a sad day for local sports as the last remaining professional franchise in Lubbock is leaving.

The Arena Football Renegades are folding after two seasons in the Hub City. Being the third area football franchise in Lubbock, the Renegades played in the af2 going 7-9 in their first year and 9-8 this season including a playoff appearance.

The team had frantically been trying to stay alive in 2009 but new ownership opportunities faded away causing the team to announce Tuesday, they're folding.

NewsChannel 11 has learned the Lubbock Renegades will stop playing arena football in Lubbock. The Renegades played two full seasons in Lubbock.

Sports director, Pete Christy, has learned that the team is folding because of financial trouble.

Pete is currently interviewing team officials, and will have a full report tonight on NewsChannel 11 at Six.

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Lubbock Renegades Fold After Two Seasons
Fox News 3, Lubbock
09/09/08

The Lubbock Renegades announced Tuesday they're ceasing operations. The team played two seasons in the AF2, and went to the playoffs this year.

Former Red Raider receiver Rodney Blackshear was the head coach for both of those seasons. He was disappointed, but not surprised, to hear the news.

He says he's in limbo about what to do next and so are many of his players. Ultimately, there just weren't enough corporate sponsorship dollars to sustain the ballclub.
.................................................

Officials believe Renegades failure a result of poor community support
Matt McGowan and Adam Coleman
The Daily Toreador
9/11/08

Tuesday's announcement that Lubbock will lose its Renegades arena football franchise to some demonstrates the Hub City's lack of support for professional sports franchises.

After two seasons in Lubbock, the team will hang up its cleats, an end to another chapter in the book of failed professional sports franchises in the city.

Approximately 30 job losses will result from the team going under, said Shana Carr, assistant general manager of the franchise. Among the unemployed will be players, coaches, full-time staff and trainers.

"The overall assumption is pretty much that there was just a lack of overall community involvement," she said. "Where we were just wasn't where it needed to be going into their third season."

Despite promising season ticket renewals at the end of the 2008 season in August in which the team made it to the playoffs, a lack of local investment and community interest in the team ultimately led to the its discontinuation of operations, she said.

"This is a very good market for a potential sports franchise," he said. "I think any team has the ability to do well here. It's just a matter of the community rallying around the team early, not after it's been here for a while, but immediately."

While Lubbock's market is large enough to support teams like the Renegades, said Lubbock Chamber of Commerce President Eddie McBride, such teams' competition with Tech's athletic teams may have played a role in the franchise's "disappointing" closure.

"The competition is keen even though that is a different type of competition," he said. "It's a different level and different types of sports."

Carr, however, said she does not think competition with Tech played a role in the Renegades' folding.

"We really felt like we had a different product than them," Carr said. "Ours is really geared more towards entertainment and family and things outside of just what's going on in the field."

With a population of about 173,000, Amarillo's arena football franchise, the Dusters, is not facing the same fate as the Renegades, said Ian Isaacson, a spokesperson for the Amarillo team.

"I think we'll be here for a while," he said.

The Lubbock Chamber of Commerce hopes to see another professional sports team come into town, McBride said, though he couldn't say when that might happen.

"I've been here long enough to know," he said. "I've seen the Crickets. I've seen the Cotton Kings, and now I've seen the Renegades. I do not know what it will take for teams of that nature to live and thrive in this town."

While Carr shared McBride's frustration about the city's loss of the Renegades, she said she does not share his optimism.

"I personally feel, and I know that the organization feels, that it's probably going to be a very long time before this town sees another professional sports franchise," she said. "I really think it's going to be a while before Lubbock is able to field another sports team of any kind."

Renegades coach Rodney Blackshear is still busy even though the franchise folded.

Being a former Tech player with contacts in the AFL, Blackshear is making an effort in support of his former players. Currently, his goal is to help many of his players land in the Arena Football League.

Former Tech players Ken Scott and Grant Walker were on the Renegades roster during the 2008 season.

As far as Blackshear is concerned, the goal is the same for Scott and Walker.

Blackshear said since players sign one-year deals in the arenafootball2 league, they have an easier time finding their way back into football.

He said once the Renegades franchise folded, teams from the AFL wanted a chance to sign some of the players left without a job.

"Right now, a lot of the AFL teams, which is the big leagues for us, started calling about the guys," he said. "I know for a fact Ken Scott signed with a team in Tampa last year and it's quite a few teams interested in him and his services going into next season. He has the potential of moving up."

Scott was an offensive linemen for the Renegades although he was a defensive tackle under Leach from 2003-06. The Renegades' 2008 season was the one year he played for the team.

Walker was a receiver for Tech and doubled as a defensive back for the Renegades. He played for Tech for the 2006 and 2007 seasons, as he was a transfer from Purdue. His experience with the Renegades was short with 2008 as his rookie season.

Blackshear said although Walker did not get much experience, his shot at more football in the future is as much a possibility as anyone's on the team.

"For the most part every guy thinks they have a chance to move up," he said. "The thing is, they have to work harder than others to get there. Sometimes no matter how good you are, you're not going to get that chance because it's so many opportunities out there. There's no guy that plays here that says, 'This is it for me.'"

Although the players played in the af2, they still had part-time jobs; some worked at Wal-Mart and radio stations, Blackshear said.

The Tech coaching staff was most excited about the Renegades because it gave its former players opportunities at jobs and an opportunity to do what they love best.

Although it was an advantage to have a place where his former players could continue, Tech coach Mike Leach said the fold might have been for the best.

"Anybody that plays football, I think it's beneficial to all of us," he said. "Gave a couple of our guys jobs. I'm sure the ownership looked at all the options and did what they felt was the right thing.