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Steamwheelers-Pirates Game To Be On Live TV May 7

May 6, 2004 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Quad City Steamwheelers News Release


DAVENPORT, Iowa — The Quad City Steamwheelers have been a very successful team on the field. Among their four seasons of play as a charter team in the arenafootball2 league, one goal that had eluded them will be met Friday night at 7 p.m. with the televising of the road game against their nearby Midwest Division archrival, the Peoria Pirates. This marks the start of an opportunity to televise Steamwheelers games on a scheduled basis.

This is the first time since 2002 that the Steamwheelers have been on live television and the first time that the Steamwheelers have been actively involved in the production of their games on television. This will also mark the first time that a Steamwheelers road game has been broadcast thanks to an agreement entered into with Mediacom Cable TV. The ‘Wheelers will likely be telecast three times this season, with an extended schedule a strong possibility in 2005.

In addition to being broadcast in the greater Quad Cities area on Mediacom, the game will also be broadcast on Mediacom system in Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Muscatine, Clinton, Maquoketa and Burlington on the Iowa side, and Morrison, Prophetstown, and Geneseo on the Illinois side of the river. All channel listings are below.

New Mediacom eastern Iowa-western Illinois Regional Vice President of Operations Scott Westerman told the Quad City Times that he really wanted to get the Steamwheelers and eventually other key area sports events broadcast locally. Westerman has recently worked with the Jacksonville Jaguars cable coverage as a Mediacom officer in north Florida.

"When I came here in December from Jacksonville, one of my goals was to create a significant increase in local sports broadcasting," Westerman said. "I met Jim Foster at a Christmas party, and we started talking."

With a successful broadcast Friday night, the Steamwheelers and Mediacom will team up again to broadcast games at Louisville (June 5) and Tennessee Valley (July 10).

Steamwheelers Managing Owner/Operator Jim Foster "is pleased with the relationship because it allows us to grow our awareness and developing fan base outside the immediate Quad City market through a great exposure vehicle. Television exposure had the same positive effect for the Iowa Barnstormers in Des Moines. A full one-third of our audience came from outside the Des Moines area, much of it drawn by television exposure."

The Steamwheelers and Pirates are playing for the seventh time in four seasons with the ‘Wheelers holding a 4-2 edge over the Pirates. In what is known as the "War on I-74," the two teams battle for the "Ruler of the River" trophy. The trophy currently sits in the Steamwheelers Team Shop lobby in downtown Davenport, and will be making the trip to Peoria with the winner retaining or regaining the rights.

To make this season's game even more interesting, there are eight former Pirates who are current Steamwheelers and a former Steamwheeler who is now a current Pirate.

Former Pirates who now wear the navy blue, red and gold of the Steamwheelers are: quarterbacks Ronnie Gordon and Matt Pike; linemen Jon Verdegan, Bear Brown, and Brandon Williams (IR); wide receiver/linebacker Charles Sheffield; wide receiver/defensive back Billy Cook; and defensive specialist Chazz Moore.

The former Steamwheeler who is now a Pirate is wide receiver/defensive back Xavier Patterson.

Rob Brooks of Cedar Rapids will have the play-by-play call and sitting alongside him will be Foster. Brooks, the son of long-time, well-known Cedar Rapids based Bob Brooks, has done a number of key college and high school games around the Midwest in addition to work for ESPN and ESPN2. Foster has provided the color commentary (on the radio) for most Steamwheelers road game for the past four years. He has also done previous color analyst work on television games.

There will be five cameras to capture all of the action and Westerman has said that the broadcast will be similar to "what you would see on Fox Sports Chicago." The production truck and crew that will be traveling down to Peoria from Cedar Rapids, is the same truck and crew that has been used for ESPN, FOX and CBS telecasts of the University of Iowa sporting events.

The Steamwheelers were on two national broadcasts when they hosted the 2000 and 2001 ArenaCup championship games. They also picked up the feed of a Tulsa broadcast in 2002 when the Talons were in the Quad Cities at The MARK. Friday nights game will kickoff at 7:10 p.m. at the Peoria Civic Center.

Good tickets are still available for anyone interested in making the trip and looking for tickets to the game may contact the Peoria Pirates and Ticket Manager Tina Barth at 309-637-7777.

Channels that the game will be broadcast on: Quad Cities Interconnect (which includes the Quad City area, Burlington, Clinton, Maquoketa, and everyone listed above on the Illinois side of the river) will have the game on Channel 2 or 78. In Des Moines, the game will air on Channel 22; in Cedar Rapids the game will air on Channel 10; in Iowa City, Channel 68; in Dubuque, Channel 18 and in Muscatine, Channel 11.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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