Post by Banana Cat on Sept 15, 2011 22:40:16 GMT -5
www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/sep/15/knoxville-nighthawks-to-play-indoor-football-in/
Indoor football team to give it a go
By Dave Link
September 15, 2011
Yet another pro sports team will try to survive in the Knoxville market.
The Knoxville Nighthawks plan to make their debut next March in the newly formed Professional Indoor Football League. They will play six of their 12 home games in the Civic Coliseum, home of the Knoxville Ice Bears.
Southern Sports and Entertainment, LLC, owns the Knoxville franchise, and also owns the Huntsville, Ala.-based Alabama Hammers, who also will play in the PIFL.
Jeff Knight, SSE chief executive officer, knows the success rate of pro sports teams in Knoxville has been less than impressive.
"The big thing is making everybody understand it's an event," Knight said after a news conference Thursday morning at the Coliseum. "You're not just coming to a football game. In Huntsville and other markets we see making it work, like Columbus, Ga., has done it for years, and they're going to be one of our partners in the league, they make it an event. It's a whole event."
Two other indoor football league teams also have failed in Knoxville.
In Nov. 2000, George Lemon, son of famed Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon, purchased a franchise from the Indoor Professional Football League and brought the Tennessee ThunderCats to Knoxville.
The ThunderCats were disbanded after the 2001 season amid financial troubles and problems between the ownership group and players.
In Oct. 2002, the Tennessee RiverHawks replaced the ThunderCats in the National Indoor Football League. The Riverhawks played the 2003 season in the NIFL, but Knoxville's franchise was moved to Greenville, S.C., for the 2004 season.
Asked what SSE will do differently to make it work this time, Knight said, "I guess the safest answer for me is that Huntsville's done it for 12 years. I think if you pay your bills and you do things right, the great thing about the Professional Indoor Football League that we're members of is that all (are) legitimate business owners that own businesses in other entities."
Knight and Joe Stroud, who will be the Nighthawks' team president, have been associated with Huntsville's indoor football teams through the years.
Huntsville's team was called the Tennessee Valley Vipers for most of 10 years, playing in the now-defunct Arena Football 2 for nine years and the Arena Football League for one season. The team changed its name to the Alabama Hammers for the 2011 season in the Southern Indoor Football League.
Knight seeks more stability in the new league.
"We took the strongest teams out of the region, pulled them together to form a more stable league to where you get away from some of the stuff you see from other minor leagues, some of the stuff that Knoxville experienced the first go-around," Knight said.
The game will be the same as Arena Football, which is played on a 50-yard field.
"We're going to get good talent," Knight said. "It's going to happen. In Knoxville, you can't help it. With (the University of Tennessee) here, it's like a breeding ground. We're just stoked thinking about all the players we're going to get here."
By Dave Link
September 15, 2011
Yet another pro sports team will try to survive in the Knoxville market.
The Knoxville Nighthawks plan to make their debut next March in the newly formed Professional Indoor Football League. They will play six of their 12 home games in the Civic Coliseum, home of the Knoxville Ice Bears.
Southern Sports and Entertainment, LLC, owns the Knoxville franchise, and also owns the Huntsville, Ala.-based Alabama Hammers, who also will play in the PIFL.
Jeff Knight, SSE chief executive officer, knows the success rate of pro sports teams in Knoxville has been less than impressive.
"The big thing is making everybody understand it's an event," Knight said after a news conference Thursday morning at the Coliseum. "You're not just coming to a football game. In Huntsville and other markets we see making it work, like Columbus, Ga., has done it for years, and they're going to be one of our partners in the league, they make it an event. It's a whole event."
Two other indoor football league teams also have failed in Knoxville.
In Nov. 2000, George Lemon, son of famed Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon, purchased a franchise from the Indoor Professional Football League and brought the Tennessee ThunderCats to Knoxville.
The ThunderCats were disbanded after the 2001 season amid financial troubles and problems between the ownership group and players.
In Oct. 2002, the Tennessee RiverHawks replaced the ThunderCats in the National Indoor Football League. The Riverhawks played the 2003 season in the NIFL, but Knoxville's franchise was moved to Greenville, S.C., for the 2004 season.
Asked what SSE will do differently to make it work this time, Knight said, "I guess the safest answer for me is that Huntsville's done it for 12 years. I think if you pay your bills and you do things right, the great thing about the Professional Indoor Football League that we're members of is that all (are) legitimate business owners that own businesses in other entities."
Knight and Joe Stroud, who will be the Nighthawks' team president, have been associated with Huntsville's indoor football teams through the years.
Huntsville's team was called the Tennessee Valley Vipers for most of 10 years, playing in the now-defunct Arena Football 2 for nine years and the Arena Football League for one season. The team changed its name to the Alabama Hammers for the 2011 season in the Southern Indoor Football League.
Knight seeks more stability in the new league.
"We took the strongest teams out of the region, pulled them together to form a more stable league to where you get away from some of the stuff you see from other minor leagues, some of the stuff that Knoxville experienced the first go-around," Knight said.
The game will be the same as Arena Football, which is played on a 50-yard field.
"We're going to get good talent," Knight said. "It's going to happen. In Knoxville, you can't help it. With (the University of Tennessee) here, it's like a breeding ground. We're just stoked thinking about all the players we're going to get here."