Turfcats/SIFL

[RShores]

We went to the game last night and watched the Turfcats decimate the Conquerors - it was highly entertaining, but I have a few questions; maybe some of the more knowledgeable fans can help me figure this stuff out...

I had never heard of the Turfcats or the SIFL. Ever. My boss gave me tickets to the game (quite good tickets... 6 players ended up on my son's lap at one point... you can't get any closer to the game without actually drawing a paycheck). Other than being given tickets, I wouldn't have known that there was even a team, much less that they were playing last night. As a normal, everyday person, how are we supposed to support our latest local team, if we don't scour the independent sporting news weekly hoping that there's a new league starting up for us to throw our support behind? There seems to have been no advertising that was done in the mainstream media hyping this league and absolutely NO mass advertising that's been done in Austin. If it's the greatest product in the world, no one will buy it if they don't know about it.

With the extremely reasonable ticket prices, I'm willing to shell out the money to come watch the games, support the team and the league, and will tell friends about it, but individuals can only do so much. At some point, the general public should hear about it too. I understand that Austin seems to be "All Longhorn, all the time", and that disgusts me on a few different levels, but whatever ad strategies were used leading up to the inaugural season weren't very effective, if 1600 people (out of 400,000+ in Austin alone) came to the opener. More people than that stop to watch a car on fire on the side of the road.

What football rules does the SIFL use? I can't seem to find any reference to the rules on the web site, and some of the calls last night were confusing. I can't think of the specific circumstances, but I remember at one point that the Conquerors challenged a call where an over-ruled call would have resulted in worse field position for them.... at least that's how it sounded to me. The official didn't explain what was really happening, and didn't tell us the results of the call... a few moments later, play just went on, with no further reference to the challenge. The explanations need to be clearer, especially in a locale where everyone is required by law to keep track of several different football rule books, as a condition of citizenship (NFL, NCAA, HS, RRYFA, YMCA, etc).

I understand it's just a typo, but had anyone else noticed that the team name is misspelled on the Subway banner?

I have no problem supporting a team that plays in a barn. Part of the problem with professional sports is the multi-billion dollar owners who bully their way through local cities to get the taxpayers to fund overpriced monstrosities. Local venues are more affordable ($20+ for parking at some NFL stadiums, anyone?), and allow the fans to interact more with the players. I don't much care for the occasional waft of vomit, but in a rodeo fairgrounds, I think it's almost expected. I can deal with that too.

Why do the officials have to point at one of the receivers? If they can't figure out which receiver to point at, why do they penalize the offense for not telling them which player is the receiver? Shouldn't they be able to determine the lineup based on..... where the players line up? This may just be related to the 'Rules' question above, and may be a bit nit-picky at this point, but it seemed like there were a few times where the game was stopped simply because the officials hadn't figured out who was who.

I understand that I'm not a normal sports fanatic, and apologize if these questions are taken as being offensive - they're not meant that way. I'm just an every-day consumer, with a small amount of disposable income. If you want my support, you (SIFL/Turfcats) need to make it more friendly to my demographic. I can't give you my money if I've never heard of you, or I don't understand what's going on.

Additional information: I'm an Express season ticket holder, but I can't stand the sport of baseball. I enjoy wholesome, affordable entertainment for me and my family (2 adults, 2 kids). I enjoy supporting local sports, and put at least a dollar in the batting helmet every time it's passed around.

I'm not just trying to roll a grenade into a room and let everyone run for the hills... I honestly have interest in the answers to my questions. I will monitor the forums for replies.

Thx!

[mavlax20]

Regarding the advertising, I would assume it is because advertising is really expensive...sometimes costing up to a couple million dollars....the SIFL is new, and the budgets are not as big as big leagues, so it makes it tough to advertise....and it doesn't help that, as you stated in your post, Austin tends to be 'Longhorns are the only sport that exist, nothing else is a sport'.

I do not know what type of coverage the Austin American Statesman gives the Turfcats, or news stations, but those avenues should automatically cover the Turfcats because it is a hometown team....maybe they are upset that the colors are closer to Baylor colors than UT colors.

I do hope the word about the Turfcats gets out much more, but the first year is always the toughest...hopefully more people will hear about them and come to the games, they will enjoy the games, that is for sure.

[RShores]

...those avenues should automatically cover the Turfcats because it is a hometown team...

From a business perspective, it's a vicious cycle. Why should the media cover the team, if no one has even heard of them vs. how can anyone hear about it if nobody's covering it?

I hadn't even heard that the Wranglers were out of business (I know... that may not technically be correct). Around here, if it's not Longhorn, it doesn't make it on the news for the most part. But let the Longhorn Spelling Team win some contest against a troop of third graders in Mongolia, and they light the tower Orange, stop traffic on I-35, and have riots on Sixth Street.

[Caballo Diablo]

We went to the game last night and watched the Turfcats decimate the Conquerors - it was highly entertaining, but I have a few questions; maybe some of the more knowledgeable fans can help me figure this stuff out...
This is from the Turfcats site on the FANBLOG page:
http://www.turfcats.com/blogs/fans/

The SIFL uses a combination of "ARENA" and "INDOOR" rules.
One big difeerence from what you were acosumed to with the Wranglers is the QB being allowed to take a knee at the end of a half to let the clock run.
In "ARENABALL" you are not allowed to do that and the clock will automatically stop if you don't make forward progress.

These game out of the official rule book before the the season started and there have been some tweaks made to the rule book since.

SIFL 101: Enquiring Minds Want To Know
April 10, 2009 by Steve Litaker

I’ve been dreaming of the start of the inaugural season and last night either the Football Gods came to me or I had an epiphany while I slept. It was surreal, like I was a fly on the wall in the conference room.

This is probably more information than the casual fan cares about, but far less than what the Diehard fans are searching for. You’ve got to start somewhere, so here are some basics of the 50 yard game SIFL style.

The Field:

Basic 50 yards by 28 yards common to the 50 yard game, the end zones to be a minimum of 6 yards deep and a maximum of 8 yards deep. The end zones may be rounded to accommodate the arena as many also hold hockey rinks. The standard 4” tall walls covered in padding and signage.

For those of you who still chuckle over the “sub-standard size field” the Wranglers used, the TurfCats will have a regulation sized field. I pulled out a tape measure personally and double checked.

The goal posts will have a crossbar height of 10’ with the uprights extending 20’ above the crossbar. You may use the old style “H” design or the single shaft mount Wishbone or “Y” design. I’m not sure of the distance between the uprights. They will be constructed of piping a minimum of 3” in diameter and a maximum of 4” in diameter.
........................
EDIT:
The first game Austin had the uprights extending 20' above the crossbar and before the 2nd game was granted a waiver by the league to have them extend only 10' above the crossbar.
........................

The goal line will extend up the side line dasher boards for officiating ease. The side line dasher boards must extend goal line to goal line. If there is no dasher board at the back of the end zone, the end line must be marked with a 4” white line.

Basic out line of the game:

The home team must supply a minimum of 35 game balls to the officiating crew before the game. The game day roster must be emailed or faxed to the officials at least 48 hours before game time. Player numbers will run from 1 to 99, no two players may have the same number. A player’s number may be switched during the game but it must be reported to the officials. The maximum players allowed in the team area on game day is 20.

Each team can have I coach on the field, either offensive or defensive. He can not come onto the filed any further than the yard line numbers and must be at least 10 yards behind the the offensive line of scrimmage at the time of the snap.

If a coach becomes un-sportsman like (determined by officials) he gets 1 warning. It happens a 2nd time the team will receive an un-sportsman like conduct penalty and from that point the team flagged will not be allowed to have any coach on the field for the remainder of the game.

Four 15 minute quarters, and a 20 minute halftime.

The clock will basically continuously run until you get to the 1 minute warning, then it will be timed according to NCAA timing rules. There are certain situations where the clock stops such as extra points, etc.

Each team will receive 3 timeouts per half, each will be for 75 seconds.

It will be 8 man Football

The ground can not cause a fumble.

Any ball hitting the ceiling or other structure becomes a dead ball.

Scoring:

Touchdowns = 6 points
Field goals = 3 points
Dropkicked Field goals = 4 points
Safety = 2 points
Returned PAT = 2 points
PAT – 1 point
Kickoff resulting in a touchback = 1 point

Roster:

20 man active roster, 23 players may travel with the team.
3 man practice squad.
IR has two differing lists, both can only have 2 players listed on each.
The short IR list is a minimum of 2 weeks and the long list is a minimum of 4 weeks.
A player can only be on these lists twice per season.


Offense:

A player standing on top of the wall / dasher board is ineligible to catch the ball.
Tight Ends must report to the official by raising his hand, if in the Red Zone two Tight Ends are allowed and neither has to report.

1 high motion man.
The motion man must block above the waist until the ball crosses the neutral zone and can not block a lineman until the ball crosses the neutral zone.

The receiver only needs 1 foot in bounds for a reception.

If the QB lines up in the shotgun he’s an eligible receiver.
The location of the QB’s forward foot determines if he has crossed the line of scrimmage.

Intentional grounding- To avoid this penalty the QB must be outside of the pocket or be throwing the ball into the turf as a spike to stop the clock inside of the 1 minute warning.

Defense:

Linebackers- The Jack LB is the blitzing LB and must line up inside of Box and must rush through the “A” gap. The Mac LB must line up outside of the Box before the snap and can go anywhere. He can line up over an eligible receiver and drop back into coverage.

A DB cam mirror the motion receiver and move with him.
DB’s can line up on the line of scrimmage as long as he’s covering an eligible receiver.

Stacking a LB and DL is illegal

3 Down lineman in either 3 or 4 point stance.
The Nose Guard must line up head to head on the center, no shading or leaning.
The other two DL can line up either head to head or shoulder to shoulder with O-Lineman. A Defensive Lineman can not drop back into coverage.

No stunting

Chucking- A defensive player may not interfere with an offensive eligible receiver in an area within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage.

Special Teams:

Kickoffs- Ball touching the wall before going 10 yards is still a live ball, the receiving team has the option of accepting the result of the play or taking the ball at the point it touched the wall.
If the ball goes out of the end zone after touching the field, wall, or player, it will be spotted at the 5 yard line.
Kicks out of bounds behind the 25 yard line, the receiving team has the choice of spotting the ball at either the 15 or 25 yard line.
If the kick goes out of bounds between the 5 and 25 yard lines it will be spotted at the point it went out of bounds.
Kicks that hit the goal post in flight is a dead ball
No fair catches allowed, but there is a kick catch interference penalty for not allowing the return man to receive the ball.
No punting allowed.

Penalties / Rules:

Illegal tactics- Aiding a runner- another player can not assist the ball carriers forward progress from behind.

Pyramiding- a player can not use another player to help elevate himself to attempt to block a pass or kick.

Tripping- A player may not use the leg below the knee to hinder the progress of an opponent except the ball carrier.

Piling on.
Using the helmet to Butt, Ram, or Spear opponent.

Un-Sportsman like conduct penalty will be called for the verbal abuse or objectionable gesture directed at the opponent, officials, or spectators.

Loss of Down Penalties- Illegal forward pass, Intentional grounding, Illegal touching, kicking, or batting of the ball.

Automatic 1st Down penalties- Defensive pass interference, unnecessary roughness, helmet contact penalty, roughing the passer.

Illegal Defense is a 5 yard penalty (good deal, the automatic 1st down in ArenaBall was too much for a player being out of position)

Questioning a call or rule- Each coach can do this once per half by throwing a league flag. The clock stops for 1 minute and both coaches will join the official for an explanation.
If the coach throwing the flag is over ruled it results in a 10 yard penalty.

Overtime:

Overtime starts 2 minutes after the end of regulation
Overtime will allow each team 1 timeout, any unused during regulation will not carry over into overtime play.
Each team will receive the ball at the 25 yard line and have 4 downs to score.
The first score they can go for a PAT, on subsequent scores they must go for the 2 point conversion. Both teams will have an equal number of possessions.

[Caballo Diablo]

I had never heard of the Turfcats or the SIFL. Ever. My boss gave me tickets to the game (quite good tickets... 6 players ended up on my son's lap at one point... you can't get any closer to the game without actually drawing a paycheck). Other than being given tickets, I wouldn't have known that there was even a team, much less that they were playing last night. As a normal, everyday person, how are we supposed to support our latest local team, if we don't scour the independent sporting news weekly hoping that there's a new league starting up for us to throw our support behind? There seems to have been no advertising that was done in the mainstream media hyping this league and absolutely NO mass advertising that's been done in Austin. If it's the greatest product in the world, no one will buy it if they don't know about it.
Check out the "Austin Turfcats" thread on this same page in the SIFL section.
Most of those articles and press releases are sent to over 450 media outlets in the Central Texas area, the Local Austin media refuses to acknowledge them or the team much like they did with the Wrangler's.

I have had email discussions with the sports editors at the Austin American Statesman and was bluntly told they don't care about minor league sports and don't have the staff to cover them. If you read the paper you're aware they are lazy and prefer to use articles off the wire and have trouble doing their own. I asked why they don't use some of the press releases for quick filler and they said although they do receive them they feel that none have been news worthy or of interest to their subscribers. I have pointed out maybe that type of attitude is why their readership has dwindles rapidly.

Mavlax is correct about the cost of advertising. The Wranglers had people associated with the National advertising company located here in Austin, GSD&M, they told the Wrangler's it would take an annual advertising budget of $1 to $1.5 million to even dent the Austin market. The AFL can't afford that, let alone the af2 or SIFL.

There have been a few smal clips on a couple local TV sports and ESPN Radio 530 did a bit last week, but it is few and far between. I've been following the 50 yard game for many years and even the AFL fans complain about no advertising or local media attention. And those teams are owned by some VERY rich people with many being very well known.


With the extremely reasonable ticket prices, I'm willing to shell out the money to come watch the games, support the team and the league, and will tell friends about it, but individuals can only do so much. At some point, the general public should hear about it too. I understand that Austin seems to be "All Longhorn, all the time", and that disgusts me on a few different levels, but whatever ad strategies were used leading up to the inaugural season weren't very effective, if 1600 people (out of 400,000+ in Austin alone) came to the opener. More people than that stop to watch a car on fire on the side of the road.
It's the best dollar for dollar entertainment value in the Central texas area. Seaon tickets could be had for $4 per game, $10 for seats on the wall.

Austin has always been a fickle sports market. Unless it's UT football no one seems to care, even the other UT sports have trouble drawing people to the games.

The Ice Bats, Express, and Toros don't draw well and have suffered a decline in attendance over the years. The Express moving up to a higher league helped a little.

What football rules does the SIFL use? I can't seem to find any reference to the rules on the web site,
See above - lol

and some of the calls last night were confusing. I can't think of the specific circumstances, but I remember at one point that the Conquerors challenged a call where an over-ruled call would have resulted in worse field position for them.... at least that's how it sounded to me. The official didn't explain what was really happening, and didn't tell us the results of the call... a few moments later, play just went on, with no further reference to the challenge. The explanations need to be clearer, especially in a locale where everyone is required by law to keep track of several different football rule books, as a condition of citizenship (NFL, NCAA, HS, RRYFA, YMCA, etc).
I didn't see that one, my daughter had a performance that I attended first and I got to the game with about 5 minutes left in the 3rd qtr. In the 4th qtr the Austin coach challanged a ruling and won, I don't recall the penalty but the officials orig. said it was an automatic 1st down. after the challange it was changed back to 3rd down.

Besides the back judge this was the first time this crew had officiated a Turfcats game. The league is trying to avoid "Home Town" crews and they can only work a certain number of games per city and have officials travel.
The rest of the "Austin" crew were working the Swashbucklers game in Lake Charles, Louisiana last night.


I understand it's just a typo, but had anyone else noticed that the team name is misspelled on the Subway banner?
haha- The one in the end zone by the Turfcats bench area, yes they did.
I was with the VP/GM and director of game day operations as they discussed it.

I have no problem supporting a team that plays in a barn. Part of the problem with professional sports is the multi-billion dollar owners who bully their way through local cities to get the taxpayers to fund overpriced monstrosities. Local venues are more affordable ($20+ for parking at some NFL stadiums, anyone?), and allow the fans to interact more with the players. I don't much care for the occasional waft of vomit, but in a rodeo fairgrounds, I think it's almost expected. I can deal with that too.
I also have tired of the "Big 4" raping local tax payers to put more money in their pocket. Even Jerry Jones got tax payer money to help build the current TaJ Mahal for the `Boys. Sure, the new Arena in Cedar park is being partially built with tax payer money (after the 3rd public vote), but the city is part owner of it. The other large stock holder is Tom Hick's arena management company and he was required to put $12 million in escrow for the venture before any tax dollars would be spent. It was not built by the tax payer for a team owner.

The Frank Erwin Center cost the Wranglers over $20,000 rent per game, plus all parking and concessions, and 25% of all merchandise sold - YIKES!
But poor arena deals are common throughout minor league sports. The Travis County Expo Center is $3,000 per game, plus $125 per hour for Heat / AC. Parking cost $3 per game for single game fans and is free for season ticket holders.

Why do the officials have to point at one of the receivers? If they can't figure out which receiver to point at, why do they penalize the offense for not telling them which player is the receiver? Shouldn't they be able to determine the lineup based on..... where the players line up? This may just be related to the 'Rules' question above, and may be a bit nit-picky at this point, but it seemed like there were a few times where the game was stopped simply because the officials hadn't figured out who was who.
In the 50 yard game, both Arena and Indoor the tight end must report himself the the officials by raising his hand. If he doesn't it's a penalty. If you listen, some times you can even hear the LB call out which side the TE is on and where the RB is located.

The WR points to the side judge to let him know he's the receiver tha't supposed to be on the line and the official points back to acknowledge it and let him know he's line up properly. Sometimes you'll see the official tell him to move up or back a little. I probably wasn't that the official didn't know which receiver was where, it could have been that the receiver didn't report properly.

[Caballo Diablo]

I understand that I'm not a normal sports fanatic, and apologize if these questions are taken as being offensive - they're not meant that way. I'm just an every-day consumer, with a small amount of disposable income. If you want my support, you (SIFL/Turfcats) need to make it more friendly to my demographic. I can't give you my money if I've never heard of you, or I don't understand what's going on.
The questions are all good, I wish more people were interested in learning about the sport. The SIFL, as all of the leagues besides the AFL (and they've even found out they need to cut the cost of doing business to survive) are on a very limited budget. The reason the ticket prices are so affordable is the priority on keeping expenses down. Yes, they need to get the word out to the public, but if they spend for a real advertising campaign they would never be able to recoup the money and would just go out of business. The AFL Wrangler's lost $4.5 million in their last year, 2007, and between $14 - $15 million in their last 3 years.

Additional information: I'm an Express season ticket holder, but I can't stand the sport of baseball. I enjoy wholesome, affordable entertainment for me and my family (2 adults, 2 kids). I enjoy supporting local sports, and put at least a dollar in the batting helmet every time it's passed around.
I'm not a baseball fan although I have been to some Express games. They get the most publicity from the lacal media for two reasons. The city of Round Rock puts out a huge effort to support them, while Austin ignores their teams. Not only does Round Rock advertise for them they also work on the leasing a whole lot better than the people living in the Ivory Tower on the UT campus running the Frank Erwin center. The other is they are owned by Nolan Ryan, quite a big baseball celeb in these parts.

I'm not just trying to roll a grenade into a room and let everyone run for the hills... I honestly have interest in the answers to my questions. I will monitor the forums for replies.

Thx!
No offense taken, stay tuned and become a full time member of Turfcat Nation.



Here's a few other places to check in on, but the OSC is a good one where you're at:

The official Turfcat site;
http://www.turfcats.com/index.html

The official Southern Indoor Football League site;
http://www.southernifl.com/

Indoor Football nation;
http://nation.indoorfootballnetwork.com/default.htm

FORUMS:

The SIFL Central page on the Indoor Football Forum;
http://indoorfootballboard.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=southernindoorfootballleague

The Turfcat thread on the AFL Message boards on the Other Topics page;
http://boards.arenafootball.com/messageview.aspx?catid=10&threadid=48861&enterthread=y&STARTPAGE=21

Originally it was on the Wranglers division page, when they updated the teams it was deleted. I got them to move it to the "OT" page, then a league official deleted them again (there's a couple). I had to go through the AFL interim commissioner (Ed Policy) and the af2 President (Jerry Kurz) to get the over zealous league worker to back off - lol. Most of the time there's enough posted to keep them n the front page but sometimes they do drop to the next page. A few Old Wrangler fans chat there occasionally and attend Turfcat games with us.

[RShores]

Thanks for all the good info, CD!

[mavlax20]

Diablo mentioned that parking was $3. At the Louisiana game, my friend paid $5 for parking. So I would be safe and have $5 just in case.

[Caballo Diablo]

Diablo mentioned that parking was $3. At the Louisiana game, my friend paid $5 for parking. So I would be safe and have $5 just in case.
DANG INTERNS ! - lol

I'm skeptical of your post, YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS - haha

Congrats on your graduation lastnight Josh.
You missed a good game, but I guess a college degree is more important than being A REAL FAN.




hahaha, see you next weekend at the tailgate.

[exit322]

Poor excuse. You'd get the degree without attendance at the event, which is a waste of time, anyways.

[mavlax20]

if your parents were like mine (not trying to dog your parents, i don't know them, but i do know mine) then you would of been at the graduation....i mean, the fan of the month wasn't even at the game (i should know, he was at my graduation)

[Radio Jack]

Parking is $5. Season ticket holders have a parking pass.

News coverage. Watch Fox 7 tonight (May 19) at both 5 & 9. Dave Cody is doing a special report on us that should answer a lot of your questions.

Jack Dixon
Director of Operations
Austin Turfcats

P.S. Congrats to Josh on graduating!!

[CoachSMB05]

I paid 5 bucks for parking too and I have an SIFL all access pass. lol

[trifecta]

Having read on the Turfcat website that the story follows the GM around for a few days I would have to ask why so much of the publicity has revolved around the GM.

I have not yet seen the story but wouldn't following around a coach or player be much more exciting.

I will definitely watch the story tonight.

[Caballo Diablo]

Having read on the Turfcat website that the story follows the GM around for a few days I would have to ask why so much of the publicity has revolved around the GM.

I have not yet seen the story but wouldn't following around a coach or player be much more exciting.

I will definitely watch the story tonight.
Possibly because this is part of the GM/VP's full time job and he was more readily available. The coaches and players have day jobs and you'll only find them at practice and games.

Dave Cody Features The Austin Turfcats On Fox 7 Sports Extra
May 19, 2009

Fox 7, KTBC Austin, will run a Tuesday Sports Extra on the Austin Turfcats Vice-President/General Manager Ronald Oswalt and the Turfcats at 5:50 and 9:50 tonight. The news story will also run at 5:15 a.m. on Wednesday morning for those Turfcat early risers. Fox 7 can be found on channel two in the Austin area on Time-Warner cable.

Oswalt was miked for two days on game week versus the Houma Conquerors last week, it follows interaction with the team and staff and all the work that make a Turfcats game a special experience. Reminder, we will see you Saturday at 6:30 p.m. as we take on the Texas Pirates to extend the win streak to four games.