It was announced on July 7th that the new Arena Developmental League (ADL) would be formed this fall and begin play in 2017. The league would be headed by Commissioner, John Gregory; Director of Football Operations, Chris Siegfried; and President, Skip Seda.
What is the Arena Development League?
That being said, the ADL won’t be the run-of-the-mill Indoor Football Leagues that fans are seeing right now.
“Our goal is to run a straight forward league, at a lower cost and to try to develop players for the Arena League (AFL), the CFL, and the NFL,” Gregory said. “We just want a league without a lot of difficulties in it.”
Yes, this sounds familiar: A league that develops players for the AFL, maybe one like the AF2 did from 2000-2009. However, the ADL will not have any affiliation with the AFL.
“I think [the AF2] a very good comparison,” Gregory said. “We aren’t [modeling] ourselves exactly after them, but I think our goals are similar to those.”
“We want to be a different kind of league than many of the leagues in the country,” Seda added. “There are a couple of very good leagues out there, but we want our emphasis to be on development of players, coaches, the front office, and the community that the teams are in. [We want to] develop that fan relationship with the teams by being out in that community.”
The Number of Teams
After just two weeks of the announcement of the league, the ADL has welcomed three teams: Two of which are established franchises with the Columbus Lions and Lehigh Valley Steelhawks.
“We’ve had a phenomenal [response], I think lot of people are upset with some of the things that are going on in some of the arena leagues,” Gregory said. “They are looking for a league that’s going to be a honest league that plays hard football.”
The third team will be an expansion club out of Boone, North Carolina called the High County Grizzlies.
“Any time that you have an expansion team, there is a process you have to go through,” Seda said. “We want to make sure that the ownership of those teams has the financial wherewithal to keep those teams going.”
“I can’t even tell you how many teams we are talking to,” Seda said. “We have quite a few that have announced their intentions to us to be in the league, and we are just waiting on paperwork for them.”
However, the ADL is not focused on the number of teams they have. The league originally planned on having 12-14 teams, but have since left it open to see how many teams they will actually get.
“Right now, we’re here with our eyes wide open,” Gregory said. “We thought we were just going to be isolated here in the southeast, but we’ve had a lot of interest from areas like Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, and so on.”
“Our goal is to have a manageable number of teams and good proximities for conferences, so they don’t have drive all over the world and spend money on transportation,” Gregory added. “That’s one of the major costs in some of the other arena leagues. So we’re gonna try to have the cost down to where people can afford it, where you can drive 4-6 hours and play football.”
The ADL is also trying to ensure that they find legitimate teams to join the league, as that can be an issue in the world of Indoor Football.
“We’re trying very hard to make sure teams that there is not going to be any hiccups, [and that] the teams that get in the season are going to finish the season,” Seda said. “[We want to] make sure the teams spend their money wisely. The staff of the league has the experience to give those teams advice on how they need to go.
The league though, maintaining that straight-up, honest makeup, won’t be poaching teams from other leagues to join the ADL.
“We’re not pushing anyone,” Gregory ensured. “We are waiting to see who wants to really come to us.”
The Rulebook
The ADL will play standard Arena Football rules (One man in motion before the play starts, tackles and fullbacks that can’t be stacked, a jack linebacker that can’t rush and a mack linebacker that will) aside from one exception: No return nets.
“In my opinion that puts too much of an element of chance into the game, because you kick it and don’t know where it’s gonna go,” Seda said. “We’re not fans of the nets, many people are and it is exciting, but we just don’t think a kicker can develop the skills to put it off the nets on a certain place.”
“I did not think you could play indoor football without the nets, I thought that was going to be disastrous,” Gregory said. “When in fact I have been to a number of games where I really like the game without the nets. It’s interesting in the fact that the kickers want to challenge on the kickoffs. It’s a fun part of the game. I think it’s a little different, but in my opinion it is just as exciting.”
As for the rosters, during training camp teams can have up to 40 players in action. During the regular season and playoffs, they are allowed 25 players on the roster; 20 or 21 players can play during the season. Teams can only play 21 players if the 21st player is of international descent.
“We want the CFL to take looks at our teams, if we have a Canadian on the team the scouts will look at him,” Seda said. “It’s football, you can’t look at one man without seeing everybody else on the team, so we think that will increase our players’ chances of moving up.”
Maintaining the order in the league, Seda said that teams must have their roster turned in no less than two days before the game. That roster will be final and cannot be changed under any circumstances.
“[The ADL is] glad to be here, we’re hoping that people will look at us and give us a chance, because we are trying to do things a little differently,” Seda said. “The competition will be superior to most of the competition that you’re going to find. We know our coaches will be very good, and we have already had over 200 players contact us saying they want to play in this league. [We are going to make the ADL] a place where the fans can go and bring their kids, have a lot of fun, get to know the players.
[In a couple of years, we want to say], ‘I remember him when he played here, now I’m watching him on TV and I’ve got his football card,’ Seda concluded. “That’s where we hope to take this league and we want to be around a long, long time.”
