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League Conducts Successful Owners Meeting

October 6, 2007 - Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) News Release


CANTON, OHIO - The Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) conducted its annual owners meeting in Canton, Ohio, on Sept. 15-16 at the Holiday Inn Conference Center. According to league co-founder Jeff Spitaleri, it couldn't have went better, "I feel that we really accomplished a lot of what we set out to do this weekend. We have some great ownership groups that are passionate about our league and this game and we really have worked hard over the last two days to solidify our product and I believe that 2008 will be a special season."

The hot topics at this year's meetings were how to improve the CIFL, both on and off the field, and how to stabilize the league in a sport that is notorious for instability. "We know the history of indoor football and have certainly followed what has happened throughout the history of the sport, and that is where we have to get better. We don't want the CIFL to be the reason for the sport to suffer, we want to make it flourish and the only way to do so is to stabilize our league first and hope that the fans take notice," Spitaleri added.

The CIFL owners took advantage of the two days to revamp the day-to-day process of the league. The most important issue discussed was how to ensure that no games are cancelled in the future and that teams do not have to use replacement players. The owners have voted on and approved a Financial Security Fund that will be maintained by the individual team owners, with multiple signors in order to protect each team during the season. Milwaukee Bonecrushers co-owner Shaun Totulis said, "We feel that this not only give stability to the league but also gives a sense of security to the owners and fans that they will always get CIFL Football at its highest level." The money will be placed in a high-yield savings account and will gain additional value during the year.

The stats and video for the 2007 season did not go as planned and many games were left incomplete, causing problems with media members covering the league and players alike. "We failed last season from a stats perspective; we owe it to the players in this league to be better in 2008," Spitaleri said, "especially since we understand the role stats play in getting players a shot at the next level." The CIFL took advantage of video upload and file sharing in 2007, however, the new system was difficult to learn for some teams and the league will come up with a system that makes it easier for teams to use the service for next season. The system makes it easy to not only access game film from your next opponent, but game film from all the teams in the league as well, at anytime.

Payroll and roster sizes were talked about as a way to create talent parity throughout the league for 2008 and beyond. The roster size of twenty-one active players remains in place, however, it was voted to remove the need for a designated special teams player as used in the first two seasons. This was done because most teams had to pass on players in the previous two seasons that could double as both a position player and kicker. Under the former rule, a player, such as a kicker, if designated as the special teams player, could not play during the game unless it was on special teams. Payroll concerns were addressed as individual player bonuses were voted out of the league after just one season. "We felt that at this level, having individual player bonuses for each position complicated things more than it helped. Not to mention, on a good day, a team could see payroll double because of all the incentives that were in place," Spitaleri said. The owners have voted to keep win bonuses a part of the league and will use that bonus accordingly.

The league will be working on creating an officiating committee, which will work in hand with the league to ensure that each game is called the same, whether you are in Muskegon, MI or Rochester, NY. Rick Radcliff, the Director of Officials for the first two seasons will be assigned to a different role with the league office. New duties will include scheduling of officiating crews for CIFL games and also creating and operation of a grading system that will be used throughout the season in order to select the best officials for playoff games. There will also be scheduled officiating combines during the off-season to allow game officials to be fully prepared and ready to go when the season kicks off in March 2008.

The league and team owners will be working to create a system for player uniformity in the CIFL. This was done in response to situations during the 2007 season where some players were not in compliance with the uniform policy while on the field. Players will be required to follow the uniformity rules and will not be eligible to participate in the game if they are not uniform. Eric Spitaleri commented, "We had quite a few instances last season where players looked sloppy on the field and did not comply with our uniform suggestions, because of this and with feedback from the fans, we are requiring a more professional look by both players and coaches in the future."

The league had a representative at the meetings from adidas®, displaying the new lines of clothing and footwear that will be available to the CIFL under the new agreement beginning next season. In addition to the apparel and shoes, adidas® will be the official supplier of footballs for the league beginning in 2008 as well. This agreement has been reached with the intent to fully brand the CIFL and its teams with the adidas® product in all the different ways they provide by the end of the 2009 season.

The league will be scheduling a second owners meeting in January 2008 at a location yet to be determined. This information will be listed on the CIFL website as it becomes available.



Continental Indoor Football League Stories from October 6, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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