Pirates back in playoff hunt
Steve Robinson
Friday August 6, 2004
Winning would have given Peoria an automatic playoff slot. But, by Sunday morning, the league mathematicians had cleared the smoke and head coach Bruce Cowdrey’s Pirates found themselves back in the playoff hunt for the first time in two seasons.
The fifth-seeded Pirates (9-7) will scrap in round one against the expansion Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz (10-6), spelled with a z and seeded fourth, at Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City beginning at 2:30p.m. Saturday. The other opening round game has Quad City hosting Louisville for a second time this season, on Saturday night.
Oklahoma City is coached by Gary Reasons, a 1984 fourth-round draft pick of the New York Giants. He retired from playing in 1992 finishing his career playing for the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Yard Dawgz won four of their first five games. Their longest winning streak of the season was three games in late June/early July, posting victories against Wichita, Arkansas, and fellow newcomer Laredo. They had no major losing streak to speak of. And the Yard Dawgz will be well rested for this one, having gotten a bye week last week.
Counting both their days in the defunct Indoor Football League days and now in af2, Peoria is 8-1.
Gone West: Before this season began, defensive specialist Frank West, at age 33, set a goal for himself to have 16 interceptions by season’s end. He got halfway there, but that was only half the picture. In 14 games, West led the team, racking up 48 tackles, lent 23 assists on tackles, broke up 13 pass plays and ran the ball back 42 yards on the eight interceptions he was responsible for.
Survey Says…: A recent survey done at the league’s request indicates the average af2 fan is male, roughly 40, predominately Caucasian, with a household income averaging $75,000 or better, with a fanatical or strong interest in the team in their area.
This information was obtained when league season ticket holders and fans were sent an e-mail asking them to participate in a survey being conducted by the University of Dallas sports and marketing MBA program on behalf of af2.
“Fans are satisfied (by af2)…off the charts satisfied,” was the overall final conclusion, said Scott Wysong, academic program director for the sports and entertainment MBA program at University of Dallas.
Questions asked, among other things about the respondent’s age, gender, income, race, how they ranked themselves as a fan of the league, which team was geographically near them, and asked how closely the respondent followed their area team in the media or went to games.
Wysong’s students had conducted a similar survey for the management of af2’s Tulsa Talons.
“(af2 Executive Director) Jay Marcus contacted me and last March, I attended af2 league meetings and I presented what we had done for the Talons, as well as what we wanted to do for the league,” explained Wysong.
Students who complete the program usually go on to get jobs with sports teams, media outlets, or university athletic departments. Wysong’s 50 students do an average of nine projects per semester.
Wysong said his program received no compensation from af2 for doing the survey. However, since the University of Dallas sports and marketing MBA program is roughly just two years old, doing the af2 project helped solidify the program’s reputation while getting demographics af2, after five seasons, has needed to gauge.
Wysong’s students received a total of 349 responses to their query.
“(The league) hadn’t done any research (up to now),” Wysong said. “Teams have to have some kind of research at both the league level and team level in order to help sell your team and sell sponsorships (and other such things).”
Wysong said once people start going to af2 games, they become very loyal to the team in their area and show a high interest in the team, following them regularly.
The most surprising item to Wysong and his students was that there was a great amount of interest by fans who visited either the league website or their nearest team’s website.
Wysong’s unit does research projects on behalf on sports teams or leagues looking to gain statistical information including demographics. In the past, Wysong’s group has done research at the behest of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks as well as af2 Tulsa.
An early conclusion: “We noticed that of those who like football….college football, pro football, they enjoyed seeing it in a different, fast-paced environment.”
Wysong and his team will present their findings at a future league meeting, either at the site of ArenaCup V later this month or during league meetings next month.
Steve Robinson, a freelance writer since 1984, has written about the Peoria Pirates since the Pirates were members of Indoor Football League, beginning in 1999. He covers the Pirates currently for the Bloomington IL Pantagraph.
