Indoor Football Weekly Special Edition #3: The Shit Show 2017: Postseason Edition

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.

Indoor Football Weekly Special Edition #2: The Shit Show 2017: Part Two

In our last article we covered the SIF and EIF. This time we are going to cover Arena Pro Football (APF), Can-Am Indoor Football (CAIF), and Elite Indoor Football Conference (EIFC). Again BEFORE YOU READ: this is a warning about these leagues and teams, while some of these teams are decent most of them are not and should be looked at carefully. To players, coaches, and fans who may get involved please be aware. No we will continue our journey through the underbelly of Indoor Football

To continue we will start with Arena Pro Football, this out of all FIVE of the leagues replacing the AIF is the most legitimate, but don’t let that fool you the APF is nowhere near the level of the CIF, IFL, or NAL in anyway. Arena Pro Football was originally scheduled to be called the National Arena Football League, but did change it before launching. In November the APF announced their first three clubs. The Savannah Coastal Outlaws, Myrtle Beach Sharks, and Birmingham Outlawz.

Let’s break all three of these teams down starting with the Savannah Coastal Outlaws. If Savannah reminds you of something it’s because in our last article we covered the Steam who are also supposed to make their home in that city. To start the Outlaws are scheduled to play just 5 games in APF, all on the road, while also playing two games against EIFC clubs. The rest of their schedule is actually being played in United States Indoor Football. The USIF is a 4 team league entirely based out of the Savannah Civic Center and is the developmental league of the APF. Yes you read that right a quarter decent ultra minor league has a “developmental league”. Up next is the Myrtle Beach Sharks, and if Myrtle Beach sounds familiar it’s because they had the Freedom of the AIF play in town last season. However the difference is that the Sharks have not yet announced their home arena for 2017. And third we have the Birmingham Outlaws, after posting some time last year on their Facebook page that they would be playing out of a decent sized arena in Birmingham they have backtracked on that. They’ll instead be playing out of the Shelby County Exhibition Center in Columbiana, AL, which is some 37 miles away from Birmingham. The fourth team announced was for a club in Virginia, eventually it was announced that the Virginia club would be the new Richmond Roughriders playing out of the Richmond Coliseum, former home of the Speed, Bandits, and Raiders. However the APF made the announcement seem more depressing by saying “Professional indoor football likely will return next spring” as well “The APF is expected to compete in 2017 as an eight-team circuit” and “Teams are expected to play eight-game schedules”. Not very optimistic in an announcement of a new team. Next up as the fifth team to join the APF was the Florida Tarpons, the Tarpons are one of the few stable teams in the Eastern United States being founded in 2012, they’ll now enter their fourth league in 6 years. They concern me, why? You ask. Well it’s because the Tarpons originally announced they would play in the Arena Development League, now the National Arena League. The Tarpons had stated they felt like the ADL/NAL model was unsustainable and the APF model was better, the only difference is the APF is much cheaper and has shadier teams, yes “better”. The sixth and final team for 2017 is the River City Raiders, the Raiders are also a somewhat stable club being based in St. Charles, MO since 2013. They concern me as well because the Raiders were originally admitted to Champions Indoor Football for 2017, they stated the reason they left was due to Chicago folding and their schedule being damaged. However the real reason I have been told was the Raiders didn’t have the finances necessary to play in the CIF. Leaving for another league with massively higher travel costs is never a good thing to do.

Arena Pro Football also announced an expansion team for 2018, the Carolina Wildcats, again not a smart move to announce another expansion team when you haven’t completed the first season. Arena Pro Football also was to have had a partnership with the Elite Indoor Football Conference, and the Savannah Coastal Outlaws are on the EIFC website to play two games but it has been pulled from the APF site. The league will have 2 games against the SIF with Myrtle Beach hosting Cape Fear on April 29th in the Gridiron Classic and Richmond hosting the Triangle Torch in the Capital City Showdown. On top of those the APF will also play the CAIF in the Arena Football Challenge Cup between each leagues champions. The good thing about the APF unlike the EIF they have a schedule released and unlike the SIF the scheduled (outside of Savannah) each team plays between 7 and 9 league games and a total between 7 and 10.

Speaking of the CAIF we move on to them, officially known as Can-Am Indoor Football, this league resembles the mind, body, and soul of everything we came to know about the old AIF. It is an eastern based league (check), it has way to many teams including travel only (check), the games on each schedule vary (check), and not all teams playing home games have arenas (check). It’s a perfect amount of garbage for a dumpster fire to start. I’ll make this short on the CAIF. It was started as a replacement for the AIF so that the Vermont Bucks had a league to play in. There are 10 teams in it’s first season which include 3 travel only teams (Boston, Connecticut, and Glens Falls), 4 teams (per the league’s website) have no home arenas (Lockport, Niagara Falls, NY, Niagara, ON, and Rochester), and only 3 teams (Buffalo who announces theirs on 1/26, New Hampshire, and Vermont)  that have a home arena! Out of these 10 teams Boston is scheduled to play only 2 games, while 3 teams (Connecticut, Glens Falls, and Lockport who is set for 2 home games) are scheduled to play 4 games. While the 4 teams (Buffalo, Niagara, Niagara Falls, and New Hampshire who is scheduled to play an SIF club) are set to play 8 games. And Vermont well their set for 11 games! Yes 11 games, 8 games in the CAIF and 3 non-league games!! Then of course as mentioned earlier the Arena Football Challenge Cup which is set to have the CAIF Champion play the APF Champion.

And now last and certainly least is the EIFC or Elite Indoor Football Conference (which yes is different from the EIF), this league was founded by the Central Florida Jags as a league for them to play in. What teams are in the EIFC? Glad you asked we have the league founders the Central Florida Jags, the Florida Generals, the Lake Park Tigers, the Miracle City Great White, the Polk County Venom, the South Florida Barracudas, and yes the damn Palm Beach Phantoms. What does this league have going for it? Well every team is playing 9 or 10 regular season games and that’s it because only (according to the website) literally only the Central Florida Jags have a home arena (the Lakeland Center in Lakeland, FL)

For all of you who have stuck with I do appreciate it, I know it has been a painful and bumpy train ride so far but we’re almost to the last station. As I mentioned before there are a few teams in these leagues and that’s what we’ll talk about now. The only team that I give a Seal of Approval (for players and fans) to is Florida Tarpons. The Tarpons will be entering their Sixth season in 2017 and in their fourth league, besides the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks and Columbus Lions (both of whom play in the NAL)  the Tarpons are the third strongest team on the east coast. As for a fan investment I can also say the River City Raiders are ok, the only reason is due to all Raiders tickets being free. Other than those a wait and see attitude should be used for players for the Raiders since they just bailed from the CIF as well a wait and see on the Vermont Bucks and Central Florida Jags. I would stay away from every other club as there are bound to be more than a few dumpster fires of both teams and leagues. And now folks we have arrived at the station and you may exit the train now that this painful tour through the underbelly of indoor football is done.

Indoor Football Weekly Special Edition #1: The Shit Show 2017: Part One

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. By good it's awful out there, that's right even though the dreaded American Indoor Football finally folded it's not over. Why? Do you ask, well because we have not one, not two, not even just three, but five yes FIVE garbage leagues polluting indoor football this year. Yes it hurts and we all know it but there are some, well, decent teams in these leagues.

To start our journey of pain through the underbelly of indoor football off we'll start with the league that was originally launched in 2016, Supreme Indoor Football. Yes, yes the SIF, the league was started by the Cape Fear Heroes owner in 2016 and was to have partnered with a reborn CIFL. There was many problems, starting with the CIFL could never get off the ground and was dead. But like a phoenix Supreme Indoor Football rose again! Well sorta, the SIF didn’t have enough teams to make a decent league so they have um “partnered” with the EIF (Elite Indoor Football) for the 2017 season. This should tell you how garbage this league is right off the bat, plus they can’t decide how many teams are in the SIF. How you ask? Well depending on where you look on the website (and whether or not you count the EIF teams listed, but we’ll get to that later) they have five, six, or eight teams in the SIF!

For sake of sanity we’ll talk about the EIF clubs later, but currently listed in their Standings area on the Website are the Cap City Bulls, the team is based out of Austin, TX however per their schedule (on the Bulls Website) they’ll play an all road game schedule of 8 games. These games will span four different indoor leagues, including exhibition games against the IFL’s Wichita Falls Nighthawks, and the NAL’s Monterrey Steel. Next up we have the league owners team, the Cape Fear Heroes. The Heroes are based out of the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, NC and per the SIF website they have a Seven game schedule, and that’s all the info we have, yep off to a great start so far. Third in line we have the Georgia M.O.B. (or MOB depending on where you look) they are scheduled to play out of Conyers, GA (where I have no idea) and have a whopping four games scheduled in 2017! The M.O.B. don’t even have a website just a Facebook page wow. In fourth place is another expansion club the Greenville Dragons, the Dragons we’re admitted with no home! Yes the SIF let them in this “league” as a travel team and having them secure a venue for 2018. The SIF website lists them as playing four games while the team site has them playing six! Another reason the SIF can’t make up their mind. But I digress last but not least of the teams (at least listed in the standings) is a team who actually played in 2016! It’s the Triangle Torch (yes it’s a stupid name, we know). The Torch played in the now dead AIF in 2016 and finished with a 3-4 record with one game cancelled besides the seven played. They made their home turf out of the J.S. Dorton Arena at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, NC. Per the SIF website they have a whopping five games scheduled and oh gee no website!

And to finish off the SIF they also have listed on their website the Anderson Gladiators who are nowhere to be found in the schedule or standings! As a background the Gladiators we’re originally announced as part of the ADL (now NAL) but bolted to the SIF and have been said to have not found a home arena. We also have listed in the teams section the Louisiana Cottonmouths, a failed AIF expansion team in 2016, and the South Carolina Ravens, a team who was scheduled to play 2017 in the AIF.

Now on to something even more painful, Elite Indoor Football. Yes ELITE Indoor Football, the EIF was founded by Bobby Dammarell the owner of the Savannah Steam. I won’t get into it to deep here but his wife Jenny, was booked into a county jail for “deposit account fraud”. The team was also told by the City of Savannah that due to it’s debts they wouldn’t be allowed a lease at the Savannah Civic Center again, in fact they can’t even play there as a road team! Next we have the Carolina Cowboys, based out of ?, South Carolina. Yes they don’t have a home arena or even city leased and their using the Dallas Desperados logo jeez. Next up is the Florida Tribe to be based out of Tallahassee, FL, where is their home arena, nobody knows. The Roanoke Militia were announced as the fourth team in the EIF, all we know is their base is Roanoke, VA. And finally the fifth and newest team the Atlanta Furious. Where do they play? You guessed it nobody knows. This is a league shrouded in mystery and unprofessionalism, per the website they will play a March through June schedule but yet don’t have an actual schedule released, and all but Savannah don’t have a website!

Stay tuned for Part Two of this nightmarish mess, we’ll show you the disaster of the Can-Am Indoor Football, Arena Pro Football, and the Elite Indoor Football Conference (yes it’s a different league).