AF2-IFL: Finally Hitched!
Dave Carlson
Friday October 20, 2000
In another way, this made perfect sense. The AF2’s goal from the beginning was to put Arena Football in middle sized communities that could not support other professional sports leagues, without the need for TV market strength and other factors to bog them down. The IFL essentially had the Midwest portion of this equation tied up, with such prime mid-sized markets as Peoria, Green Bay, and Lincoln. Unless the AF2 wanted to start a war in each city, the merger had to happen.
Now that the merger has happened, where is the status of the leagues now? Here is a quick summary:
· The AF2 will have all 15 teams from last year returning, plus 6 confirmed expansion franchises (Ft. Myers Firecats, LaFayette Roughnecks, Bossier City, Macon, Memphis, Louisville). Three more expansion franchises outside of the IFL are very likely to be announced as well according to AF2 head Mary Ellen Garling, bringing the total number of teams, before IFL inclusion, to 24.
· Peoria is to be owned by OPE (Orlando Predators Entertainment). Any other teams OPE might own have not been made official.
· No other team ownerships were made official. According to the league, all markets have had some level of talks to potential ownership groups, but some were given a much more lip service than others. The cities that seem highly likely to join are: La Crosse (almost for sure to be owned by Ecklund), Billings, Lincoln, Black Hills, Wichita, Casper. Green Bay, Madison, Sioux Falls are among the group that are probably ‘on the bubble’, waiting for potential ownership. Fargo was mentioned as a city with a “tough sports history”, and might be in the lower level of teams such as Erie, Duluth, Mankato and others that are rumored to probably not find local ownership.
· The goal is for the AF2 to have schedules out by Thanksgiving for the 2001 season. The regions talked about to split the AF2 into are Southeast, Midwest, and a “mountain” region.
Dave Carlson is the Technical Director of Arenafan Online. Dave graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1991. He is currently a professional web programmer, and has a history in programming sports statistics. Dave is married and lives in Indiana.
