Massachusetts Pirates Announce Move to Indoor Football League
August 19, 2020 - Indoor Football League (IFL)
Massachusetts Pirates News Release
The Massachusetts Pirates are proud to announce that the organization will be joining the Indoor Football League.
The team is paving the way for Indoor Football on the east coast as the first IFL squad to touch the Atlantic Ocean.
Pirates founder, co-owner, president and general manager Jawad Yatim is ecstatic about the move to bigger and better things.
"We are extremely excited to be joining the Indoor Football League. Internally, it became evident a long time ago that this was the direction we wanted to move in, as we continue to build our brand and steer the ship so to speak to greener pastures," Yatim told masspiratesfootball.com "From a business perspective it provides our organization the best possible opportunity to grow off the field. Whether it's the larger geographical footprint, the manner in which they operate, some of the behind the scene business transactions they've been able to secure up to this point, their media performance, the stability of their organizations and the potential opportunities that arise with forming a nationwide league that made our decision a quick and painless one. We are also honored to be the first ever east coast team in league history and look forward to building up the region as we move forward. This news along with executing a three-year extension on our arena lease that will keep us in Worcester for the foreseeable future provides our fans something to look forward to for years to come, and that's truly what's important. The foundation is set moving forward and I'm excited to begin assembling the 2021 Massachusetts Pirates while continuing to build the Pirates brand alongside our great front office and staff."
Pirates CEO and co-owner Hassan Yatim shares the same enthusiasm as he is excited to take this team with his son to the next level."
"We've been waiting for a while to make this announcement," Hassan said. "We are excited that it is here and it's a big step forward for the organization and a brighter future for the Massachusetts Pirates. We have great things to come for the fans and for everyone involved."
League commissioner Todd Tryon thought at first hesitant with expanding east, saw adding the Pirates as too good of an opportunity to pass up.
"We've been a midwest-west league and as we had been looking to expand east, we wanted to make sure that we were going to anchor it with a market that had experience and we knew we were in it for the long haul," Tryon said. "We've had east coast teams apply to our league before that we just didn't think were worth going in that direction at that time."
The owners, Tryon says, made it very easy for him to say yes.
When Jawad and Hassan came to us, we knew we were expanding east with a great playing partner that has really given back to the community," Tryon said. "That's really why it was an easy decision to branch out east because it's really a commitment to bring one team to the east and now there's pressure to build and develop the east side."
The Pirates become the 15th team that includes the Columbus Wild Dogs set to begin play in 2022 and the league is in the midst of finalizing additional expansion news on their end shortly.
Indoor Football League Stories from August 19, 2020
- Massachusetts Pirates Announce Move to Indoor Football League - Massachusetts Pirates
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