Over a Cup of Coffee
by Jerry Hewitt
Published on March 16, 2010 under Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL)
Cooperation
I was thinking this morning that years ago the National Football League and the American Football League came to the same conclusion, competition on the field good for business, off the field bad for business.
Today we have four major indoor league's that seem to be battling each other over who's the best. To me that all seems pointless as the goal for each should be to make the sport better and stronger.
I propose an NCAA type organization to monitor the leagues. This type of "daddy" shouldn't be needed as the leagues ought to want to cooperate and work together as the brothers they are, but not to be.
I believe that such an organization could provide many benefits to the four leagues including the standardization of rules and the organizing of a true national championship series. I believe that those two things alone worth the price of admission, but in reality could be just the tip of the iceberg. For fun let's call this organization the Indoor Football Association or IFA. Easier for me to type IFA instead of this organization time after time.
Let me take some time here and see what other benefits might result by having this not for profit organization.
With the rules all being the same from one league to another, all officiating could be handled by the IFA. This would result in the leagues no longer needing a head referee. As a side benefit this might mean a reduction of needed referees during the season. Both would be cost savings to the league and its teams. Not only from the personnel standpoint, but also time need to schedule refs for games. Another benefit to this system for the teams is an unbiased system for rule infractions that are normally handed by the individual leagues. Once a protest was filed with the IFA, they could review it, make a determination and then pass their ruling on to the league involved for them to take action per their rules.
The IFA could also take over the responsibility for stat compiling and reporting. Although the IFL is now using an automated system with Pointstreak, there still could be cost savings.
Let's say the IFA takes a page out of the af2 book and all players become employees of the IFA. Benfit is obvious, less accountants involved in the weekly paycheck area. Under this plan it doesn't mean that leagues can't still set their own pay criteria for players. But beyond that benefit there might be savings in insurance and workman's comp. To my way of thinking the more employees an organization has, the better the deal they can work with insurance companies.
The IFA could also set up a guide book of sorts for how to start and operate a team for the best chance of success. the IFA could also get involved in other areas where leagues don't have the funds or man power to take on.
The IFA could also look at how best to promote players wanting to move up to the next level. Other areas I could see that would reduce costs to teams if a IFA actually existed might be reduced prices on game equipment, legal services, and even revenue to all through acquiring national sponsors.
I haven't really thought this through of course, just came to me as an idea and I'm sure that with time and research there are more benefits to all, including fans.
The IFA may only be a dream in my little perfect world and never see the light of day, but the whole idea came to me as maybe a way to get leagues on the same page, to work together to improve the sport, not work against each other by competing off the field.
This article and more archived at The Indoor Football Report located at www.IndoorFootballNetwork.com Comments about this article or suggestions can be made to indoorbowl@yahoo.com.
Continental Indoor Football League Stories from March 16, 2010
- Second-Half Assault Leads Commandos To Win In Season Opener - Cincinnati Commandos
- Over a Cup of Coffee - OSC Original by Jerry Hewitt
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
