Monday, Oct. 05, 2009

Fever ready for long road trips in AF1

By Ben Reynolds, Herald staff writer

The Tri-Cities Fever appears to have the island all to itself -- at least for right now.

The Fever was announced as one of the 16 inaugural franchises in the Arena Football 1 league last week, putting an end to a lot of speculation if the team would return in 2010.

A quick look across a map that the Fever is about a 17-hour bus ride Central Valley in Fresno, Calif., its nearest opponent. All other games are flights across the country to places like North Little Rock, Ark., Huntsville, Ala. and Lexington, Ky.

Spokane, Tri-Cities' two-hour rival to the north, is also in the league but will likely play in the top tier of what is expected to be a two-tier league.

However, the increased travel and increased expenses is not a big concern to Fever general manager Teri Carr.

"It's not really a big concern," she said, noting that the Fever did its share of travel when it was in the National Indoor Football League in 2005-06.

One of the reasons it's not a big deal is that the Tier 1 teams -- like Spokane, Arizona and Orlando -- will help subsidize the travel for the Tier 2 teams, according to multiple reports. It's a way of helping all the teams succeed, Carr said.

League commissioner Jerry Kurz said that eight other teams have applied to be part of the league, and more could present themselves before the Oct. 9 deadline.

Originally, it was thought that the arenafootball2 league West Division would stay intact in the new AF1 with the exception of Spokane. So far, the Fever and Central Valley are the only two to commit.

Boise said that it was invited to the new league, but declined and chose to suspend its operations. Stockton is thought to be one of the eight teams to submit an application for the new league.

"We'll see what happens," Carr said.

-- After the new group of teams is announced by the league, it is expected that the schedules and other particulars will be unveiled. Kurz said during the press conference that he was going to roll out the information about the league, including players salary and new rules -- if any.

-- The Fever started renewing season tickets last week and says there has been a pretty good response. Last season, the Fever had 1,351 season ticket holders. It was sharp decline from its peak in 2006-07, when the Fever had close to 3,500 season ticket holders.

"It's a rebuilding year," Carr said.

-- Carr still says that she is interested in getting Pat O'Hara to come back and coach the Fever. O'Hara finished last season with a 3-8 record after taking over for Richard Davis, who was fired after an 0-5 start. Kurz said that teams cannot start signing players and handing out coaching contracts until Nov. 1.