Arena Football, RIP
 

So will Arena2 (aka:AF2) be renamed??? :cool:

Wow that's a shame. I wonder if the NFL will be drawing new officials almost exclusively from NCAA Divison I? Maybe they do already, I'm not really sure.

Bye, bye. Wasn't real football anyway.

They do draw officials from D1 already. They just placed them in AFL if they were high on the candidate list. I don't think there were too many officials working AFL that weren't also working D1 or some level of college.

That I knew but I know they were also using AFL as a training and evaluation ground for prospective NFL officials. Same as they used to with NFL Europe.

I am wondering if the NFL will almost exlusively be promoting officials directly from DI conferences.

The NFL already picked guys up from the D1 level, but with the AFL and NFL Europe, they used these as training grounds for current and prospective NFL officials. The NFL will just have to use D1 as the only place to evaluate officials or pick guys form high school or lower level college ball.

Peace

I really tried to watch it but ended up hating it. Its a shame NFL Europe was shut down.

I attended many games in Grand Rapids and loved the game! Sad to see it go.

Frankly, it wasn't missed this past year and won't be missed by many. Sorry for you guys that liked it.

I liked the concept, but not so much the execution, although I followed it a lot early, went to a couple of NY Knights games.

I would change it with the following:

-- actual sidelines; padding several yards back and coaches on the bench
-- essentially eliminate the kicking game, as the area is too small (don't know what to do about after a score and on 4th down, however)
-- make everyone eligible
-- I wouldn't allow the offensive player to get a 5 yard running start, but I would eliminate false start and motion rules for those outside the "tackle" (actually guard) box
-- all shifting legal

Ufl
 

If Arena football is dead... what's with the UFL? Is it supposed to be like a Developmental League for Football?

That's how it was at the start. I thought they moved at least closer over time to the right idea, i.e. the opposite of yours, which is to have those walls in play, as in the indoor soccer it was modeled on.

That would take away most of the raison d'etre of the patented feature of the game, the rebounding screens. However, the patent had expired by the time they ceased operations.

Well, yeah, if they didn't play 8 a side, which was a compromise they undertook to make the game resemble outdoor football more -- and resulted in their having to restrict the defenses to give the offense a chance in that crowded a space.

IIRC, the Indoor Football League is 6 a side. So are women's "Sixxes".

Robert

And yet, even with AFL dying, the Richmond VA area (which has already shown it won't support and af2 team and it won't support an AIFL team) is now getting not one, but two minor league indoor-football teams. We're getting not only an AIFA team by a team in the IFL as well. Hell, the IFL even put their headquarters here!

I just don't understand it...

What's to understand? A lot of things (sports included) fail, or stop succeeding after a while, as high-key ventures, but continue or expand as low-key ones. Plus, some are managed better than others.

The Women's Professional Football League revived women's football in 1999, produced what was probably the best women's team of this era (Dallas Diamonds), but hasn't operated officially since 2007. In the meantime, however, other leagues (playing in the spring as opposed to the WPFL's fall operation) have sprung up and are bigger than the WPFL ever was, including a lot of former WPFL clubs.

Indoor football seems to be taking off as a participant rather than a spectator sport. It probably helps that a number of proprietary air dome and other indoor field sports facilities have opened, mostly servicing soccer. Now that the patent has expired on the AFL's rebounding screens, they could even use those, but I don't see anyone rushing to do so, it apparently being thought a gimmick for the spectator rather than the participants. Similarly, a lot of participant indoor soccer doesn't play with the walls in play. And some of these "indoor" games are played outdoors. Last night in the Chinatown-Little Italy area I happened on a 6-a-side soccer game in a park facility laid out for it. They had uniforms and a referee and all.

Robert

It was very entertaining and I didn't care if it was "real" football. Kinda the same argument as watching Canadian ball.