Arena Football League 2004 season in review

June 1, 2004 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I) News Release

NEW YORK – The 2004 season proved to be another successful year for the Arena Football League. The League agreed to a two-year extension with NBC, ensuring AFL national broadcasts through 2006; set a new record for total attendance (1,827,623); introduced a new, cutting-edge game ball created by Spalding; launched AFL fantasy football with the help of SandboxPlus; and introduced four new markets (Austin, Columbus, New Orleans and Philadelphia).

Those were just some of the great stories from 2004.

Following are some other highlights from the 2004 Arena Football League regular season:

ON THE FIELD

EXPANDING HORIZONS: The AFL broke into four new markets in 2004 with the expansion Austin Wranglers, New Orleans VooDoo and Philadelphia Soul gaining popularity in their inaugural seasons, and the relocated Columbus Destroyers doing the same after moving from Buffalo. The VooDoo notched a best-ever record for an expansion team, finishing 11-5 and hosting a first-round playoff game. Following are the season-highs for wins by an expansion team.

MOST WINS BY AN EXPANSION TEAM
EXPANSION TEAM YEAR WINS
New Orleans VooDoo 2004 11
Nashville Kats 1997 10
Detroit Drive 1988 9
St. Louis Stampede 1995 9
New Jersey Red Dogs 1997 9

MILE-HIGH TURNAROUND: With a win in Week 17, the Colorado Crush finished with an 11-5 overall record and supplanted the mark set by the Chicago Bruisers (1988) for the best single-season turnaround in AFL history with a nine-victory improvement from the previous season. Colorado went 2-14 in 2003. Following are the best one-season turnarounds.

TOP ONE-SEASON TURNAROUNDS
TEAM SEASONS FIRST SEASON SECOND SEASON IMPROVEMENT
Colorado Crush 2003-04 2-14 11-5 +9
Chicago Bruisers 1987-88 2-4 10-1-1 +8
New Jersey Gladiators 2001-02 2-12 9-5 +7
Detroit Fury 2002-03 1-13 8-8 +7
Milwaukee Mustangs 1995-96 4-8 10-4 +6
Orlando Predators 1991-92 3-7 9-1 +6

SOUNDS LIKE A BROKEN RECORD: AFL players set a number of season-high records with their 2004 season performances. San Jose SaberCats QB MARK GRIEB set new marks for passer rating and completion percentage. Las Vegas Gladiators OS MARCUS NASH shattered the previous season-high for receptions (154) and tied the mark for receiving touchdowns (46). Orlando Predators rookie QB JOE HAMILTON became the most accurate first-year quarterback with his 65.5 completion percentage. On the other side of the ball, Colorado Crush DS RASHAD FLOYD recorded the most total tackles in a season with 123. Following are the new season-high marks set by AFL players in 2004.

NEW AFL SEASON-HIGHS SET THIS SEASON
PLAYER, TEAM CATEGORY OLD RECORD NEW RECORD
Marcus Nash, Las Vegas Receptions 138 154
Mark Grieb, San Jose Passer Rating 131.7 133.5
Mark Grieb, San Jose Completion Percentage (min. 200 att.) 69.7 73.0
Rashad Floyd, Colorado Tackles 121.5 123.0
Joe Hamilton, Orlando Completion Percentage by a Rookie 63.8 65.5

HOT TEAM IN THE DESERT: The Arizona Rattlers got off to a slow start, losing five of their first eight games, but they stayed the course and righted the ship, embarking on an eight-game winning streak to close the regular season. At 11-5, the Rattlers finished tied with four other teams for the best overall record in the league, but their 50-43 win over division rival San Jose and a better record than Chicago and New Orleans against common opponents gave them the nod for the No. 1 seed in the postseason. Following are the longest team winning streaks to end the regular season.

LONGEST WINNING STREAKS TO END THE REGULAR SEASON
TEAM YEAR CONSECUTIVE WINS
San Jose SaberCats 2000 11
Orlando Predators 1992 9
Arizona Rattlers 2004 8
Iowa Barnstormers 1996 7
Detroit Drive 1988 7

OFF THE FIELD

ON THE AIR: NBC Sports and the Arena Football League agreed to extend their profitable revenue sharing broadcast partnership through 2006, ensuring national AFL broadcasts for the next two seasons. The AFL also started its first weekly television program, "AFL Weekly," broadcasted on Fox Sports Net on Mondays at 3:30 p.m. and hosted by Patrick O'Neal. The 30-minute program includes segments on the AFL's previous and upcoming week's games, focused match-ups, AFL fantasy football, and interviews with players, coaches and other AFL personalities. The AFL also launched its first-ever national radio program, "This Week in the AFL," which airs every Thursday at 9 p.m. on Sports Byline USA's network of affiliates, Sirius Satellite Radio (Stream 122), more than 500 worldwide affiliates of the American Forces Radio Network, various airlines as an in-flight audio option, throughout Canada and on Radio New Zealand.

FILLING THE STANDS: The Arena Football League set a regular-season total attendance record with 1,827,623 fans attending games during the 2004 season. The figure is 25-percent higher than the previous regular-season record of 1,458,830 set in 2003.

TOP FIVE REGULAR-SEASON TOTAL ATTENDANCE SEASONS
SEASON ATTENDANCE
2004 1,827,623
2003 1,458,830
2001 1,217,673
2000 1,145,134
1996 1,132,821

The AFL averaged 12,024 fans per game in 2004, up six percent from 11,397 in 2003. It was the third consecutive average-attendance increase and marked an 31-percent increase since 2001 (9,155).

SEASON AVERAGE
2004 12,024
2003 11,397
2002 9,957
2001 9,155

A BIG HIT ON THE WEB: The AFL made sure fantasy football did not end in January, establishing with SandboxPlus its successful first-ever fantasy football games for fans, including the Drive to ArenaBowl XVIII Fantasy Challenge which is available now. The AFL also introduced AFLFan.net 9.0, a new Internet access service powered by Velocity Services Inc. which allows fans to connect online with their favorite AFL team and with a fully-customizable Home Page and personalized email. In addition, AFL online merchandise sales were up 53 percent and Internet traffic on arenafootball.com was up 49 percent.

BECOMING RETAIL CHAMPS: The AFL designated Champs Sports as the official athletic retailer for the league through 2006 and partnered with the division of Foot Locker, Inc. to create the league's first national retail program. The AFL also teamed up with Spalding (a division of Russell Corporation) to create a new official game ball which features a blue ‘S' stripe that adds visual clarity, and blue ‘crosshairs' on each end that allow players downfield to quickly locate the center of the ball in flight against dark backdrops common at indoor arenas. The new Spalding game ball is available for purchase now in stores such as Target, Sports Authority, Champs Sports, Modell's Sporting Goods, and other major sporting goods retailers. The ball will also be available in WalMart stores beginning July 1.

DRAWING A BLANK: The Arena Football League drew the attention of Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur M. Blank, who, pending AFL Board of Directors approval, agreed to purchase the AFL's Georgia Force from Virgil R. Williams. "We intend to put the same passion into building this franchise as we continue to put into the Falcons. This will be a team our fans will embrace for years to come, and all of Georgia will be proud to call their own," said Blank. He will become the sixth NFL owner to own an AFL franchise. Four more NFL owners own the rights to an AFL team in their respective markets. Following are NFL team owners involved with the AFL:

NFL OWNERS IN THE ARENA FOOTBALL LEAGUE
OWNER AFL TEAM NFL TEAM
Tom Benson New Orleans VooDoo New Orleans Saints
Arthur Blank Georgia Force Atlanta Falcons
Pat Bowlen Colorado Crush Denver Broncos
Ford Family Detroit Fury Detoit Lions
Jerry Jones Dallas Desperados Dallas Cowboys
Stan Kroenke Colorado Crush St. Louis Rams
Bud Adams* --- Tennessee Titans
Dan Snyder, Fred Drasner* --- Washington Redskins
Wayne Weaver* --- Jacksonville Jaguars
Denise DeBartolo York, John York* --- San Francisco 49ers
*NFL owners who own rights to any AFL team in that market

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Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from June 1, 2004

• Destroyers re-sign Polk to two-year extension - Columbus Destroyers
• Willis Marshall named Ironman of the Week - Colorado Crush
• L.A.'s Arnold Miller selected to AFL "All-Rookie Team" - Los Angeles Avengers
• Molden named to AFL All-Rookie team - Chicago Rush
• Desperados Weatherington Named to AFL All-Rookie Team - Dallas Desperados
• Coco Blalock named Arena Football League's Baby Ruth Real Deal Offensive Player of the Week - Las Vegas Gladiators
• Preds kicker Taylor on AFL All-Rookie Team - Orlando Predators
• Arena Football League names 2004 All-Rookie team - AFL I
• AFL names players of the week - AFL I
• Arena Football League 2004 season in review - AFL I
• Desperados Re-Sign Four - Dallas Desperados

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