Post by Banana Cat on Mar 1, 2012 10:24:04 GMT -5
www.goerie.com/article/20120301/NEWS02/302299886/Explosion-try-to-build-name-value-in-shifting-sport
Explosion try to build name value in shifting sport
By JOHN DUDLEY, Erie Times-News
February 29, 2012
Since finishing his playing career at Mercyhurst College, Bob Hammer has been a member of four indoor football teams with four different names in four different leagues, all without leaving Erie.
The Erie Explosion's starting fullback has learned by necessity that life in football's minor leagues comes with one constant: change.
So when the Explosion kick off the United Indoor Football League season tonight at Tullio Arena against the Western Pa. Sting, the fact that Hammer is playing in a league that didn't exist a year ago against an opponent that didn't exist a few months ago won't weigh on his mind.
"As a player you can't do anything about it, because change is part of the business so you just roll with it," said Hammer, a Waterford native whose indoor football career began with the Erie Freeze -- three nicknames and three leagues ago.
"You get in a league and you get comfortable and build rivalries with teams, and then all of a sudden those leagues and teams are gone," Hammer said. "You've just got to move on and go with whatever comes your way the next year."
No one understands that better than Explosion owner Bill Stafford.
When Stafford helped form a four-person partnership to purchase and operate the team in 2010, he helped roll out a marketing plan that included a new name -- the Storm -- and a goal of putting down roots for the franchise drawn from Stafford's background operating a successful chain of fast-food restaurants.
Within months, the Storm found itself embroiled in a naming dispute brought forward by Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, which also uses the Storm nickname for its athletic teams and which claimed the Erie-based team was infringing on its market.
Rather than fight a legal battle, Stafford and his partners acquiesced and became the Explosion, subsequently leaving the American Indoor Football Association for the upstart Southern Indoor Football League in 2011.
This season brought yet another new affiliation, with the UIFL -- which underwent a name change from the Ultimate Indoor Football League to the United Indoor Football League in the interim -- and a new lineup of opponents, many of them unfamiliar to Erie fans.
Stafford, who is now operating the team himself after the Explosion's three other investors pulled out, said he is focusing on building the fan base and generating sponsorship revenue. He said he will worry about finding a more stable, long-term league affiliation down the road, but in the meantime has a goal of drawing 4,000 fans per game, which would represent a more than 25 percent increase over 2011.
"The bottom line is I have to make this team successful in this town," Stafford said, acknowledging the difficulty of dealing with the constant shifting of leagues and even the team's own brand. "It doesn't matter what league it is or the structure at the top. If I can sell this to the community and have people feeling comfortable coming in and seeing a good brand of entertainment, then (other leagues) will come to me and want me to join them."
Fighting perceptions
Ron Sertz, executive director of the Erie Sports Commission and former minority owner and assistant general manager of the Ontario Hockey League's Erie Otters, said Stafford has made strides but will likely continue to fight the perception that his organization's names and faces seem to vary each year.
"Any kind of change like that sets you back a little in your market," Sertz said. "It almost speaks to instability, even if that might not be the case."
Erie's situation is nothing unusual in football's minor leagues. Since the birth of the Arena Football League in 1987, no fewer than 21 indoor leagues have sprung up, with most of them shutting down or being absorbed by a rival league within a few years.
"One of the problems we face is that all of the leagues view each other as enemies," Stafford said. "They see a successful team out there and they try to cannibalize that team for their own league. That has to change."
In some cases, leagues continue to return to cities where teams have failed in the past. Knoxville, Tenn., has fielded teams in three different leagues. Sioux City, Iowa, is on itsthird nickname and (only two nicknames that I know of...BC) fourth league, leading Bob Scott, managing partner of the current team, the Bandits, to tell the Sioux City Journal a year ago, "I'm not saying the new league we're joining is any more stable, because, quite frankly, I don't know what stability in indoor football is."
The UIFL saw its franchise in Northern Kentucky abruptly fold just a few weeks ago, shortly after announcing its roster. Another team, in Saginaw, Mich., changed ownership, moved to Johnstown and became the Western Pa. Sting team the Explosion will host tonight. The Sting couldn't find an arena for this season, so it will play all of its games on the road.
The same issues -- constant turnover and tight budgets -- are common at all levels of minor league football, said Explosion coach Shawn Liotta, who has spent time in Arena Football League camps as well as those of numerous lower-level teams.
"They're all dealing with the things we are," Liotta said. "And they're counting helmets, rationing out shorts, keeping an eye on everything. It's not the NFL, it's not the CFL, but it's still a great level of football."
Sertz, when he was with the Otters, said he regularly fielded phone calls from indoor leagues inquiring about putting teams in Erie with the Otters as potential owners. But he always passed, questioning the sport's staying power.
"The Otters play in a league that's been stable for 50 years," Sertz said. "The (Erie) SeaWolves are affiliated with Major League Baseball and the Detroit Tigers. The (Erie) BayHawks are affiliated with the NBA. With football, it always sounded a little shaky."
Fan favorites
Stafford is working to change that perception. He busily promotes the team in the community, has established offices with full-time staff and believes he has one of indoor football's premier coaches in Liotta, who has led the Explosion to winning seasons all three of his seasons in Erie.
Tonight the Explosion will open their home schedule with fan appreciation night, featuring discounted $5 tickets in some seating areas and $1 concessions specials. Other home games will recognize military personnel, union employees and credit union members.
One unique challenge Stafford faces this season is a schedule front-loaded with home dates. The Explosion will play seven times over the first eight weeks at Tullio Arena, then hit the road for the final three regular-season games and any potential playoff games because of planned renovations that will close the arena.
The alternative was to go dark for a season, an option Stafford considered unpalatable.
"We'll do our best to give people the best football we can until (the arena shuts down)," Stafford said.
Explosion linebacker and Erie native Roosevelt Benjamin, a veteran of 12 indoor football seasons, said he knows fans sometimes become frustrated with the upheaval that is part and parcel of the sport's minor leagues. But he believes their loyalty will be rewarded by the product Stafford and Liotta put on the field.
"We've got another very good team that wants to go out and dominate," Benjamin said. "People want to see us score a lot of touchdowns. If we do that, the other stuff takes care of itself."
By JOHN DUDLEY, Erie Times-News
February 29, 2012
Since finishing his playing career at Mercyhurst College, Bob Hammer has been a member of four indoor football teams with four different names in four different leagues, all without leaving Erie.
The Erie Explosion's starting fullback has learned by necessity that life in football's minor leagues comes with one constant: change.
So when the Explosion kick off the United Indoor Football League season tonight at Tullio Arena against the Western Pa. Sting, the fact that Hammer is playing in a league that didn't exist a year ago against an opponent that didn't exist a few months ago won't weigh on his mind.
"As a player you can't do anything about it, because change is part of the business so you just roll with it," said Hammer, a Waterford native whose indoor football career began with the Erie Freeze -- three nicknames and three leagues ago.
"You get in a league and you get comfortable and build rivalries with teams, and then all of a sudden those leagues and teams are gone," Hammer said. "You've just got to move on and go with whatever comes your way the next year."
No one understands that better than Explosion owner Bill Stafford.
When Stafford helped form a four-person partnership to purchase and operate the team in 2010, he helped roll out a marketing plan that included a new name -- the Storm -- and a goal of putting down roots for the franchise drawn from Stafford's background operating a successful chain of fast-food restaurants.
Within months, the Storm found itself embroiled in a naming dispute brought forward by Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, which also uses the Storm nickname for its athletic teams and which claimed the Erie-based team was infringing on its market.
Rather than fight a legal battle, Stafford and his partners acquiesced and became the Explosion, subsequently leaving the American Indoor Football Association for the upstart Southern Indoor Football League in 2011.
This season brought yet another new affiliation, with the UIFL -- which underwent a name change from the Ultimate Indoor Football League to the United Indoor Football League in the interim -- and a new lineup of opponents, many of them unfamiliar to Erie fans.
Stafford, who is now operating the team himself after the Explosion's three other investors pulled out, said he is focusing on building the fan base and generating sponsorship revenue. He said he will worry about finding a more stable, long-term league affiliation down the road, but in the meantime has a goal of drawing 4,000 fans per game, which would represent a more than 25 percent increase over 2011.
"The bottom line is I have to make this team successful in this town," Stafford said, acknowledging the difficulty of dealing with the constant shifting of leagues and even the team's own brand. "It doesn't matter what league it is or the structure at the top. If I can sell this to the community and have people feeling comfortable coming in and seeing a good brand of entertainment, then (other leagues) will come to me and want me to join them."
Fighting perceptions
Ron Sertz, executive director of the Erie Sports Commission and former minority owner and assistant general manager of the Ontario Hockey League's Erie Otters, said Stafford has made strides but will likely continue to fight the perception that his organization's names and faces seem to vary each year.
"Any kind of change like that sets you back a little in your market," Sertz said. "It almost speaks to instability, even if that might not be the case."
Erie's situation is nothing unusual in football's minor leagues. Since the birth of the Arena Football League in 1987, no fewer than 21 indoor leagues have sprung up, with most of them shutting down or being absorbed by a rival league within a few years.
"One of the problems we face is that all of the leagues view each other as enemies," Stafford said. "They see a successful team out there and they try to cannibalize that team for their own league. That has to change."
In some cases, leagues continue to return to cities where teams have failed in the past. Knoxville, Tenn., has fielded teams in three different leagues. Sioux City, Iowa, is on its
The UIFL saw its franchise in Northern Kentucky abruptly fold just a few weeks ago, shortly after announcing its roster. Another team, in Saginaw, Mich., changed ownership, moved to Johnstown and became the Western Pa. Sting team the Explosion will host tonight. The Sting couldn't find an arena for this season, so it will play all of its games on the road.
The same issues -- constant turnover and tight budgets -- are common at all levels of minor league football, said Explosion coach Shawn Liotta, who has spent time in Arena Football League camps as well as those of numerous lower-level teams.
"They're all dealing with the things we are," Liotta said. "And they're counting helmets, rationing out shorts, keeping an eye on everything. It's not the NFL, it's not the CFL, but it's still a great level of football."
Sertz, when he was with the Otters, said he regularly fielded phone calls from indoor leagues inquiring about putting teams in Erie with the Otters as potential owners. But he always passed, questioning the sport's staying power.
"The Otters play in a league that's been stable for 50 years," Sertz said. "The (Erie) SeaWolves are affiliated with Major League Baseball and the Detroit Tigers. The (Erie) BayHawks are affiliated with the NBA. With football, it always sounded a little shaky."
Fan favorites
Stafford is working to change that perception. He busily promotes the team in the community, has established offices with full-time staff and believes he has one of indoor football's premier coaches in Liotta, who has led the Explosion to winning seasons all three of his seasons in Erie.
Tonight the Explosion will open their home schedule with fan appreciation night, featuring discounted $5 tickets in some seating areas and $1 concessions specials. Other home games will recognize military personnel, union employees and credit union members.
One unique challenge Stafford faces this season is a schedule front-loaded with home dates. The Explosion will play seven times over the first eight weeks at Tullio Arena, then hit the road for the final three regular-season games and any potential playoff games because of planned renovations that will close the arena.
The alternative was to go dark for a season, an option Stafford considered unpalatable.
"We'll do our best to give people the best football we can until (the arena shuts down)," Stafford said.
Explosion linebacker and Erie native Roosevelt Benjamin, a veteran of 12 indoor football seasons, said he knows fans sometimes become frustrated with the upheaval that is part and parcel of the sport's minor leagues. But he believes their loyalty will be rewarded by the product Stafford and Liotta put on the field.
"We've got another very good team that wants to go out and dominate," Benjamin said. "People want to see us score a lot of touchdowns. If we do that, the other stuff takes care of itself."
