So much for the AIFL being "above the other leagues&quo

[American Dragon]

Didn't take long for a team to fold in mid-season..

Looks like the Carolina Sharks are no more. Instead, the team will play the rest of the season on the road as the GHOSTRIDERS.

Way to "break the mold" eh?

[rams80]

Actually its more like the owners of the Carolina team got thrown out of the league right before the season started. It looks bad, but its better than having the team going belly-up mid-season.

[Geoff]

This happened before the season even started. They wont play the rest of the season on the road, they will play ALL of the season on the road. Looks like you have egg on your face.

[hawkeye]

Actually it's rumored the Ghostriders will have one home game in Elmyra, NY. Make sure you don't give away all those eggs.

[Pounder]

Give away the rest of the eggs.

//www.oursportscentral.com/service ... id=3176937

Well, give them credit for cutting 2 weeks off the regular season instead of all remaining 4.

I guess there's now a precedence for a league doing this and surviving to another season. That league doesn't happen to be known as the IPFL, so you can tell what odds I put on the return of this bunch.

[exit322]

You have to wonder, that's for sure.

But hell, they've got 2 expansion teams for 2006, plus a slew of others on the "getting stuff put together" list. At least (unlike the ABA), the two teams announced already have arena deals in place.

[nksports]

Daytona Beach I can see as a viable market. Steubenville, Ohio? They must be counting on everyone from Pa. to W.Va. to Youngstown coming out to support this team. It's an interesting gamble. If it makes it, you have natural rivals with Erie and Canton. But boy howdy, talk about your small markets (the city's website said the population was "almost 20,000.") Unless there has been some kind of revival, that area has been economically depressed for more than 20 years.

[Pounder]

In Steubenville's defense, Weirton WV is right across the Ohio River and is almost the same population. I thought both towns were closer to 25,000, but I'm not about to speculate on whether there's been a Rust Belt effect there. It's a slightly reasonable "metro" area IIRC.

As for the league, well, yeesh.

[tony-o]

The league plans on a 12-team expansion. Their third expansion team is Reading.

[Sykotyk]

Well, in just Steubenville, there's 19,000+, in Weirton there's 20,000+, and if you add Wintersville, Follansbee, and Mingo Junction you have almost 16,000 more people in just the general viscinity.

The team is not going to have a hard time drawing. Remember, this is the only professional sport this area has, and only high school and American Legion baseball that overlaps. And don't look to much at a conflict with the Greyhounds, it's a non-issue.

Sykotyk