The first incarnation of the Mariners did pretty well; my google skills are letting me down, but I think by the end of the year they were drawing 5000 or so. The reason it went down was the that owner got caught embezzeling funds to finance the team. The other two instances (the Blackbirds and the 2nd Mariners) were underfinanced. A team with a real sales staff should be able to make it work.... and I think Leonsis ought know what he's doing, as long as he takes the team seriously and isn't pulling a Twisters/Riot/Roar act just to fill a spot on the schedule for the Valor. As Syd pointed out, this sure does sound familiar. At least they aren't claiming they'll be drawing 12,000.
I always thought the Maryland Commandos played in Baltimore for a year but apparently they were just a travel team in the early years of the AFL.
It is hard to say if this will take in Charm City or not. History shows it won't last. But two things are in its favor by having a strong proven owner and this will be a higher level of arena football compared to the Blackbirds and Mariners. Right now, the league has 5 teams (cle,balt,tb,wash,phil) and the good thing about that is they are all on the east coast, which should help big time with travel costs. Add 2 or 3 more east coast teams, should be a decent semi-pro arena football league. Some people seem like they need to take these minor league sports (MASL,NLL,AFL,etc) nationwide to be successful. But I think you can be more successful if you keep the league in one region. With these minor league sports you needs too keep expenses down as much as possible. For example, it makes no sense to me to have Balt playing the LA Kiss (currently folded). Keep it in your region! Jacksonville and Arizona(former afl teams) have formed with the IFL, a move similar with the MISL and PASL. I have never watched an AFL game live, but probably will check it out this spring when it comes to Balto.
As someone whose indoor soccer team came via a successful indoor football organization, let me tell you that you are not missing much. IMHO, soccer translates much better to an arena.
My son had season tickets the year the Mariners went 14-0 and won the championship. That was a lot of fun. And that was semi-pro. My only fear is that the Baltimore team will be the palooka of the league, which won't play well for fans in Baltimore. But now, back our regularly scheduled arena soccer news page...
I have watched a number of AFL games on TV, including a few this year. The talent looks much better than the AIF. I believe the field goal posts for the AIF, league which the mariners played in, look different from the AFL and there was also no nets on either sides of the posts. Hopefully the AFL will form the Baltimore team with a good amount of talent, because your right, Baltimore will not support a loser. I still prefer to watch indoor soccer though. Now getting back to MASL soccer, like you said, I look forward towards watching the games on Youtube this weekend and hope the quality of the streams and play continue. I wonder if the Tropics will be able to make a game of it with the Blast. Could they be the next Sonora after that big win vs SD last weekend? Will the Heat be able to make it 2 wins in a row, against an unseen Knights team? The Blast also signed a new defender and GK this week.
The AFL is basically on life support. A number of flagship franchises have bolted to the IFL the last two years: the Iowa Barnstormers, Spokane Shock, and now the Arizona Rattlers.
The AFL was involved in a lawsuit about 10 years ago. long story short, Arena league means nets bounce back the ball into the field......=Arena Football. No nets, or nets simply prevent the ball from going into the stands and don't bounce back into play......= indoor football. Much like how Isiah Thomas had an offer to turn the CBA into an NBA minor league, the AFL had an offer to develop skill players into an NFL minor league. They turned it down and have regretted ever since. The CFL also turned the NFL down but at least work closely with the NFL and have an annual meeting and working agreement with the NFL. XFL, USFL, RFL all tried to either compete with or become a developmental league and failed. Arena Football once had two leagues and about 50-60 teams. Now, I am expectedly waiting Negan from the walking dead to show up and simply claim ownership. It's dead
Yeah its hard to believe the AFL would turn down a deal from the NFL. I guessing the NFL wanted too much control. The AFL might be close to dead, but might make a small comeback with a 5 or more team league. They might even join the IFL, who knows. The remaining AFL teams still had decent attendance last season, as did the AFL in general. I believe arena football, whether AFL or IFL will continue to operate at some level. They just need to operate on a very strict budget and make smarter decisions. Like keep regular season play regional, affordable/realistic player salary cap, affordable arena lease agreements, online broadcasts (no tv), good solid multi state sponsors, etc. Ted Leonsis is still in this for a reason and it's probably for tax reasons, not for big profits. I remember when AFL teams were being sold for 10 to 20 mil, but the inflated bubble has burst, those days are long gone and wont be returning. As for Negan, he would like nothing more than to own an AFL team so he could control and torture its players and fans! LOL http://www.arenafan.com/statistics/?page=attendance
If they did, they would insist, demand that the league be called AFL. There is still some equity in the name and they do have a media contract. People also associate Jon Elway and Jon Bon Jovi with the league.
To connect this back to indoor soccer, wasn't there some threatened lawsuit years ago between the Dallas Sidekicks and the old Dallas Desperadoes because their logos were similar?
Side note: I miss the purple, soccer ball bandanna Sidekicks logo. I am not old enough to remember the MISL and it is the CISL and those logos I have nostalgia for.
Looks like the HEAT just signed forward Elmo Neto to help boast their offense. He had 28 pts in CR (2015-16) and 40 pts in SYR (2014-15). The Heat look much improved from last year and Florida looks very good for an expansion team. Should be an interesting battle in Harrisburg tonight against the Tropics, as the fight for 2nd place in the East continues.
Harrisburg is just a few key pieces away from being a threat in the east. I dont think Elmo Neto will play for the next two weeks. That is what the latest rumor was anyway.
Maybe. But a manufacturer of foosball tables threatened to sue us in Indiana because of our logo back in the late 1990s.
The NFL purchased an option to acquire up to 49.9% of the AFL and "a voice in the operation of the league" in early 1999. They had a three-year window to exercise the option and never did. 2003-2005 or so was pretty much the league's heyday. NBC, which had lost the NFL and failed with the XFL, treated the AFL like a major property and the league averaged 11-12k per game overall. But there were obvious cracks in the facade, as within four years after that time period, they were taking a year off and came back as a pale shadow of what they had been. It's possible NFL owners never saw sufficient value in purchasing that equity stake and it's hard to blame them. EDIT: The most AFL/af2 teams, combined, in one season, was 50 in 2002, when the AFL had 16 teams and af2 had 34.
I was impressed by the quality of play from the Heat last night. They had their first comfortable win since probably the mid-90s. DaSilva in goal was outstanding. The team played aggressive...created chances...and actually finished them. Thiago has two fantastic spin moves...one that opened up space to create a goal for another player and then one where he created space for himself and took a good shot on goal that required a quality save. Gonzaga played like he was a man on a mission. You could tell he wanted to take the game over when the Heat went down by two. The real issue is that the Heat doesn't really have what I would consider to be a finisher. Perhaps Neto can be that man.
Given the new owner and a totally revamped roster...I think the same thing could be said about the Heat.
It's true. The only players left from last year are Teixeira, Kerstetter, Chantel, Gonzaga and Mellor.
The Heat, at least, have a coach who was a far more accomplished indoor player, and (I believe) more players who have actually played this version of the game before.