Question for Mr. Sam Terry (CEO and Chief Procrastinator, Jacksonville Stallions)

[Minor League Man]

I hear that Jacksonville could be getting an Arena Football team in 2007. (It has been listed along with Boston and Miami as possible candidates).

Question: Would it be the Stallions, with you as the owner?

If so: Worth the wait.
If not: You snoozed, you lost.

[nksports]

If AFL (or af2) came in, I seriously doubt if they would do it with an NIFL ownership group that didn't have its ducks in a row there. Since I don't think the Jacksonville NIFL group had a lease in hand, all the AFL would have to do is get one signed.
You snooze, you lose is right.

[preeths]

A case could also be made that if the Jacksonville Stallions hadn't snoozed, they would have lost even more. Look at the other rush job franchises this year, and there is not one success among them. Jacksonville would have been working with the shortest time frame of all in 2006. Whatever you believe about their chances for next year, they made the right decision in sitting out this season.

[Minor League Man]

A case could also be made that if the Jacksonville Stallions hadn't snoozed, they would have lost even more. Look at the other rush job franchises this year, and there is not one success among them. Jacksonville would have been working with the shortest time frame of all in 2006. Whatever you believe about their chances for next year, they made the right decision in sitting out this season.

Mr. Reeths, I beg to differ. The Charleston SandSharks had the shortest timeframe of all the teams this year, and they are on place to go to the playoffs (and don't seem to have many off-the-field problems I know of). So there IS a success.

The Stallions, heck, they could have been division contenders (I know the Lakeland ThunderBolts would probably have still won it, but they could have moved ahead of the Osceola Identity Crisis. That said, the website requires a password which nobody knows to log on (COMMUNITY ACCESSABLE, MY REAR!) So, it is my guess that they would have put us on a wild goose chase.

Kudos to the ONE AND ONLY ARENA LEAGUE for stepping in!

[preeths]

You're mistaking a few wins for true success. The playoffs are great, but they don't matter a hill of beans if you lose money hand over fist, go out of business and burn yet another city on the indoor game. Charleston is currently drawing less than 1,000 people to its games and will only survive if its owners decide to ignore the financial reality and forge ahead in 2007 anyway. The folks in Jacksonville knew they were in for a financial bloodbath if they played in 2006 and were not up for it. Had they chosen differently, we would most likely be looking at another Arkansas, Big Sky, Palm Beach, Lincoln, etc...

[Jamie]

I'm with Paul on this one. I don't understand your obsession with the Stallions and their decision to wait a year to start their team. If you've got some other kind of beef with them, then clarify what your ranting is really all about.

The evidence is overwhelming that a successful launch of an indoor football franchise requires MANY months of preparation and planning. The perfect example of how NOT to start a team is the Dayton Bulldogs. They announced in January, and while they haven't officially folded, they have disappeared. Booted out of their venue, remaining games forfeited.

Taking a year to prepare a team for launching sounds prudent to me.

[preeths]

A year of preparation, or at least the majority of the offseason, is really needed. You can argue the AFL and af2 need less time, as they provide a great deal of support to their startups, but indoor teams need all the time they can get. History, especially recent history, really proves this, and I'm not just talking about the NIFL. Look at what's happened to the Syracuse Soldiers in the AIFL. They were the last team to be announced, and they too are gone.

[nksports]

I'm agreeing with you all, but the problem with Jacksonville NIFL is as far as anyone knows, they still don't have a lease agreement for 2007, which leads them wide open for predation.

You may not want to start play until 2007, but you still want to get a lease deal, even if it means putting down a deposit on possible dates. If you don't have the money to put together a lease deal, then you don't have the money to start a team.

[Jamie]

Yes, those are all legitimate criticisms... but they are not the criticism of waiting a year to start.

Your criticism is HOW they are USING that extra time.