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Over a Cup of Coffee

by Jerry Hewitt
April 9, 2010 - Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL)


I think at times we can sit around, talk about which league is better, who's team is the best of the best, bur when it comes right down to it, all fans of the game are united in one nation: the indoor football nation.

I have been an outspoken advocate of leagues cooperating, leaving competition on the field where it belongs and working together off the field to improve the sport.

In the real world, nations that don't always see eye to eye get together at summits. They argue, debate and hammer out deals that we are told are for the betterment of mankind. Though many times these deals fall apart, they still are an attempt at world peace or just made to show cooperation.

I would call upon all fans to lobby their league of choice to join with the other leagues in the spirit of cooperation and make our indoor football world better. I hear there is a conference being held this summer in Midland, Texas, hosted by an outside entity and that all four of the major indoor football leagues have been asked to attend. I have told the person heading this "summit" that to just get the major players to one table at the same time would be a major coup. If representatives of the big four do attend, maybe this "summit" could be a starting point for real cooperation.

The ongoing battle for territory by the leagues will only end up weakening all. We've seen it time and again. Maybe they can't see this as it would appear that two of the four are bent on owning it all, a direction that is not only wrong, but bad for the sport.

If I could see where any of these leagues were actually adding teams that will be stable long term, in good times and bad and could see where they were working internally to strengthen existing teams instead of playing the numbers game, I might think differently. I'm sorry, I don't see any of that. I only see them adding numbers. The two smallest, the CIFL and SIFL are forced into expansion or should I say, replacement each year. I'm not going into the why, but neither should have to replace teams lost every year just to keep playing. The two biggest leagues, the AIFA and IFL appear just to be on an ego trip, seeing who can add the most teams.

These are hard economic times as we know and expansion makes little sense when existing teams need help to get through until it all improves. This goes back to cooperation and maybe the leagues getting together and putting forth a moratorium on expansion for say two years and instead take the energy they use on expanding and directing it back on improvement. It doesn't take an expert to see that there isn't a league out there which doesn't have teams that could use some help.

I am a realist and know the chances of leagues putting expansion on the back burner is not going to happen, but cooperation will happen at some point. Leagues will be forced into more cooperation if they want to survive.

I propose as a starting point a true National Championship between the big four. Since all do not play the same number of games they could use win/loss percentage for seeding. Maybe cooperation can start with competition on the field and end up with all the leagues eventually on the same page. The time is way past overdue to put the egos aside, folks!

Tonight

There are only two games tonight to tease indoor football fans as we head into a full weekend of games.

The IFL features the Alaska Wild 2-3 at Kent Predators 1-3 in a rematch. In their first meeting the Wild won, 48-39. The Wild are not good on the road, having won but one away game in their history. The SIFL offers up Louisiana Swashbucklers 1-1 at Greenville Force 1-0. Call this the Jeckyll and Hyde game as in their first outing the Swashbucklers put up 88 points, but in their second outing gave up 88.

Tomorrow

I have an article lined up on how I feel the indoor football landscape may change for 2011. I haven't seen the winds of change in the air this strong since 2006.

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.

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Continental Indoor Football League Stories from April 9, 2010


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.


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