Journey through Time, Part One: The Roots of ArenaFan
Adam Markowitz
Tuesday February 27, 2007
In the Beginning…
The very origins of Arena Football information on the Internet began in 1993 by Kevin Sheller. The site was called “ArenaWeb,” and was the only means of following the AFL anywhere on the online. To show just how archaic this website was, Sheller would call up the League office for scores from that weekend’s games and post them on the website. In the same year, an Arena Football mailing list was adopted, another work of Sheller’s. The mailing list provided news from across the league to its members.
As the years went on, the mailing list grew. John Ferlazzo was a moderator for the list, while Ken Gill contributed many of the news stories for it. Sheller had also begun an AFL website which merely contained links to any other AFL related website on the Internet he could find. In 1995, Dave Carlson began an AFL history web page. Meanwhile in 1996, a new website, ArenaFan.com, was created by Wade Kotar. The site had no real data related to the AFL on it; rather it was a promotional web page for a magazine called ArenaFan which was mailed out to the fans.
Following the 1997 season, Kotar put the domain, ArenaFan.com up for sale. As Sheller recalled in his farewell message from ArenaFan, “… Dave Carlson came to me and said, ‘Wade Kotar is selling Arenafan.com - we should buy it, pool our talents and resources, and make it the be-all end-all Arena Football site.’ I agreed.”
Kotar sold the rights to ArenaFan.com to Sheller for $100. Though Sheller was the owner of the website, both in his own words and the words of an article announcing the new website, Carlson was the “brainchild behind ArenaFan.” Carlson took his history webpage, Sheller’s links page, and Gill’s articles (which he now posted to ArenaFan instead of the mailing list), and combined them with Ferlazzo and a staff writer/historian, Jay Jacox to form ArenaFan Online. The site was launched on April 27, 1998, just four days before the start of the 1998 season.
The Kevin Sheller EraSheller admits that the site grew slowly, but one of the longest lasting features of ArenaFan was discovered right off the bat. The website was promoting an Arena Football League radio show by a college student in New York. The student’s name was Fran Stuchbury, and his show was called ArenaZone. Before ArenaBowl XII in August 1998, Stuchbury had an interview with Jim Foster, at which point, the AFL’s founder called Stuchbury “a pioneer.” ArenaZone became a staple of ArenaFan from that point on.
Carlson was impressed with the early progress of ArenaFan. “The site was received very well initially, obviously the fan base for Arena Football on the web was pretty small at the time, but, we were happy to make 'our mark' and help spread the word.”
Part of spreading the word was the continuation of the mailing list. The first AFL fantasy football and pick ‘em games were both created thanks to the mailing list. This feature was upgraded in 2001 with the creation of the ArenaFan message boards, but the fantasy football and pick ‘em games remained an integral part of the site. The history section of the site has constantly been updated in large part to a full player database completed in 1999. This was also when ArenaFan began keeping box scores of every game played during the AFL season.
ArenaFan member Bruiser is one of the many current ArenaFan users who rave about the historical content on the website. “I'm glad ArenaFan keeps tabs on all stats of the players and teams, and has a nice archive of articles from the past. It is THE place to go if one needs an accurate accounting of the Arena Football League.”
Shelly Grieb, mother of San Jose SaberCats QB Mark Grieb echoed similar sentiments. “When it has been impossible to get serious and accurate news about the team(s) I care about anywhere else, I could always go to ArenaFan to get information, stats, historical records, and opinions. There is no other source like it.”
The turn of the millennium brought hard times on the AFL. The League was in a labor strike, and two weeks of wondering whether they AFL would continue to exist or not loomed. Despite the fact that ArenaFootball.com, an ever growing website, could not publish news on the dispute because it was so negative, ArenaFan could give such information to the fans. This brought a record number of fans to the site. With a large number of hits on the website aside, Sheller summed up the two weeks best by saying, “Thankfully, both sides came to an agreement and the League is still alive today!”
Also in 2000, ArenaFan expanded its coverage of Arena Football with the addition of an af2 section of the website. Joe Kauffman, who had previously operated the Storm Shelter, a website devoted to the Tampa Bay Storm, joined the staff for technical support and to cover the Storm. The site was obviously in need of more support on behind-the-scenes operations, as Sheller referred to Kauffman as, “a savior.” 2001 saw the addition of Tim Capper’s radio show, AFL Tonight, as well as the ArenaFan message boards being added to the site in place of the old mailing list.
Kevin Sheller’s Farewell
As the site grew, the hours require to maintain the site grew with it. Sheller stated that he was putting in upwards of eight hours a day to ArenaFan in addition to his eight hour per day regular job. The time became overwhelming, and as a result of the labor, in 2003, Sheller decided it was time to walk away from the website. He sold the website to the “capable hands” of Kauffman. In his farewell letter to ArenaFan, Sheller said, “Thanks to the fans for their encouragement and love for our dear website and the Arena Football League. Your words of encouragement served as my salary for all of those years. Thanks so much for your generous wage.”
Continue to Part 2: ArenaFan Now and in the Future
Adam Markowitz is an accountant living in Orlando. Adam is an old school AFLer, having followed the AFL since 1991. He attended or covered well over 200 games, including 17 ArenaBowls. Adam worked for the Arena Football League for two years as a columnist and historian before retiring in 2017 when the 50-yard indoor war left the Sunshine State. Adam still muses about the AFL on ArenaFan from time to time, and you can follow him on Twitter @adammarkowitzea.
