Xplorers Announce New General Manager - Greg Griffith
January 2, 2003 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Memphis Xplorers News Release
Southaven, MS â The Memphis Xplorers announced today that Greg Griffith has been hired as the new General Manager for the arenafootball2 team. Griffith comes to the Xplorers after spending four years in the same capacity with the Peoria Pirates. He brings two championship rings, including the 2002 Arena Cup title, and he helped the Pirates rank fourth in af2 in attendance by drawing an average of more than 7,000 fans per game.
"After spending time with Paul Morris, Robin Grindstaff Costa and Gene Szucs, I made a decision that these are the type of people I want to work around for a long time," Griffith said. "Their goals are my goals. We want to win and we want to provide good, family entertainment for the people of the Mid-South."
Griffith, age 50, will take over day-to-day control of the Xplorers on January 13th. In 1998 he oversaw the creation of the Peoria Pirates expansion Indoor Football League team which began play during the 1999 season. The Pirates finished as IFL runners-up and had more than 2,800 season tickets, averaging 7,156 fans a game. The following season Peoria captured the IFL title with a perfect 17-0 record and increased season tickets to more than 4,800 and averaged 7,812 per contest. In October of 2000 the IFL was purchased by the Arena Football League and the Pirates shifted to af2. In 2002 Peoria went 15-5 and captured the Arena Cup title while averaging 7,185 fans per game.
"The Xplorers franchise may have struggled in the past but I like the challenge to make it the most exciting thing in the Mid-South," said Griffith. "I promise that every night we are going to put on two and a half hours of great family entertainment - it just happens that there's a football game going on."
Griffith, who was selected the Executive of the Year in the IFL in both 1999 and 2000, also established and trained front offices for the IFL Eastern Conference. Previous sports experience includes a year as the G.M. of the Peoria Rivermen of the East Coast Hockey League. His son Rob is a freshman at LSU, and his daughter Diana is a senior at Peoria Notre Dame High School.
PRESS CONFERENCE
The Xplorers will have a press conference this Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. at the DeSoto Civic Center to introduce Griffith. The media and public are welcome to attend. The Memphis RiverKings will have practice during the press conference and players will be available after practice for interviews.
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