Indoor Football Weekly #34 Offseason Edition: August 2017

The News

It's been nearly a month since the last Indoor Football Weekly post but everything has so far shaken out and we're here to bring you all the news of the last four week of the offseason.

The first news of the season came back on August 1st when the Kansas City Phantoms announced that Chris Coffin, who led the team to a 4-8 record in their inaugural season, was dismissed as head coach. As of August 31st a replacement head coach has not been announced.

The next news came out 10 days later on August 11th when Paco Martinez was also dismissed as the head coach of the Wichita Force. Martinez who coached the now defunct Wichita Wild before moving onto the Force is the only head coach the Force have had. He had a 27-12 overall record with the team and led the Force to two playoff appearances with a Northern Division and CIF Championship in his three years as head coach.

A big, but unsurprising splash was made on August 16th with a press conference in Moline, IL announcing the return of the iconic Quad City Steamwheelers brand this time to Champions Indoor Football. During that press conference Cory Ross was also announced as the head coach of the Steamwheelers. Ross had coached the Omaha Beef from 2015-17 going 17-21 over those three seasons. Ross had brought the Beef to the team's second Championship Game appearance, losing to the Texas Revoution in Champions Bowl III.
Just a few hours later the CenTex Cavalry announced they would be ceasing operations. The Cavalry went 0-12 in their only season of indoor football. This also leaves one of the original markets of the sport without a team once again.

August 22nd saw the second new coaching hire of the season as the Bloomington Edge announced that Nick Rudd as the new head coach. This came after the Edge announced Ameer Ismail would no longer be the head coach of the Bloomington Edge back in June.

Two announcements came on August 30th both of them were fairly well known and to quote Todd Tryon "The Worst Kept Secret of the Offseason" the first being that the Texas Revolution are moving from Allen, TX and the Allen Event Center to Frisco, TX and the Dr. Pepper Arena. The Dr. Pepper Arena previously hosted the Frisco Thunder of the Intense Football League during the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
The other announcement came in Sioux Falls, SD as the Storm officially announced they would be moving to Champions Indoor Football for "the 2018 season and the foreseeable future". During that press conference Ricky Bertz also stated a 15th team, which is presumed to be the Wichita Falls Nighthawks, will be announced next week.

Adam Lamprecht has his take on the Sioux Falls Storm moving to the CIF.

SIOUX FALLS STORM TO THE CIF

Before I begin, I would just like to say this. I have only followed the Sioux Falls Storm since moving to Sioux Falls in 2009. Before that, I was a fan of the Sioux City Bandits from 2005 to 2008, as my assistant head coach during my senior year of high school football played for the Bandits. But as I knew then, and as I know now, there has been a rivalry between the Sioux City Bandits and the Sioux Falls Storm from the beginning. The rivalry lasted until 2011, when the Sioux City Bandits left the Indoor Football League and joined the American Professional Football League. After two years in the APFL, the Bandits helped form the Champions Professional Indoor Football League, with teams in the Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri region. And after two successful years, the CPIFL merged with the Lone Star Football League to create what is now Champions Indoor Football.

Back on topic, though. The rivalry between Sioux City and Sioux Falls was thought to be a mere memory in the hearts of fans. But on August 30, 2017, the Sioux Falls Storm announced that they would be leaving the IFL and joining the CIF for the 2018 Season and for the foreseeable future.

My thoughts on this? I’m excited for the future of the Storm now. Sioux Falls can begin rivalries again with the Sioux City Bandits, the Omaha Beef, the Wichita Force (or start a new rivalry since the old rival, the Wichita Wild, is gone), the Bloomington Edge, and start new rivalries with the Bismarck Bucks, the reborn Quad City Steamwheelers, and the West Michigan Ironmen. I know the thoughts of many are that Sioux Falls is being sore losers after losing to Arizona in the United Bowl. However, I see the exact opposite. I see it as a good business decision, and a decision that helps the fans out a lot.

If you look at the past few seasons for the Storm, the closest road game for fans to travel to were Grand Island, Nebraska (the Danger), and Des Moines, Iowa (the Barnstormers). Both of those were over 4 hours in travel time. Cedar Rapids was 5 ½ hours, and Green Bay was 7 ½ hours. Now, with the rivalries with Sioux City and Omaha renewed, those road trips are cut nearly in half with a 2 ¾ hour trip to Omaha, and only an hour to Sioux City. Well, okay, almost 3 hours, since the Beef actually play in Ralston now. So those road trips are actually doable in one day. And if you wished to stay in Sioux City or Omaha, they have fine hotels in both cities, as well as other things to do if you want to make it a weekend. Sioux City has the Hard Rock now, and Omaha is……well, Omaha.

So, in short, bring on the 2018 Season!!!

Going Forward

These moves brings Champions Indoor Football to 15 teams and for 2018 will play 12 games over 15 weeks with Champions Bowl IV being played prior to Independence Day. The NAL is now sitting at 11 teams but has not announced 3 team names or home arenas and the IFL is now dead last with a lowly 5 teams.

This all goes down to the IFL a league founded in 2009 following a merger between United Indoor Football and the Intense Football League in a bid to bring the sport national. The league began play with 19 teams and reached a high of 25 teams in 2010. The league dropped to 22 in 2011, 16 in 2012, and after an exodus of teams to the CPIFL and LSFL, which combined to make the CIF later, went down to 9 teams in 2013. The IFL remained at 9 teams in 2014 before becoming a 10 team league in 2015 which it has stayed at since. Back in June the IFL announced it's plans for 2018 and the announcement only had five teams.

Even back in June, the Storm didn't commit, the Nighthawks were open about leaving for the CIF, Spokane had folded, and Project FANCHISE was a colossal failure and folded Colorado and Salt Lake.

This is the time that the owners of the IFL need to get off their high horse and leave their egos at the door and get something done to where all 20 teams are playing in a single league. It's a good move for the owners (cost) and the fans (travel) for a combined league. 4 of the 5 IFL teams have a CIF team that is closer, the only team that doesn't is the Iowa Barnstormers who are only about 90 minutes from Cedar Rapids. Now let's just hope the fans are taken into account in these five cities like they were in Sioux Falls.