The Games (Home Team in Bold)
Champions Indoor Football:
Amarillo Venom 70, Sioux City Bandits 69
Salina Liberty 50, Wichita Force 22
Texas Revolution 60, Duke City Gladiators 55
Indoor Football League:
Bismarck Bucks 40, Cedar Rapids River Kings 25
Nebraska Danger 47, Green Bay Blizzard 40
Sioux Falls Storm 36, Iowa Barnstormers 32
Quad City Steamwheelers 72, Tucson Sugar Skulls 54
Arizona Rattlers 52, San Diego Strike Force 14
National Arena League:
Jacksonville Sharks 48, Columbus Lions 24
New York Streets 70, Orlando Predators 31
Carolina Cobras 50, Massachusetts Pirates 22
Kicking off in the CIF, the week was highlighted by the home team winning all three games for the second straight week this season.
Amarillo and Sioux City took things down to the wire. The Bandits held a five-point lead after a FG with under a minute left but the Venom managed to sneak in a touchdown with 13 seconds to play to finish out the game and send the Bandits back to Sioux City without much to show for it except a long bus ride home.
In Salina after a close first half, the Liberty blew the door opened and never looked back en route to a nice 28 point win over fellow Kansas team, the Wichita Force.
Lastly in Frisco at the hideous setup inside The Star at Ford Center the Revs tried, who led by as much as 29, tried to give the game to Duke City but ended up scraping out a win at home to keep them on top in the South.
In the IFL, the football gods decided to strike me thrice this week, first in Cedar Rapids where the Bucks managed to pick up a win after I said last week it would take a miracle. I guess a sh*tty River Kings team also works. Green Bay then fell to Nebraska in a tough game breaking the Blizzard’s four game winning streak.
The biggest game of the week took place in Sioux Falls with the Storm hosting the defending champion Iowa Barnstormers. The Storm used some of that ole’ Sioux Falls magic to come away with the win over Iowa.
Quad City also managed to break a three game losing streak with a fantastic home win over Tucson, the ‘Wheelers will look to keep that going next week in Bismarck.
Wrapping up the IFL was an unsurprising beat down of the Strike Force by the soon to be 14-0 Arizona Rattlers. The most surprising thing about the game was the night it was played and that’s it.
The NAL on the other hand has been surprising so far. Columbus is now 0-2 after a loss at home to the Sharks. Carolina has started 2-0 with two very convincing wins over the Pirates, and the New York Streets seem to be (so far) in contention for an NAL Championship with wins on the road over Jacksonville and a blowout home win over Orlando.
The “News”
Speaking of the New York Streets it would probably be better if they played on a street than their home “arena” in White Plains.
The field is marked for 50 yards plus 8 yard end zones but any comparison shows that’s not even close to true. I’ve been told that the field is actually 38 yards long plus end zones, though my estimate is 33, either way that puts the actual field size end-wall-to-end-wall somewhere between 44 and 50 yards. That’s a ways shorter than the required 66 yards the field is in that same span.
This is a joke as are some things I’ve been hearing such as the Streets renovating the Westchester County Center (their home arena) to hold a full field or moving into the Madison Square Garden for next year.
First off renovating the Westchester County Center is absurd, the building already only seats 3,000 fans for football (according to the team) and 5,000 for basketball (it’s primary sports use). I
n order to make the field usable they would need to demolish all or part of the balcony seats (as it’s also too narrow) which would reduce it’s football capacity to approximately 2,000 and basketball to 3,500-4,000.
Considering how much of an impact it would have on the arenas main tenants (the New York Liberty and Westchester Knicks) and how long it would take this won’t be happening.
Option number two which has had many more people say it will happen is the Streets going to play in the Garden which is batsh*t crazy.
First the Garden, not including potential Knicks or Rangers playoff games will already be booked solid as it is a highly in demand arena.
Second the costs to book that building are even more crazy, a trusted source has stated that one game at MSG would cost the same as the Columbus Lions rent for the teams entire history and the second game would pay for their rent for another 13 years.
The owner has stated he refuses to lose money. Well, playing at MSG guarantees you’ll lose money as you’ll never sell enough tickets at a high enough price to break even. There are reasons why the AFL never lasted at MSG.
The NAL needs to force the Streets to play in a larger building with a regulation field. Every year it has had something to make it look bush league.
Year One was the Corpus Christi Rage and Georgia Firebirds, last year was the uneven schedule, and this year is the Streets arena situation.
You want to be taken seriously? Put you’re f*cking foot down. And New York, go play at Nassau where the only viable arena/indoor team, the New York Dragons, played or just fold.
