Fan Convention Opens Doors to a New af2
Gary Stibolt
Sunday January 15, 2006
Sure the af2 is the developmental league to the superior Arena Football League, which is entering its' 20th season in a couple of weeks, but it is the lessons learned over the history of developing Arena Football and the growing pains of arenafootball2 that have put us in a situation where fans will be able to experience the hard-hitting, fan-friendly sport that they have come to love in a way that is unmatched by any other major professional sports organization.
When af2 President, Jerry Kurz, and af2 Sr. Director of Team and Partner Development, Steve Smith, attended the 2006 af2 Fan Convention in Bettendorf, Iowa, they met with various fan and booster club presidents, officers, and fans as well as some of their sponsors. Those meetings were very insightful for both sides of the table. Everyone wanted the same thing and that was to develop a way to better support the fan organizations around the af2 so that they can do a better job of supporting the leagues teams. It was not a negotiating session. It was a casual conversation where league officials listened intently to ideas and concerns from the fans and then offered new ideas and information on how to overcome some of the struggles fan organizations face.
The session was then followed up with a series of breakout sessions that covered a range of topics from how to become better organized and writing by-laws to how to market and develop sponsorship opportunities. Discussions focused on how to develop professional and working relationships with team owners and operators. "There has to be synergy between what the fans are doing for the team and what the teams can do for their fans," stated Jerry Kurz, in the morning session as he followed up on a key point made by a fan from the Quad Cities.
The af2 has already demonstrated that the fans are important to the business of Arena Football. "Corporate sponsors will only cover so much, you have to have fans attend the games," Kurz said. "We understand that, our owners understand that. Our teams won't survive on corporate partnerships alone and you guys (fan and booster clubs) can do a lot to help us get more fans to attend the games."
What the af2 and the fans came up with in this convention is an agreement that there needs to be a fan organization at the national level, the league level. The vision for such a project was laid out by Jerry Kurz at the presidents luncheon meeting in Bossier City last August during the ArenaCup. The convention in Bettendorf allowed this vision to come into focus and a charter has been developed that will form the af2 national fan club. While the exact name is yet to be determined, the vision and what that organization will do has been identified.
By having a national organization supported by the af2, fans will be able to take advantage of national sponsorship support that they have never known before. They will be in a better position to network and share ideas and resources. Jerry stated, "we want to do all of these things but we have to come up with the seed money to get it started." So the new organization will take on that initiative as well. Under the national organization, there will be a director or chairman. The officers will consist of all af2 fan and booster club presidents. Operational procedures are being developed based on fan input at the recent convention and the meeting held last August in Bossier City.
It was also agreed that there is a tremendous value in having such conventions for the fans of the af2. The group of officers who were present along with af2 officials, made the decision to merge the fan convention with the ArenaCup championship week of events. Because the af2 has already decided to hold the ArenaCup in a neutral site every year, it only made sense to it this way.
As a result, the ArenaCup week long activities will have more in store for the fans to do such as participate in a coaches football clinic where fans will breakdown film and learn more about the game of Arena Football. They will also be able to attend a banquet. The ArenaCup already hosts many fan events such as the fan festival and the awards banquet, so by moving the fan convention to the ArenaCup, fans will enjoy more and the af2 fan organizations will be able to come together and have their own meetings to set and achieve their own objectives and the nice thing is that everyone will be able to attend the championship game. By integrating the fan convention into the ArenaCup, fans don't have to choose which event to save their money up for. This provides the opportunity to have the fan convention be better attended by all parts of the Arena Football family, owners/operators, coaches, players, and fans.
After their second fan convention, af2 fan and booster clubs have come together and accomplished so much through dialogue and activities they perform at the local level, the league was ready to take this to the next step. The convention in Bettendorf looked like and felt like an af2 event and because of that, arenafootball2 is poised to set itself apart from any other major professional sports league in the country, hence opening its doors to a new af2 and a fan experience that can only be witnessed by joining an af2 fan or booster club.
Gary Stibolt has covered the Quad City Steamwheelers since their 2000 inaugural season. He also owns, operates and is the Chief Editor/Publisher of SteamwheelerFans.com, a website dedicated to the Steamwheelers and their fans. He coresponds for other media outlets covering arenafootball2. In addition to leading the Steamwheelers Fan Club, Gary serves as Coordinator of the National af2 Fan Club. He is married with two sons and works as an Infrastructure Analyst for Deere & Company in their Corporate Computer Center in Moline, Illinois.