NIFL "Right-Sizing"

[Pounder]

Shall we start with franchises that are keepers (presuming the scant attendance numbers I have are accurate, a very dangerous assumption) and those to which we wonder why the heck they're there?

WEST:

Good: Utah, ? Sioux Falls ?, Omaha, Billings, Sioux City

Question Marks: Wyoming, Black Hills

Um...: Tri-City, Lincoln, Oklahoma

"SOUTH":

Good: [BIRDS CHIRPING]

Scraping By: Houma, Tupelo

Why? Lake Charles, Beaumont

MIDWEST / EAST:

Outstanding: Fort Wayne

Good: Lexington, Evansville

Questions: Show Me, Ohio Valley, Atlantic City, Staten Island

WTF: Carolina

A couple justifications and/or questions, in order of my listing:

Sioux Falls... are they drawing 4K a game?

Black Hills... I'm taking a leap to place them above the ugly zone; maybe ONLY because the map kind of demands that they be the linkage between the Rockies teams and the Missouri River gang.

Tri-City... rumors of the whole arena losing money leaves that shaky.

Show Me... the numbers were relatively good, but when you constantly round off the numbers to the nearest hundred, I am left with the suspicion that something's been doctored.

Ohio Valley... maybe for shock value, maybe for the fact that when they actually lost a couple games, a few hundred people disappeared from games. Doesn't sound stable to me, despite the quality of the team. Could be the relatively small size of the market.

Staten Island... they are not in the ugly zone only because I imagine that the rink is paying THEM to play there. They seemed to report 4 out of 6 as sellouts, but even those numbers are suspicious when one game spiked to 1,400 in a 1,200 building. Is there a new arena in the offing?

If you know of any padding going on that is out of line with my "ratings," please speak up.

Anyway, I see a set of solutions here:

(1) Kick out the south. People there seem to prefer to be outside during the spring... and Houma and Tupelo are small markets about to be left on an island.

(2) Keep the remaining divisions as travel-tight as humanly possible...

WEST
Billings
Black Hills (even if the league has to subsidize for a bit... or try to push back to Fort Collins? Boise? :lol: )
Utah
Wyoming

CENTRAL
Omaha
Show Me
Sioux City
Sioux Falls
Tri-City (alternate location... say, Bismarck? Topeka?)

EAST
Atlantic City
Fort Wayne
Lexington
Ohio Valley (they are the link to keep AC and SI, if that's what you want)
Staten Island

From there, you can play a little mix and match, relocate smartly, expand within the means of current teams, et cetera.

(3) Kiss a LOT of posterior without the current "commissioner" from points south.

Just my $.02

[exit322]

Time to consider who's actually viable and who isn't...

Utah was just sold to another ownership group that owns another team or two in that area...they're fine. Sioux Falls fills the place up and probably has the most solid ownership/management group in the NIFL. Omaha and Sioux City are also fine. Billings' arena costs are going out of sight, and you never know with Geiss and Anderson, so they're the wild card here. Wyoming is fine. Black Hills...I really don't know.

I hope Tri City and Lincoln are back, with different ownership...Bailey's still a crook, in my mind.

Oklahoma is dead. Gone. Buried.

Houma and Tupelo are fine, ownership and finances wise. Lake Charles is going to be fine. Beaumont's ownership doesn't do a damn thing for the fans or to draw fans in, then blame the fans for not showing up. Same thing happened in Alexandria, LA...they may or may not be back.

Fort Wayne, Lexington, Evansville, Ohio Valley...all locks to be playing football next year. Show Me is as well. I personally also feel that Atlantic City and Staten Island will be, as well.

Carolina...haha!

I'll answer your questions as best I can.

Sioux Falls... are they drawing 4K a game? From what I understand, every game is near a sellout (around 5000). You can break even at anywhere between 2000-2500 fans in the NIFL, from what I've seen.

Black Hills... I'm taking a leap to place them above the ugly zone; maybe ONLY because the map kind of demands that they be the linkage between the Rockies teams and the Missouri River gang. - Ownership seems committed, but they need to bring in a better team.

Tri-City... rumors of the whole arena losing money leaves that shaky. - They've got a good team this year, too...but there's other arenas in the area if that one falls apart.

Show Me... the numbers were relatively good, but when you constantly round off the numbers to the nearest hundred, I am left with the suspicion that something's been doctored. - Nope, what you see is within 100 of what you get...they're fine.

Ohio Valley... maybe for shock value, maybe for the fact that when they actually lost a couple games, a few hundred people disappeared from games. Doesn't sound stable to me, despite the quality of the team. Could be the relatively small size of the market. - Market size isn't the problem here at all. The Greyhounds don't do a damn thing to bring fans in...

Staten Island... they are not in the ugly zone only because I imagine that the rink is paying THEM to play there. They seemed to report 4 out of 6 as sellouts, but even those numbers are suspicious when one game spiked to 1,400 in a 1,200 building. Is there a new arena in the offing? - The owner of the Xtreme, I believe, is planning to build a new hockey rink in that area with the expressed intent of the Xtreme being the "flagship team" in the arena.

If you know of any padding going on that is out of line with my "ratings," please speak up.

Anyway, I see a set of solutions here:

(1) Kick out the south. People there seem to prefer to be outside during the spring... and Houma and Tupelo are small markets about to be left on an island. - Houma's arena doesn't hold much over 2800, and Tupelo has been in a downward spiral for 3 years, so you can't expect fans to come in droves.

(2) Keep the remaining divisions as travel-tight as humanly possible... - there's a good idea. They won't do it.