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IFL Indoor Football League

This week in indoor football

by Danny Burnham
July 17, 2009 - Indoor Football League (IFL)


With the subject of webcasts rising to the top of hit counters on messageboards across the indoor football world, part of this weeks column is dedicated to the topic.

Of the three leagues still in play this season, two of them, (SIFL and IFL) have official webcasts of games. In the third league, (AIFA) a group of fans scrambled over the course of a couple of days to make sure that a Monday night playoff game between Columbus and Reading was webcast for fans that couldn't make the trip.

SIFL director of communications Dan Ryan took a short break from his vacation to talk about the subject.

"You want to know how much it cost for a league to put on a webcast? Using a service like stickam, zero," said Ryan.

You heard it here first folks. A team/league can put on a webcast for FREE. That's always been my favorite price.

"From top to bottom, you can go buy the equipment from Radio Shack and put it on for about 40 bucks," Ryan added.

I know from personal experience that the effort going into a webcast is minimal. You plug the stuff in, log it on, and go. It's really pretty much as simple as that. So why are there teams and leagues out there that still aren't doing it? Sometimes it's a personnel issue, you do have to have somebody sit there and do the commentary. Other times it's a matter of fear of cutting into ticket sales. Some teams don't want to give the option of not buying a ticket, and who can really blame them, this is a business afterall. Take the AIFA championship, Wyoming has said that they will allow a webcast as long as the game is sold out. Same principle as a blackout on tv.

And so this doesn't sound like I'm just bashing the AIFA, they did get burned by a broadcast deal last year, and I can almost see why such a thing wouldn't be at the top of their priority list. And in all reality, it's not a necesity, but more of a luxury. Just a really, nice service to provide for fans who can't make road trips.

Maybe one day this great sport will be on radio, television,yay maybe even Wonkavision so we can just reach out and touch it through our computer monitors or tv screens. But until then make sure to buy tickets when your team is in town, and contact league and team officials who aren't offering webcasts, and urge them to do so.

On the field this week:

The Reading Express and Wyoming Cavalry of the AIFA are taking a week off to rest up and make arrangements for their championship showdown, while the SIFL and IFL begin post season play.

In the SIFL, Acadiana will travel to Austin, while Louisiana plays host to Houma.

In the IFL, San Angelo takes on Abileen, and Wichita visits Bloomington while Colorado travels to Fairbanks and Rochester hosts River City.



Indoor Football League Stories from July 17, 2009


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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