BEFORE YOU READ: this is a warning to players and fans about how poorly teams and leagues can be run, now that the disclaimer is done we shall continue.Ladies and gentlemen back in January we brought you a two part series on the Underbelly of Indoor Football, titled the Shit Show. Those articles covered 5 "Professional" indoor leagues that were effectively replacing the now defunct AIF. Those articles were presented as a warning to players and fans of what really can happen in this sport, if you though Project FANCHISE was bad these teams and owners are actually worse.
So we start our tread through the dredges with the SIF, Supreme Indoor Football. This is the league that couldn't make up their mind on how many teams they have in it. To make it simple the league had the Cap City Bulls, Cape Fear Heroes, Georgia M.O.B., Greenville Dragons, and Triangle Torch. Also listed on the website are the Anderson Gladiators and in the Teams link we also have the South Carolina Ravens and Louisiana Cottonmouths. Out of all of these teams only 4 actually made the schedule for the season and played games. That means out of the 8 announced teams or ones that appear on their website (not including the EIF teams) only 4 of them played. The one positive with this league is at least they all played 6 league games (plus a handfull of non-league games each), that's actually a surprise for a league like this and the uniformity is better than the NAL. The SIF wrapped up it's 2017 season with the first SIF Championship Game on Saturday June 24th, 2017 between the Cape Fear Heroes and Triangle Torch. The Heroes would take the game and the title with a 30-24 win. Whether or not this league and or teams will be back in 2018 is up in the air but I wouldn't hold your breath.
The next league is Elite Indoor Football, the EIF is another Southern based league founded by Southern (formerly Savannah) Steam owner Bobby Dammarell so you know it's gonna be "good". The EIF announced 5 teams would play in the league the Atlanta Furious, Carolina Cowboys, Florida Tribe, Roanoke Militia, and Savannah Steam. With the Steam being obvious they wouldn't be playing out of the Savannah Civic Center after a mountain of unpaid debt, they moved to Statesboro, GA and it's Indoor Sports Arena (a small warehouse barely able to hold the field) as the Southern Steam. This league was the biggest cluster**** in all of indoor football. The overall number of games that was played in the league is unconfirmed as there is no schedule, results, or standings on the league website. As for what teams played, it's confirmed that the Atlanta Furious and Southern Steam played games it was different as for the rest of the teams. The only game that could be confirmed being "played" by the "Cowboys" was actually a Semi-Pro team called the South Carolina Snipers playing (and getting crushed) by the Richmond Roughriders 92-0. While no games could be confirmed being played by the Roanoke Militia or Florida Tribe. Per the Southern Steam Facebook page the Steam defeated the Atlanta Furious in the EIF Championship Game 58-14. I hope that this league doesn't make it through the offseason.
The third league is Arena Pro Football, this league is by far the least garbage of all the **** leagues which really doesn't say much as it's not even on the level of the NAL. As discussed in the last post about these teams the league started out with 7 teams including the Alabama (or Birmingham depending on where you look) Outlawz, Florida Tarpons, Myrtle Beach Sharks, Savannah Coastal Outlaws, Richmond Roughriders, and River City Raiders. The Coastal Outlaws are for the most part playing in the USIF, a league based entirely out of the Savannah Civic Center as a "developmental league" for the APF. The Coastal Outlaws went 0-3 and were crushed each time. Out of all the other teams in this league 4 of them had massive problems. The Myrtle Beach Sharks who were announced for the league eventually announced they would move to the Semi-Pro GDFL before then re-announcing they would play in the APF and then just didn't play at all. The Alabama Outlawz after announcing an 8 game schedule with four home games. The team managed to play just three road game 0-3 losing to Florida, River City, and Richmond before having their first two home games cancelled (the April 15th home game going unannounced) and then having the third scheduled home game get cancelled due to issues regarding the setup at the Shelby County Expo Center after which the team went dark. The River City Raiders looked bad from the start, after originally being admitted as members of the CIF the Raiders were kicked out of the league for not being able to meet financial commitments and joined the APF. The Raiders played 4 of their first 5 games only missing the game at Alabama due to the Outlawz cancelling the game and after beating the Savannah Coastal Outlaws 53-12 the team disappeared of the face of the earth. The final two teams in the APF, the Florida Tarpons and Richmond Roughriders, were by far the most prepared and strongest teams. The Tarpons played all 7 of their scheduled games on the scheduled dates. The Roughriders on the other hand originally had 8 games scheduled with 5 at home had that changed to be 7 games with 6 at home. The Roughriders also played all 7 games with the only change from the final schedule being the Atlanta Furious replacing the River City Raiders in the final regular season game due to the Raiders folding. In the APF Championship Game on Saturday June 10th the undefeated and hosting Richmond Roughriders bested the Florida Tarpons 74-61 for the first, last, and only APF title, more on that coming up.
The fourth of the AIF replacements was the most AIF like and the biggest cluster**** of all in the Can-Am Indoor Football League. As stated back in January this was a league with 10 teams including 3 travel teams and 3 teams (as just after we published that article the Rochester Kings announced a home arena) that had no home building. The teams schedules were so wildly inconsistent ranging from 2 announced games for Boston to 11 for the Vermont Bucks. After a very messy regular season the postseason saw the Vermont Bucks host and beat the non league (and Semi-Pro) Central Penn Chargers 46-6 and in the other Semi-Final the Rochester Kings beat down the Buffalo Blitz 64-12. In the Can-AmIFLChampionship Game the undefeated Rochester Kings hosted the Vermont Bucks. In the one and only CAIFL Championship Game the Vermont Bucks defeated the Rochester Kings in Rochester, NY 61-41 to win leagues one and only Championship. The Arena Football Challenge Cup that was to be played between the APF and CAIFL was also never played.
Now the past two leagues we have said that it's their one and only Championship and season, the reason for that is due to earlier in the year the two leagues announcing they would merge into the American Arena League. Now the AAL announced "it's inaugural 10 teams" however the Richmond Roughriders, who were included in the lineup, publicly stated they are looking at other options as well including the National Arena League. The Florida Tarpons are also not listed on the league's splash page (and most teams aren't). The AAL even took in the Central Penn Chargers, a semi-pro team that was crushed by Vermont in the CAIFL Semi-Finals. Another team that was taken in the the Georgia Doom who are to play out of the Macon Centroplex and are a Semi-Pro team that took over playing games under the "Dayton" Wolfpack moniker in the NAL. To the NAL I applaud you for steering away from this crap.
Last and very least we come to the EIFC, the Elite Indoor Football Conference. The EIFC was a southeastern based league founded by the Central Florida Jags as an AIF replacement. After announcing each team playing a 9-10 game schedule the leagues last activity was on March 8th announcing the Jags would in fact NOT being playing at the Lakeland Center. Only one game was to have ever been confirmed to have taken place and the EIFC is about as real as the Palm Beach Phantoms.
Closing out today I want to say I cover these things as a warning to players, coaches, fans, sponsors, etc to be diligent in looking at these teams and leagues and that while the CIF, IFL, and NAL have their issues they're nowhere near as bad as this. Next week will be the final weekly post (it will be 1-2 per month after this until next season) of Indoor Football Weekly for the year as we have the first ever IFW All-Indoor Football Awards and coverage of some offseason news so far. Don't forget to vote this week to crown the Winner of Best of Arenas as it is the final round. You can of course vote on Facebook or on the main page of the site.
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