timman19
07-10-2007, 09:46 AM
See below article from today's Star Ledger:
Despite a bad record and small crowds, professional indoor football will return next year in Morris County.
The NY-NJ Revolution of the Continental Indoor Football League has already booked the Mennen Sports Arena in Morris Township for its 2008 season home games and is looking to extend that partnership for several more years, said Revolution quarterback and team spokesman Kevin Han ratty.
Prior to the start of its third season early next year, the team hopes to better market its players and product, with a goal of filling 2,500-seat Mennen, Hanratty said.
"We got a bit of a late start on marketing this year. There was a lack of promotion that we need to correct," said Hanratty. "This summer we expect to be in the community, try to let everyone know who we are and make this work."
New York City-based Champion Sports and Entertainment, the silent partner that foots the bills for the Revolution, is intent in doing just that, said Hanratty. Already, the team has lined up two major advertising partners, including WDHA-FM radio, he said.
The Revolution averaged about 400 fans a game in the season that ended last month, said Reynold Fauci, recreation director for the Morris County Park Commission, which owns and operates Mennen Arena. The team finished with a 1-11 record, after going 0-12 in 2006, when it played all of its games on the road. The one victory this year was a 48-47 win over the Summit County Rumble in Ohio, a game pulled out on the final play by Han ratty.
"That was definitely the high point of the season," said Hanratty. "It came down to the last seconds. We scored and instead of going for a tie we went for two points and won."
Hanratty conceded he also took a physical pounding in a few one- sided losses, especially a 70-3 thrashing by the Steubenville Stampede and a 62-0 shellacking at the hands of the Rochester Raid ers. But he thinks the on-field product should benefit in 2008 from the past year's experience and the expected return of a core group of seven or eight key players and coach Scott Veith.
The Revolution is one of 14 en tries in the CIFL, formerly the Great Lakes Indoor Football League, which offers seven-on- seven football on 50-yard fields. The league's teams are mostly lo cated in secondary sports markets, such as Rochester, N.Y., Steuben ville, Ohio, and Kalamazoo, Mich.
Some franchises were relatively successful. Crowds of 5,000 fans attended some games in Rochester, Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania and New England.
While the Revolution did not come close to those numbers, the team fared much better than a 2005 indoor football venture at Mennen. It was one game and out for the New Jersey Xtreme, which was suspended from the National Indoor Football League following its lone home game.
Fauci said the Revolution paid its bills and offered a good quality product.
"People who came to games en joyed them," said Fauci. "They just need to make more people know who they are."
Despite a bad record and small crowds, professional indoor football will return next year in Morris County.
The NY-NJ Revolution of the Continental Indoor Football League has already booked the Mennen Sports Arena in Morris Township for its 2008 season home games and is looking to extend that partnership for several more years, said Revolution quarterback and team spokesman Kevin Han ratty.
Prior to the start of its third season early next year, the team hopes to better market its players and product, with a goal of filling 2,500-seat Mennen, Hanratty said.
"We got a bit of a late start on marketing this year. There was a lack of promotion that we need to correct," said Hanratty. "This summer we expect to be in the community, try to let everyone know who we are and make this work."
New York City-based Champion Sports and Entertainment, the silent partner that foots the bills for the Revolution, is intent in doing just that, said Hanratty. Already, the team has lined up two major advertising partners, including WDHA-FM radio, he said.
The Revolution averaged about 400 fans a game in the season that ended last month, said Reynold Fauci, recreation director for the Morris County Park Commission, which owns and operates Mennen Arena. The team finished with a 1-11 record, after going 0-12 in 2006, when it played all of its games on the road. The one victory this year was a 48-47 win over the Summit County Rumble in Ohio, a game pulled out on the final play by Han ratty.
"That was definitely the high point of the season," said Hanratty. "It came down to the last seconds. We scored and instead of going for a tie we went for two points and won."
Hanratty conceded he also took a physical pounding in a few one- sided losses, especially a 70-3 thrashing by the Steubenville Stampede and a 62-0 shellacking at the hands of the Rochester Raid ers. But he thinks the on-field product should benefit in 2008 from the past year's experience and the expected return of a core group of seven or eight key players and coach Scott Veith.
The Revolution is one of 14 en tries in the CIFL, formerly the Great Lakes Indoor Football League, which offers seven-on- seven football on 50-yard fields. The league's teams are mostly lo cated in secondary sports markets, such as Rochester, N.Y., Steuben ville, Ohio, and Kalamazoo, Mich.
Some franchises were relatively successful. Crowds of 5,000 fans attended some games in Rochester, Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania and New England.
While the Revolution did not come close to those numbers, the team fared much better than a 2005 indoor football venture at Mennen. It was one game and out for the New Jersey Xtreme, which was suspended from the National Indoor Football League following its lone home game.
Fauci said the Revolution paid its bills and offered a good quality product.
"People who came to games en joyed them," said Fauci. "They just need to make more people know who they are."