IFL Indoor Football League

Over a Cup of Coffee

by Jerry Hewitt
Published on September 23, 2010 under Indoor Football League (IFL)


OurSports Central is now nearing eleven years of serving the news needs of minor league sports fans. No other online source has equalled the coverage OSC provides. OSC offers fans of all minor league sports an unbiased place to go, catch up of the latest news and even join in some usually friendly conversation on the message boards.

Other online publications have come and gone, yet OSC remains. I am an indoor football fan first and everything else a distant second, but if I were to turn into a minor league baseball fan or even a lacrosse fan, I know where my first stop to learn about the game and talk with the fans would be: that's right, OurSports Central.

This little departure from Over a Cup of Coffee was just to say thanks to Paul Reeths for providing us the many years of coverage on our own particular sports interests.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. Did anybody else read the AIFA post league meetings press release and go, "Huh????" I have read some pretty empty press releases over the years, but this one may be the best of them all. First, no mention is made of this great money-saving idea of a simulcast of the meetings in Baltimore and Reno to bring both the East and West together without all parties traveling to one place. Why no mention you ask? Because it never happened.

And how about this quote from the release: "'These were the most successful owners' meetings I have seen in our five years as a league. We had a solid group of owners discussing ways to continue to improve the AIFA,' stated AIFA Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer John Morris." I'm guessing, John, but you may be right since there were so few owners other than you, that you had few people to disagree with your ideas and plans. Let's be honest, there are but two independent teams in the East and three in the West right now, and I'm not sure all five showed up at your meetings anyway. So naturally without enough dissenting voices, you might consider this the best league meeting ever.

To add to all this you had this presentation and that presentation, yet no mention of names. It's only common courtesy to give a public thank you to those interested in your league, so I've come to the conclusion that these presentations for the most part didn't happen. Were they just more words to help fill a long press release?

Now you really expect us fans to buy into the notion that any reputable TV network is interested in your league? This one mystifies me as any TV network didn't get to be a network by being foolish and after a little investigation of the AIFA would have said 'pass' and maybe even approached any of the other leagues before coming to you.

Also rumored to come out of these meetings are serious indications the AIFA will go with a 12-game schedule in an attempt to save teams money. Yes, you do save some variable expenses by cutting games. You don't have to pay for one arena date and one trip, for instance. But at the same time, you devalue your season tickets and sponsorships by 14% and cut the number of gates that can help pay for fixed costs, such as employee salaries and equipment. Not to mention the fact that teams which actually do market and bring in a good crowd ought to show a profit after all expenses on home games. But... if you don't market your team and only draw a few hundred fans per game, like many of the league-owned teams, you will definitely save money with a reduced schedule.

I think fans reading this get the idea that the AIFA meetings were not the success the AIFA would have us believe and this post-meeting release may have been just more smoke from an almost dead fire. Last, I don't want any to think I'm being overly harsh in anything the AIFA says or does. In my opinion, I've not been harsh enough. Trust me I was far more harsh when I started taking the NIFL to task for their actions, but maybe age has mellowed me some.

Other notes (rumors): it appears the West Michigan ThunderHawks (IFL) are going to return for 2011 as they are holding player tryouts. I've also heard a rumor that Sioux City (IFL) is throwing in the towel, but I hear that same rumor every year so not putting a lot of stock into it.

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Indoor Football League Stories from September 23, 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.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central