State of the League Address, 2002
Kevin Sheller
Saturday August 17, 2002
“To begin with, I’ve got to share some bad news,” he said. “Unfortunately, U2 is not available at halftime for this game. They were kind of overused a little bit at the Super Bowl and Bon Jovi is going to do Times Square as they open up the season.”
 Bill Niro, David Baker, Jim Foster, Jerry Kurz Image courtesy of Kevin Sheller |
The rest of the Commissioner’s state of the league address included reminders about successful franchises like New Jersey’s turnaround from a 2-12 team to a 9-5 record in 2002. Baker explained to us that the league’s attendance average increased by 10%, that the Dallas Desperados experienced immense success as an expansion franchise, and that the Los Angeles Avengers increased attendance by 62%.
San Francisco, Jacksonville, Washington, Philadelphia, and New Orleans are approved cities for future Arena Football League expansion, and Baker and the board of directories are pushing for an even number of teams for the 2003 season.
“We’re going to have to have an even number no matter what,” said Baker. “We have an 18-team divisional alignment today. We have to solidify that. It needs to be passed by the board (of directors). It has another team in the Eastern Conference and another team in the Western Conference.”
This would likely mean that Colorado is to be placed in the Western Division, and a team like Philadelphia, which so far as been publicized as the most likely entrant into the 2003 season, in the Eastern Division.
For division alignment possibilities for 2003, Baker said, “We actually have a 16-team format, an 18-team format, and a 20-team format. We’re going to work through that this afternoon to conclude it by September 1st.”
The board of directors meetings will continue throughout the rest of today (Saturday).
“One of the challenges is that 2004 (expansion) is really crowded for us. For instance, one of the great things for us this year was the contraction. It really helped the parity of the league. We don’t want anyone to start too early. But the great bulk of those teams (announced with NFL ownership) will come in next year. They’ve seen the success of what’s happened with the Dallas Desperados and they’re chomping at the bit to do the same thing.”
Oh yeah, and the main big deal that the league was promoting at this press conference was the unveiling of the new league logo. The NBC Creative Agency and the Arena Football League got together and decided that they wanted to promote the AFL with a more updated logo.
The new design was created to put a focus on the call-letters “AFL,” and to give NBC a cool new logo to use during its broadcasts.
Baseball Strike
As the press conference broke up, a member of the media blabbed, “Baseball striking again should be a help to the AFL, shouldn’t it?”
Baker shushed him loudly to a roomful of laughter.
Founder’s Award
Gene Nudo, the general manager of the Arizona Rattlers, earned an award on Friday night. Jim Foster, the founder of the Arena Football League, bestows an honor each year to the person who has been dedicated to the growth and development of the AFL throughout its 16 seasons.
While honored, Nudo began his acceptance speech by noting that many previous winners of the Founder’s Award are no longer with the AFL, “You never know,” joked Nudo about himself.
Previous winners of the Founder’s Award:
2001 – Tim Marcum, Tampa Bay
2000 – Ron Kurpiers, AFL
1999 – ESPN
1998 – Billy McGehee, Nashville
1997 – Vito “Babe’ Parilli
1996 – Perry Moss, Bill Niro, Jerry Kurz
1995 – Carl Paganelli Sr, Glenn Mazula
1994 – James F. Foster, Dennis Grapenthin
Kurpiers has his own private law practice in Florida. McGehee was with the Georgia Force at the beginning of the season, but does not appear to be currently employed in the AFL. Parilli is retired and lives in Denver. Niro is still a founding member of Gridiron Enterprizes, but of course, the AFL logo has been replaced this season. ESPN just finished up their last season. Paganelli Sr. serves as the director of officials for the college MAC football conference. Moss served as a head coach in the af2 last season, but does not appear to be in the AFL any longer.
So we can all hope that the well-respected and very popular Gene “Geno” Nudo can buck the trend and stay with the Rattlers organization for a long time to come.
Mike Neu
I had an opportunity to talk to the head coach of the Carolina Cobras Friday evening. We discussed the heartbreaking loss to Arizona, and the future of the Cobras.
He recently had an opportunity to check out the facilites in Charlotte, and overall he and his staff were pleased. He’s also very hopeful for the future of their surprise quarterback, John Fitzgerald. The Carolina QB came on strong at the end of the season, and despite a 6-8 regular season record, the Cobras came one play short of earning a trip to the semi-finals. And they certainly came closer to knocking off the Rattlers than the Chicago Rush did one week later.
Free Agents
I ended up talking to a number of free agents last evening, one of whom won an award and a brand new Ford truck. FB/LB Leroy Thompson of the Indiana Firebirds earned the prestigious award this year, and is keeping his options open for a new opportunity. However, he would love to return to the Firebirds and sign a new two-year contract. Thompson enjoys living in Indiana and owns a house there.
WR/DB Charlie Davidson of the Toronto Phantoms was at the gala event as well, and although he is a free agent this season, he was accompanying his head coach Mark Stoute and a member of the Phantoms ownership group.
Kevin Sheller ia founder of Arenafan Online and was the principal owner until 2004. Kevin graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in technical writing, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1993. He has worked as a professional web programmer and is also the executive producer for a computer/video game company. The most recent Xbox title to his credit is called Hunter: The Reckoning.
