ArenaFan at ArenaBowl XXVII Blog

AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

It's that time of year once again, and Tim, Joe, and myself are about 10 hours or so away from heading out on our ArenaBowl journey. This year, we're going to have a much bigger staff than we normally have and a ton more access than we have had as well. We're hoping for lots of pictures, interviews, videos, and of course, articles for you all to read as we move along over the course of these next few days.

Our journey though, isn't going to start off in Cleveland. Tim, Joe, and myself are heading to Pittsburgh tomorrow, where we have tickets for the Pirates/Braves game. We'll be meeting up with Pittsburgh Power PA man Dom Errico for the game, and I couldn't be more excited about meeting him.

On Thursday morning, we're taking off for Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We'll be back in Cleveland on Thursday night, where we will meet up with our own Dave Carlson. On Friday, Jeff Sims is going to be joining us, and for game day, Randy Snow and our local Cleveland beat writer, Jonah Rosenblum will be joining us.

I still really don't have much of an opinion as to who is winning this game, but I'll form that over the course of the next few days. Keep it locked right here on our blog for all of the personal insights of all of our writers as we take you behind the scenes with our coverage of ArenaBowl XXVII in Cleveland!

exit322 · Joined: 12 Dec 2001

AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

Here in Baltimore, waiting to connect over to the Burgh for the night. Unfortunately, it looks like our game is going to get rained out, which would be a complete bummer and a total waste of a day, really. Nothing we can do about it, though. Mother Nature always wins these fights.

sirshoelaceman · Joined: 27 Jun 2010

I'm sure the AFL exhibit from 07 was taken down in 2009, but the Plain Dealer did a really fascinating article of Jim Foster and he was quoted as saying the HOF has a facsimile of his envelope on display somewhere. You probably can't take pictures, but you should definitely pay it a visit.
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AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

We've made it to the Steel City! Well.... at least two of us have made it here... Tim got busted at the Canadian border... Or his plane is just delayed by like an hour and a half... One or the other.

Anyway, I'm super stoked about this Pirates game tonight. We've got a Primanti Bros. within walking distance of the hotel, and all is good. Will check back in after the game tonight.

Need a beer... Badly.

AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

PNC Park is one of the most awesome places I've ever been to. It really seems like a perfect setting for baseball. It's the Mecca of the sport as far as I'm concerned.

It was great to see Tim again, whom I only actually see once a year, contrary to popular belief, and it was equally good to meet Dom Errico, the man who is the PA announcer for the Pittsburgh Power games. Dom knows his crap about baseball and about the AFL, and it was a pleasure to get the chance to sit down with him tonight and take in the game.

Meanwhile, I had the greatest sandwich ever tonight. Pulled pork with two pierogies stacked into it on a salted pretzel bun. Oh-em-f'ng-gee. Amazing. No other way to put it. Apparently here in Pittsburgh, they'll put anything onto a sandwich, and they'll put a pierogi (and slaw) on anything. What a cool freaking city. Some of the sight lines are just amazing. If you haven't looked at all of our photos on our Facebook page... why the hell not? Get to it already! Smile

Tomorrow's venture will take us to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, as we bid adieu to the Steel City and head over to Canton for a few hours and then up to Cleveland at the site of ArenaBowl XXVII.

Reppact · Joined: 01 Jan 2001 Location: Montreal, Canada

The first half of my day was OK in my travels to Pittsburgh. Then came the NY to Pittsburgh leg. Storms in eastern PA kept me on the tarmac for an hour before we went back t the gate for more fuel. From there we waiting again. Overall I was 2 hours later getting to The Steel City.

The game at PNC made up for all of that. What a great stadium. What all MLB parks should be like.

Had a great time with Joe, Adam. Plus meeting the voice of the Power Dom for the first time.

Off to Canton tomorrow and then Cleveland.
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Previously a dedicated AF board contributor. Now... meh. Whatever.

Everything happens so fast, it's like playing football on a postage stamp - Lee Corso

Firstnten.net · Joined: 23 Jun 2011

Hey let us know whats in the "other leagues" room at the HOF. Inquiring minds want to know! Shocked

Reppact · Joined: 01 Jan 2001 Location: Montreal, Canada

We have made it to Cleveland via Canton.

Stopped off at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. It was my first time there (3rd HOF overall MLB/CFL) and I was quite impressed. I was disappointed that the AFL portion had been removed. Would have loved to see the envelope.

When checking in at the Raddison on Huron I saw Commissioner Kurz as I was heading in the elevator. Bumped into BJ Pickard, the league's Director of Communications. Was nice meeting him again.

Looking to podcast AFL Tonight, and maybe the Awards Ceremony.
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Previously a dedicated AF board contributor. Now... meh. Whatever.

Everything happens so fast, it's like playing football on a postage stamp - Lee Corso

sirshoelaceman · Joined: 27 Jun 2010

Did the BoD approve Spurs' acquisition of the Talons?
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Firstnten.net · Joined: 23 Jun 2011

AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

Welcome to the Radisson in Cleveland!

I'm going to start this by saying that aside from this one individual post, this is a Jerry Kurz-free thread. However, I do feel inclined to at least mention what we heard last night. Jerry's contract has been extended by another year (he had two more years on his contract, and they extended it by a third-year from what I gather). From what I've heard, this is just a part of his golden parachute out of this league. Until I know more, I'm not speculating further.

Anyway, we went to the Hall of Fame yesterday, and it was pretty damn awesome. I don't think I'd go back again, but it was really awesome to see once. Stepping into that room with all of those busts really felt magical. John Madden always said that he believes that the busts talk to each other at night when the doors are locked and the lights are off. I can kinda feel that, as dumb as it sounds. Just tons of history.

We did catch a glimpse of the big man at the Hall, but we couldn't get to him in time. Baker is still as big as ever, though. Really wish we would have run down the big guy.

Dave Carlson and Phil the camera guy from Orlando are both here, and we're all set for what should be a hell of a game. Last night's award ceremony was boring as sin, so we left after half of it. I'll have pictures uploaded shortly.

Then we went to the bar, and well... that's why I didn't post last night. I may or may not have had a couple drinks.

And that brings us to this morning. We'll see what comes from Media Day today at 1:00.

AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

Here's the money shot of Tim at the Hall of Fame.

For all of our pictures, check out our Facebook album.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153088827378222.1073741852.334192033221

AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

Media Day is said and done with, and all that's left to get done is to get down to business on Saturday night for the ArenaBowl.

Some news and notes from the Media Day...

1: Kurz admitted that the league had its struggles this year with both San Antonio and Orlando. He's proud to have Siegel with the Predators, and he more or less insinuated, without ever using the name "San Antonio Spurs" that the league is in negotiations about them taking over the Talons.

2: Kurz once again claims that he has had a contract extension for another three years.

3: Kurz claims that the league is going to be making efforts to bring the game over to Europe. (However, there was no mention whatsoever about the fact that the game is going to China because they are two totally separate entities.)

4: The two teams look awfully similar in terms of composure. Normally, I do think there is a "winning team" at Media Day, and that's the team that has more composure to it, and that team generally goes on to win the ArenaBowl. However, this time around, I felt like both teams were saying all of the right things and acting all of the right ways.

Still wavering just a bit as to who I think is actually going to win this game, but I'll have my predictions done before we call it a night.

afdave · Joined: 01 Jan 2001

This is only my second Arenabowl I've attended (Grand Rapids in 2001). It has been a good time so far, getting to meet a bunch of the ArenaFan crew that I had not met in person yet. Looking forward to the gameday Saturday.

The ArenaFan staff has set plans for lunch tomorrow and we look forward to seeing any other ArenaFan'ers in town tomorrow afternoon before the big game. More info at the end of this thread:

http://www.arenafan.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=124288

DiamondThief · Joined: 19 Nov 2013 Location: Portland, Oregon

Why does it show all these posts being posed on Dec. 31, 1969
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This post has been screen-grabbed to prevent tampering and plagerism.

afdave · Joined: 01 Jan 2001

AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

Don't mind the December 1969 problems on the message boards. A hilarious mistake. Joe, Tim, Dave, and myself were having a conversation, and Dave all of a sudden says, "And I wrecked our message boards." We're working on it... Please be patient.

Anyway, we're about 24 hours removed from the ArenaBowl, and just about all of the pre-game work is said and done with. We've got tons and tons of stuff on our front page for the game, and we're proud to have all of the best articles on this game that you'll find.

Special tip of the hat to Phil Podskalan, who has been our unofficial photographer every step of the way here in Cleveland. Some really, really cool shots we've gotten and a heck of a lot of PhotoShop fun along the way, too Smile

For good measure, I'm leaving Cleveland with some of Cleveland's money, too. We spent some time at the Horseshoe tonight, and I walked out with $90 more than what I came in with. Boom.

Had dinner with ScottW tonight as well at the Corner Alley. Good joint. Had my second sandwich with a pierogi on it in three days. This one was a brat burger. Very excellent. Not as good as the sandwich in Pittsburgh... but damn damn good.

More coming in the morning. We've still got work to do tonight.

AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

Perhaps my favorite part of the whole ArenaBowl trip every year is the part just before the game. The morning is pretty much ours to do whatever we want with it due to the fact that everything is said and done with. We've podcasted. We've previewed. We've dissected every angle in the game that we can. We made our picks.

And now we wait.

Wait for another nine hours until the game of the year actually kicks off.

In actuality, we'll get back into ArenaFan work mode a few hours before that as we set up for our coverage of the game. I won't be blogging during the game, because that's just nut balls to do. But between Joe doing the front page blurb during the game, Tim taking care of our social media, and Dave and I drawing up ridiculous stats about the game, we'll certainly have everything covered. Jeff is also going to be down on the field covering the game and snapping photos for an interesting perspective.

I'm sure if you're reading this, you're already following us on Twitter @arenafan, but I'll take this moment to plug myself as well @AFLGuru. Those are the accounts you'll want to be following live for all of the ins and outs of the ArenaBowl. We already know that the league will... they steal our tweets after we tweet them and claim them for their own Smile

Signing off from just across the street of the Q....

AFLGuru · Joined: 28 Dec 2005

GAME TIME! Very psyched up for this. Hope it's a game which lives up to its billing. Around 90 minutes to kickoff. Fans just starting to pile into the Q. There were more outside at Fan Fest than there were two years ago in New Orleans, and there is no way that this isn't the most attended ArenaBowl since at least 2008, if not further back than that. Every person here has a white towel and a black shirt. This place is going to ROCK.