As the saying goes; fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice….. you get the picture.

 

Approximately three months ago, the Rush was purchased by Julee White, owner of Testarossa Entertainment, a public relations and marketing firm in Chicago. After promises of having the team in place for the season, rebranding the team with a new logo, getting new uniforms, possibly changing where the team played after the 2013 season, and other promises giving Rush fans (I admit, I bought in) optimism that the team would be around for the long haul and be an innovator in the development and growth of the league, it all proved to be nothing but gibberish.
 

On January 31st, the league put out a press releases stating that it had terminated the deal with White after only three months and that the league was going to retake ownership of the team, as it had done last season, to ensure that the Rush would indeed play this season. A deal like that would have put the rest of the owners in the league in the hole for additional resources to keep the team afloat.

This was a crushing blow to all fans of the Arena Football League, but especially in Chicago.
 

According to a source no longer affiliated with the team, the deal with White was terminated in part because she had failed to come up with “additional investors” to help support the organization and that she had failed to meet the requirements of the league for team ownership prior to the start of the season.  The failure to meet the league requirements was also reiterated by League Commissioner Jerry Kurz in his statement upon termination of the ownership agreement.
 

The fact that there was no deal in place with the Allstate Arena to accommodate the 2013 schedule played another part in the termination of the deal.
 

After the deal was terminated, the general manager of the arena confirmed that it would be “almost impossible” to accommodate the schedule and did “not want (them) to be embarrassed” by opening doors for “less then 1000 people in an 18,000 seat facility”.

So now, with less than six weeks to go until the start of the season, a new owner, and only four employees, this team is going to be ready for the 2013 season. HA!
 

Who would any fans (if there are many left) call to get tickets as there have been no phone lines for at least the past two months?

Granted, I would love to see it happen and be successful after covering this organization for the past ten years, but I do not see how it can be possible. This season will pretty much need to be chalked up as keeping the Chicago market in the league, nothing more and nothing less.
 

According to an article in Crain’s Chicago Business, Staral has been in contact with the Allstate Arena about playing in the venue this season, but has not yet signed a deal. The arena wants to give the team “the best chance possible” to play on their usual home turf.
 

Stop the pain!! That is all about the arena getting the money from the Rush to use the facility for the season, nothing more.  Why would the arena management care if there is a new owner who wants to keep the franchise in the arena if they can’t pay the bills? That statement is proven true in the fact that one day later, the same general manager  says he would “accept a concert booking in a heartbeat” over a game date. Of course he would! That is guaranteed money.
 

Why is this new ownership deal different now? The team still has only four employees, most likely all of them not even full time. 

With only a reported 250 season tickets sold for the season, will there really be more than 1000 people at each of these games? I highly doubt it. Who will even know what the schedule is? There has been no promotion.
 

Since the announcement on Friday, attempts to contact the Rush organization have not been answered. Wouldn’t the league and or the new ownership want to speak out and get word out that there will be an arena football season in Chicago? Something still seems fishy with this.
 

White was ousted in part because she had no other investors (Staral was reported to have been a potential investor in White’s group), but yet Staral is being allowed to come on as a sole owner with potential investors and sponsors to come on board. Does this sound familiar?
 

Most likely, the remaining 13 teams do not want to support this market for another season and this is just a way of appeasing them.

Staral has stated that he will use connections such as former Chicago Bear Richard Dent and Tampa Bay Storm owner Derrick Brooks to assist with generating momentum for the franchise.
 

I hate to sound like a downer, but using Dent was going to be an idea used by White in her promotion of the franchise. Obviously that never got off of the ground. I am seeing some bad repetition with this.
 

And what would Brooks do to help in Chicago? I can see where he would want the market to succeed because it would be a good thing for the league (and his team). But at this point, doesn’t he have his own team to take care of?
 

This all just reeks of the league wanting to keep the market in the league, no matter who owns it!
 

CBS has a two year agreement in place to broadcast games on its sports network and the ArenaBowl on its major network channel in August. While the agreement is in place, of course they want one of the three largest markets in the country to be involved. Why do you think the league is seriously looking at also putting a team in Brooklyn, NY in 2014?
 

I understand about keeping the Chicago market in the Arena Football League because of its history to the game. In addition to its market share, it was the market where the first arena football games were played, and is and has been the home of the league offices.
 

Since the return of the AFL in 2010, the Rush has now had four different ownership groups (including the league last season). Rush fans and Arena Football League fans deserve better.
 

We the fans can only hang on for so long without feeling that this market is going nowhere fast.
 

This time, prove to me this will be different. Seeing is believing.

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.