Bring indoor football to Broomfield and Prescott Valley!

[Minor League Man]

NIFL or af2?

[nksports]

The management of both buildings is tied to the same group which has run the CHL (ISC or ISG, I can't remember the name off-hand) (why do you think Youngstown, of all places, is in the South-Central based CHL), where a lot of the ownership and management groups have traditionally gone af2 (Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Shreveport-Bossier City, Rio Grande Valley, etc. — a lot of the Horn Chen groups and the management company that runs the CHL itself from the old WPHL).
Loveland may be up for grabs since their ownership group, which also manages their building, is peeved at the CHL for putting a team in Broomfield for 06-07, so they might try someone else. I've heard NIFL and Fort Collins mentioned together, but I don't know if they would actually be in Loveland (a suburb of the area) or if there is another building in Fort Collins itself. (I haven't been in that area in decades.) I've heard that area is in play for minor league basketball as well

[Pounder]

The "Loveland" you refer to is, I suspect, the Budweiser Events Center, possibly closer to Fort Collins (I don't think it's in Loveland, or otherwise Loveland made a very strange annexation). It's actually east of I-25. That's where the Colorado Eagles (CHL) play, and that's where the TIPS-owned Colorado NIFL team was supposed to play before they bailed.

The Crush aren't exactly selling out now. I would rethink any notion of putting another indoor football team in the Denver metro. That's not an issue with the Avalanche and hockey in the area (both the Avs and U of Denver are very tough tickets).

Color me extremely surprised that anyone decided to build an arena in the Prescott Valley, even if the growth rate is nuts. I'd have waited 10 years. I'm not sure I like thier prospects for any sport.

[preeths]

Rumor is that the Budweiser Events Center will host an NIFL team this season.

[Rooster]

Personally, I think that Prescott would be an awesome place for indoor football. The problem is that nobody else is even around them, so from a travel perspective it will be difficult to join a current league. If I won the lottery tomorrow I would put together a Catcus Indoor Football League and include six teams (each teams play twice, so you get a ten week season with five home and five away games):

1. Prescott Valley, AZ
2. San Diego, CA - Fill the void of the old AF2 Riptide
3. Rio Rancho, NM - New building being built for the New Mexico Scorpians hockey squad
4. El Paso, Texas - Long coveted by minor league teams in general, if you could get an afforable ticket plan and a competitive football team I think indoor football would explode there. Public leary of another Intense Football El Paso Rumble debacle.
5. Tuscon, AZ - while they don't have sports specific building, I think they could generate enough interest to play in the downtown convention center which has stadium seating and would fit in the travel logistics of the league.
6. Colorado Springs, CO - A bit far for San Diego and El Paso, still this is a great city that hasn't been tainted by any indoor football incarnation yet.

Have league offices in Phoenix, AZ and have a neutral site championship game played in Glendale every year or maybe even piss off the Rattlers and play at America West! Bottom line, Western expansion to these places won't occur unless a group of them come into a league together to reduce travel costs and develop some type of rilvary.

I love the fact that in the AF2 Rio Grande Valley, TX was in the same division as Bakersfield, CA last season. Brilliant!!!! Their league office should be commended for driving done their own attendance with bone headed decisions like that.

[Geoff]

2. San Diego, CA - Fill the void of the old AF2 Riptide

...

I love the fact that in the AF2 Rio Grande Valley, TX was in the same division as Bakersfield, CA last season. Brilliant!!!! Their league office should be commended for driving done their own attendance with bone headed decisions like that.
2 - IIRC, what I heard was that the Riptide were coming back, they were just taking the season off the restabilize. May be wrong, or they may have folded completely.

the Rio Grande comment: Oh then the NFL must be making ****ty attendence. Look at the NFC East: Philly, NY Giants, Washington, and Dallas? Or the NHL's Northwest with Minnesota and Vancouver. Or Dallas in the Pacific with the likes of LA, Anaheim, and San Jose, Pheonix. The NBA with Minnesota in with Seattle and Portland. Or the AL West with Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, and Texas. Or the NL Cenral with Pittsburgh in with Houston. Granted these are all Major league examples but for a minor league example look at the NIFL divisions over the years. It doesn't drive down attendence it just drive up travel costs. Long distance is not necessarily prohibition of a rivalry. IE. Cowboys-Redskins.

[rams80]

Geoff-officially San Diego is dormant. Unofficially they're probably as dead as Laredo.

You honestly have to wonder about RGV and whether or not they'll be able to continue on for another year or two; the travel costs have got to be murder for a team that's on an island like they are.