A Sorry Good-Bye
Matthew Pickut
Wednesday September 15, 2004
In all reality this will probably be my last article for Arenafan.com – with the demise of the Firebirds I am left without a team to cover. In a larger sense, however, what I’m trying to figure out is if this will be the end of my relationship with the AFL as a whole. I don’t mean to be overly dramatic, but over the past four years I have be privileged to get to know many of the people involved in the AFL and I don’t appreciate the way they are being treated by the league.
I’ve always enjoyed the AFL because of its people, from the league office down to the media elevator guy at the Conseco Fieldhouse. Still, the greatest people in the AFL were always the fans, and the current situation with the Firebirds makes a mockery of the Fans’ Bill of Rights. Fans in Indiana have no team and any rights they may have are somewhat cold comfort.
Look at the state of affairs as it stands as I write this piece: the team may or may not exist, if it does exist it lacks a coaching staff and has taken a terrible hit in prestige locally. The existence of the team rests on an eBay auction of all things and a poorly managed one at that (over 20 bids have been disqualified and the description has been changed several times). While many die-hard fans hold out hope that the team can be saved, one wonders if there is enough left to salvage a viable team in the 2004 season if a buyer can be found.
As much as I might like too (and I really would), I can’t blame the ownership for this situation. Lags was completely upfront when he bought the team that he intended to sell it and no one can be expected to hemorrhage millions of dollars indefinitely. To be honest there are things the team could have done better, but the problem was never a lack of effort on the part of the front office. If there was a problem with the team it was probably with the hiring/firing of Steve DeBerg, whose departure left Lags with little incentive to continue his stake in ownership. I take no pleasure in the fact that I predicted this in a pre-season article, I would have very much liked to see DeBerg succeed. What ever his faults may have been as a head coach, he was a genuinely likeable guy.
It was the league officials that allowed the Firebirds to be bumped from NBC week after week. That left the local market with no television exposure for the local team. No matter how good the broadcasts are on NBC, the AFL is still a regional league in terms of team fan base and it was foolish to force teams to change games to Sundays, a less profitable day than Friday, and then not give them any benefit in terms of exposure from NBC.
Furthermore, the league itself has begun to show wear as year after year teams continue to fold and move faster than the league can find people to buy into expansion teams. Again, with the current NBC deal giving NBC a portion of expansion fees above a certain threshold, one is left to wonder what the real cost of trying to keep NBC happy is.
To be sure there are plenty of good markets without a team, Boston, Washington DC, Cleveland, just to name a few, but how much incentive will there be to buy into a league where instability is so great? Eventually the league will be left with a lot of burned bridges in towns where the league has folded teams and no more investors for expansion teams.
One thing that I did learn during the past year from watching Coach Wilpolt is that leadership is as much about managing expectations as it is about creating excitement. Player after player during the Firebirds resurgence last season told me that the turnaround took place because they knew what to expect from Coach Wilpolt and what he expected of them. As great as Commissioner Baker’s leadership has been in the past at creating excitement, what is needed now – what the fans deserve now, is the expectation that the teams they root for and against will be there year after year. Until fans have that security the AFL will continue to alienate as many fans with teams folding as it creates with network coverage and expansion teams.
As for me, I feel like a bit like a jilted lover and as much as nothing can take away the great memories I have of the Firebirds and the AFL, but I don’t think I’ll be ready to trust the league enough to be a fan again anytime soon. In the meantime, I’m contacting my lawyer to see if I can sue for full custody of Spike – after all it’s always the mascot that gets hurt in these kinds of things.
Final Note
I just want to take this chance to thank everyone who made covering the team a real pleasure. Justin Campbell, Tim Ferrell, Mike McCaffery, Ari Wolf, Rob Blackmon, Jeff Rabjohns, Gms Hennessey and Kohlner, the entire coaching staff (especially Coach Dailey and Coach Wilpolt) and everyone on the roster of the team (especially Mark Valvo -- the first professional athlete to call me by name and the best interview I ever met).
I have learned more about what it means to be a leader, a coach, and a professional from working with the Firebirds than I ever learned in Seminary. I am a better pastor today because of it, and I thank you.
To be honest, I was thinking of giving up writing this season anyway to focus on my studies, but this is not the reason I wanted to finalize my choice.
And I also want to thank the editors and staff of Arenafan.com (especially Kevin Sheller and Mary-Ann Karaganis) for the opportunity to be a part of a great organization. Your ongoing efforts prove that professionalism is a commitment to excellence, not a function of remuneration.
And lastly the biggest thanks I can give is to all of you who have read my articles and sent so many kind emails. You made all the long hours and driving worth it. May God bless you all.
Matthew Pickut is a pastor in northern Indiana and a long time AFL fan. He also writes for his own website: The Brown Paper Blog. He graduated from Taylor University in Upland Indiana (class of `96) with degrees in Biblical Literature and Sociology as well as a healthy respect for the medicinal properties of coffee.
