IFL Indoor Football League

Over a Cup of Coffee

by Jerry Hewitt
Published on April 18, 2010 under Indoor Football League (IFL)


There is an indoor football team that averages around 3000 fans per game although their venue seats at least twice that number. This may be the only city-owned team in any of the big 4 leagues and if not, one of the few. Needless to say because of the ownership, it is one team that clearly has the city behind its success.

I can not remember when, if ever, this team put out a press release. Their idea of a press release is whatever the local media prints. Fortunately for them the media strongly supports the team. I guess this team is blessed by little else in their community to vie for the entertainment dollar.

I have seen little where the team actually gets out and gets involved with other community activities or local charities.

This team's venue is set up to be one of the most intimidating arenas for visitors. Its almost cave-like design puts fans on top of the field and the noise level is ear-shattering.

This team has everything going for it, yet they do little to nothing to increase their fan base. I wonder if they actually put out news, got out in the community and did things like some other successful teams do, if they couldn't double their average attendance.

Its just sad that teams won't promote themselves and work closer with their communities to be more successful. There is no question these are hard economic times. We're told that daily by the media. I know many teams use that line as an excuse for poor attendance, but in my book that's one lame excuse. There is always more a team can do to help their attendance and build a good fan following.

While other leagues are seemingly taking the "who cares" attitude when some of their teams are only getting a few hundred into games, the CIFL has undertaken the responsibility to help its teams in a variety of ways. They are looking at ways to cut costs for the teams and actively working with them to improve their marketing.

The CIFL website is a clear indication of the league's commitment to its teams and fans. It may not be the best looking site in all of sports, but it does feature most of the content fans and the media expect. A league website is a clear indicator as to the dedication behind the scenes. The league issues pre-game and post-game information in a timely manner, and offers live scoring and stats on games when available. It lists radio broadcasts of games and has a weekly online radio broadcast of the week's highlights. It offers text updates, Facebook and Twitter, a photo gallery, live chat during games and even a message board for fans to get together and battle over the good as well as the bad. About all that's lacking in this technology-loaded world is live video broadcasts of games, which when you look at all else they do is a small matter.

The CIFL has had its share of problems in its five-year existence and hasn't always looked like a league teams would want to play in, but I think they have learned from past mistakes and actually have a clue as to how to be successful and transfer that success to the teams. The CIFL may never be the largest league; by design it is regional, maybe in time growing to 10 or 12 teams. Unlikely ever the biggest, but certainly working to be the best they can be.

I'm not jumping on the CIFL bandwagon this morning, just pointing out that leagues could and should be doing more for their teams since it's supposed to be a partnership. The CIFL approach contrasts sharply with the one team that does so little. Those leagues and teams that want to point to the economy for their problems are wearing blinders. A bad economy is not the sole problem here, but the lack of dedication to do what is needed. That applies to good times as well as bad.

To close this section of today's opinion out, I have always looked at the bigger leagues as the leaders, the ones that impact this sport the most, the ones that have the resources to make this game the best it could be, but I'm beginning to think I've been wrong. Maybe these smaller leagues are the true leaders, the ones which will shape this sport in the future. Maybe in future seasons we'll be calling leagues like the CIFL "premier" and the larger ones as just images of the past around to take up space, have big numbers of teams and little else of value to fans and the sport.

Last night

There was plenty of action last night throughout the four leagues with some very good, highly competitive games. Overall a good Saturday of indoor football action.

The IFL took center stage with Sioux Falls 6-1 traveling to Wichita 5-2 for a rematch of a game two weeks ago in which the Wild upset the Storm at the Storm Shelter. This game was anything but an offensive shootout as both defenses showed up to play. At the half Wichita led 13-6. The second half went the way of the first, defense, defense and more defense. Outscoring Wichita 22-7 in the final quarter, the Storm pulled out the 34-27 victory.

Central North leader Green Bay 6-1 traveled to West Michigan 3-2 which was a half-game behind Richmond in the Atlantic East. At the half the Thunderhawks led 45-27. The Blizzard scored 35 points in the second half and forced a fumble inside the one with just a minute left in the game to snatch victory from the Thunderhawks or so it seemed. With only 46 seconds left to go the Thunderhawks tied it up making overtime seem likely. With less than ten seconds on the clock Green Bay hit a 15 yard field goal to take the lead and get the win 72-69

With a new coach and new attitude Abilene 1-5 got its first win of the season over Corpus Christi 2-5, 48-31.

In another defensive battle of top IFL teams, Arkansas 5-1 and San Angelo 4-2 battled it out in this low scoring affair with Arkansas winning on the road 23-10.

In other IFL games, Bloomington 3-3 had little trouble in downing winless Maryland 0-5, 32-6. West Texas 2-4 handed Austin 2-3 another defeat, 49-46 and Billings 5-1 had no trouble at home in defeating Alaska 2-5, 65-25.

For the most part Pointstreak worked out well for the first time this season. Eight games in, not too bad.

5-0 at 3-2 is what we had in the AIFA as Baltimore took their unblemished record to Reading. Once again, a nice job by aifafans.com for "free" live video of the game. If a small band of fans can offer free game video, why can't indoor football teams do it themselves? Anyway, a couple interceptions and three field goals kept the Mariners going as their offense found the Express defense too much to handle early on. At the half the Mariners held a 30-14 lead. Final: Mariners 51, Reading 27

No reported score or stats on Fayetteville at New Jersey.

Same old problem with the AIFA, having to rely on a 3rd party fan site for score updates.

In th only game in the CIFL, Miami Valley 1-3, losers of 17 straight was at Chicago 0-3. Miracle of miracles, Miami Valley got its first win in 18 games by downing winless Chicago 46-29. Congratulations to Miami Valley and their fans!

As usual the CIFL live scoring went well. Easy to access and follow.

Last but not least, we have action from the SIFL with three games last night. Replacement North Georgia proved no match for the Columbus 2-1 as the Lions easily won 87-12. Louisiana 2-2 got on track after two straight losses in defeating the previously unbeaten Greenville Force 2-1. 79-52. The best game of the night was Albany 2-0 at Lafayette 0-2. Albany prevailed 70-64 and took sole possession of first place in the SIFL.

Alright SIFL, you managed to twitter all three games at the same time, but for those of us checking in to get updates it was confusing at times. Might I suggest each team signs up with Twitter and you create a page on your website with all the Twitter feeds. Just an idea.

Sunday matinee

Four games in the IFL are on tap for indoor football fans this week. Richmond 4-1 at Rochester 3-2, Tri Cities 1-3 at Kent 2-3, Amarillo 4-0 at Colorado 0-5 and in the sole night game, Sioux City 2-3 at La Crosse 0-5.

Richmond at 4-1 has been a surprise this season, being a true expansion team. In their last meeting which was also in Rochester, the Raiders upset the Revolution 33-29. Two weeks later in a scheduling quirk, these two meet again on the same turf. the Revolution is the better team and this time around ought to prove it.

Tri-Cities at Kent was a game that could define the Fever's season. Win and start moving towards the playoffs, lose and consider thinking about next season. The last time these two met the Kent QB had his way with the Fever defense, but the IFL has ruled the offensive set used by the Predators illegal, so the question is if using a legal offense Kent can repeat. This game should be close throughout with the teams pretty evenly matched, but the Fever has been doing their homework, signing new players and getting their nonexistent defense in line. Last week the Fever got into the win column by defeating Fairbanks and the confidence they got from that win should be enough to get a win on the road at Kent this week.

Even on the road one would have to figure Amarillo better than the Colorado Ice who haven't shown any real signs of life so far this season. Unless the Ice have some magic formula they have yet to use, the Venom should pretty much be able to run up the score here. I've seen nothing that says Colorado has been out signing new players or doing anything different. Maybe after this loss, new ownership might want to consider making changes, starting with the head coach.

La Crosse promised its fans a win in this game or the next home game is on them. Sioux City hasn't been idle, though. In an effort to challenge for the playoffs, they've been busy signing new talent. I would say get in line for your free tickets, Spartan fans, as Sioux City was a better team than yours even before upgrading talent.

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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Indoor Football League Stories from April 18, 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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