After the Arena Football League terminated its relationship with previous owner David Staral Jr. due to multiple criminal concerns, the fate of the team and its players has been in limbo.

Would the rest of the team’s home games be played in Rockford?

Was the team going to play its last two home games as scheduled at Allstate Arena?

How will all of this affect the die-hard passionate fans of this once highly successful Arena Football League franchise?

As of today, Ivan Soto, Executive Director of the Arena Football League Players Union (AFLPU) has confirmed that the players will be staying in their housing facility and continuing to practice out of the same Soccer City facility in Palatine that the team has practiced in for years for the remainder of the season.  This will not be changed as it is a part of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

According to Soto, the league notified the AFLPU today that the last two home games will indeed be moved. The game against the Cleveland Gladiators scheduled for July 13^th is slated to be moved to the BMO Harris Center in Rockford. The game against the San Jose SaberCats scheduled for July 27^th has been bought out by the SaberCats and is tentatively scheduled to be played in San Jose.

Soto declared that the AFLPU is not agreeable to these changes as per the CBA as any game changes have to be bargained with the AFLPU. This is why that there has not been an official announcement regarding these last two home games for the Rush.

“We will be pursuing it as we don't agree with it and they have a duty under our CBA to bargain over it,” Soto stated in a message directly to ArenaFan.  “We think that moving the games to Rockford solely because of cost is unreasonable.”

Soto claims that since the dates were already booked at the Allstate Arena, the league cannot back away from the current situation with the Rush as it contradicts the league’s “single entity” model.

“The league can't pick and chose which issues serve them and claim single entity for those matters yet on the other hand when the issues do not serve them they act as if the teams/owners are to blame,” Soto continued in the statement. “Our official position is that the league is claiming they are a single entity and they will be held accountable as the single entity employer for these issues. The league certainly could have enforced the provisions of our CBA in any licensing agreements they have with the teams/owners. They could have and should have modified their license agreements to coincide with the terms of the CBA as those same owners voted and agreed to the CBA. To claim ignorance and that the league is not responsible for the actions of the (previous) Rush owner is absurd. If an employer enters into an agreement and then knowingly does not provide agreements that contain the provisions of our CBA in those agreements they certainly can't claim that the 3rd party agreement absolves them from liability.”

According to a league source, there is no official word on game changes and that once details are finalized, a communication will be sent out for confirmation.

It is believed that once a confirmation from the league is sent regarding the game dates and locations, fans will receive a directive on how to resolve any ticket concerns.

In all communication with the AFLPU to this point, all they want is for the league to abide by the terms of the CBA that was signed last year and will pursue all legal angles to ensure that it is met.

“This is all pretty basic contract structure and application of the law with respect to contracts and we will not allow the league to devalue our CBA by claiming they aren't ultimately responsible,” Soto claimed. “What would stop the league from entering into all kinds of agreements that would circumvent our CBA if this were the case?”

 

A request was made to the league for a comment regarding the situation and was declined.

 

We will continue to keep you updated here at ArenaFan as this situation continues to develop.

Jeff has been writing for ArenaFan.com since 2004. Originally from New York, Jeff has been living in the Chicago area for the past ten years and is an avid football fanatic. He holds a BA in communications from Hofstra University in New York and a sports management certificate from Loyola University in Chicago.