Two Conferences, 11 Teams for UIF in 2007
Published on November 27, 2006 under United Indoor Football Association (UIF) News Release
The United Indoor Football Association (UIF) is pleased to announce details of its conference alignments as well as the final roster of teams for the 2007 season. Eleven teams will compete in two conferences during 2007 on their way to United Bowl III at the end of July.
Since United Bowl last July, the League has added three teams. The Colorado Ice, located in Ft. Collins/Loveland, CO, was the first expansion team for the 2007 season. The Ice will play their games at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland. The Billings Outlaws and RiverCity (St. Louis, MO) Rage were accepted into the UIF in late September. Both teams moved up to the UIF from another league. The Billings Outlaws won their league championship in 2006 and had a regular season record of 13-1. The Outlaws just completed their sixth season of play. The River City Rage also posted a 13-1 regular season record in 2006. The Rage lost at home in their league's semi-final game. The Rage is an incredible 24-7 over the last two seasons.
Unfortunately, the Peoria Roughriders and Fort Wayne Freedom will not participate in 2007. The ownership in Peoria decided that shutting down the current organization was in the best interest of the owners and the city. League Commissioner Dakota Crow commented, "Peoria has had a long history in indoor football and was a great market for the UIF geographically. We hope to see new viable UIF ownership in the Peoria market by the 2008 season."
The situation in Fort Wayne was a little more controversial as the team was sold after the original owner, Rich Coffey, made commitments to the UIF for the 2007 season. The new ownership decided not to honor the team's original agreements and moved the team to a different league. The UIF had found viable, local owners for the franchise and were prepared to meet the existing lease requirement that only a UIF team could play in Memorial Coliseum. The UIF is still weighing all of their legal options at this time. UIF General Counsel Bob Freeman said about the situation, "Once the Coliseum finalizes a new lease with a different owner and new league, the UIF will finish our analysis of our position and determine if any further action is warranted. We have previously provided all of the other parties involved, Mr. Golden, the other league and Coliseum management with copies of the pertinent UIF contracts and they can determine for themselves what our rights are."
UIF Commissioner Dakota Crow added, "We're very disappointed about Mr. Coffey's actions and that the Ft. Wayne Coliseum management cancelled the existing lease to move in the direction they did. We feel strongly that our League offers the best geographic fit and the most responsible business model for the market. It is disappointing, but we have hopes that Ft. Wayne will be back in the UIF very soon. We are very excited about our upcoming 2007 season and we may well have the strongest eleven teams in indoor football on the UIF schedule."
The eleven UIF teams will be split along geographic lines into the Eastern and Western Conferences. The Eastern Conference will be made up of the Ohio Valley Greyhounds, Lexington Horsemen, Evansville BlueCats, Rock River Raptors, Bloomington Extreme, and RiverCity Rage. The Western Conference will include the Colorado Ice, Billings Outlaws, Sioux Falls Storm, Omaha Beef, and Sioux City Bandits.
The complete 2007 schedule is expected to be released in the next 7-10 days. Playoff dates and structure will be announced following the formal release of the 2007 UIF schedule.
For more information on this and other United Indoor Football matters please log onto the official UIF website at www.unitedindoorfootball.com.
United Indoor Football Association Stories from November 27, 2006
- Extreme sets tryout date - Bloomington Extreme
- Two Conferences, 11 Teams for UIF in 2007 - UIF
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.
