Monday, Sep. 28, 2009

Fever's new league expected to be unveiled today

By Ben Reynolds, Herald staff writer

Some answers are coming -- finally.

After months of speculation and conflicting reports, the new arena football league is expected to unveil its plans for the 2010 season at a press conference today from Tulsa, Okla., the league's new headquarters.

The new league, called Arena Football 1, will be a combination of AFL and arenafootball2 franchises, playing in two different tiers.

That's been talked about for a while.

But as to who is going to play in which tier, that is expected to be announced today -- or at least some participants in the new league will be unveiled.

The Tri-Cities Fever, which has played the last three seasons in the af2, will be part of the new league and is expected to be a Tier 2 team.

That was finalized earlier this month when J.R. and Teri Carr bought the majority ownership from Doug MacGregor, who had been the sole owner of the team for the past three seasons. Teri Carr is expected to be at today's meetings.

While the Fever is one af2 franchise making the jump to the new league, it is unclear how many will do the same.

According to a few difference sources, Central Valley and Stockton will be back in the West Division in 2010.

Spokane, which won the af2 ArenaCup championship last season, will make the jump to Tier 1 with three other af2 teams: Milwaukee, Tulsa and Iowa.

Tier 1 is expected to consist of those four teams, several former AFL franchises and possibly some new franchises. Reports have Orlando and Arizona in the new league along with the Utah Valley Thunder, an American Indoor Football Association team making the move to Salt Lake City and the jump to Tier 1.

The structure of this new league also is expected to be hashed out.

The season is expected to run from April through August like the af2, and teams are expected to play a 16-game schedule.

But there are still many questions: How much will players make per game? When can teams start signing players and coaches? What does the two-tier system mean and how will it work?

Notes

In a surprising move, the Spokane Shock fired coach Adam Shackleford last Wednesday, a month after he led the team to the ArenaCup. He will be replaced by Rob Keefe, a former Shock standout who was an assistant under Shackleford last season.

Keefe reportedly has agreed in principle to a contract, but nothing will be official until Nov. 1.

Shackleford was 49-8 in three seasons as coach in Spokane.