If those padded walls could talk
Hold onto your joy stick for a second, Arena Football League fan who can't wait to get your season seats for the 2007 campaign. That Playstation 2 version will be all you get for a little longer than usual.
The season now starts on March 1 -- about six weeks later than usual, when there was a big NBC TV contract and it wanted it fired up the weekend before the Super Bowl. You know, to gain that huge NFL fan base. That never happened.
That pushes the annual ArenaBowl to July 29, which may now conflict with some ice show or circus, but what they heck. They can play around it.
The AFL will have 19 teams for this, its 21st season, including your Los Angeles Avengers, who still call Staples Center home and will use it on Sunday, March 4 to open their 16-game season against the San Jose SaberCats. With New Orleans back and a realigned division -- the Avengers go down to N.O. for Game 3 on March 24 -- it should be one memorable season of kickoffs-into-the-net, rug burns and field goals hitting the overhanging scoreboard.
Can you name the defending champion? It wasn't Jon Bon Jovi's Philadelphia Whachamacallits. Or John Elway's Colorado Thingamagigs. Didn't Mike Ditka own a piece of the Chicago Beerfarts? Anyway, that last team ... they won it.
With the realignment, the Avengers are in the Western Division, along with Arizona, Las Vegas, San Jose and Utah. The Central has Chicago, Colorado, Grand Rapids (which is in the state of ... denial?), Kansas City and Nashville. In the Eastern division, it's Philly, Columbus, Dallas (that's pretty east) and New York; in the Southern, it's Austin (is that more east than Dallas?), Georgia, New Orleans, Orlando and Tampa Bay and ... that's it. The South is loaded. No wonder Dallas had to relocate.
So, without NBC's deep pockets (they decided last June not to renew), the league will mostly be a cable phenomenon until Sam Baker's dad (aka, The Whammer) finds someone willing to advance him some premium TV time. FSN has many of the individual team deals, and Versus signed the national deal to do 11 games and one playoff game. Maybe ESPN/ABC or the NFL Network will be enthusiastic enough to come on board for either the season openers or title game. Did you know ESPN actually carried the Arena Bowl title game from '92 to '97, with such luminaries as Tom Mees, Todd Christensen (with Kirk Herbstreit on color and Mike Golic on the sidelines) and Mike Adamle doing the play-by-play?
Oh, for those good ol' indoor days of the war on the floor. And for the days when Carl's Jr. gave out those super Avenger toys that didn't look at all like any player we saw down on the field.
Comments
Thanks for your blog about the Avengers and the AFL. I'm a subscriber of the Daily News and am President of the Avengers 9th Man Booster Club. I hope you and the Daily News will increase the coverage of the Avengers and the AFL then in the past. I know the team, coaches, Avengers office staff, the AFL and of course us fans would greatly appreciate it. Happy Holidays and I hope to see you at Staples Center on March 4, 2007 when the fans once again STAND WITH THE AVENGERS!
Posted by: Brian Fox | December 2, 2006 12:24 AM
Thanks for writing up something on the AFL. It's a great league, very family oriented. Hope you give The Avengers a big boost this year and maybe many families will find the joy of AFL Football.
Posted by: Brent Obillo | December 2, 2006 05:45 PM
Thank you for giving the Avengers and AFL a write up. I've been a subscriber to the Daily News a long time and would like to see more coverage of the team / league in the up coming season. The league has continued to grow in the past 20 years and with more coverage it would help to increase the league more.
Happy Holiday and continue the great work.
Posted by: Larry Lieberman | December 4, 2006 01:56 PM