Arena Football League 2000 Preview?
(February 7, 2000)

Why the question mark at the end of the title? Now that the NFL season is history, is this not the time we normally look forward to the indoor game? Well, there is a cloud on the horizon for the Arena Football League's 2000 season.

Maybe it is proof the Arena Football League has arrived, because now there is a labor dispute. It is the standard scenario with the typical posturing. The players want more money, better benefits, the right to free agency and have filed a lawsuit against the league. The owners have responded with the threatened cancellation of the season. It is all too familiar.

Hopefully, both sides will make concessions and the season will go on as planned. The Kurt Warner story has brought additional publicity and it is possible that the AFL may be on the verge of a breakthrough. Labor problems are always a setback and this potential would be stymied by any interruption. Common sense needs to prevail, but we'll see what happens. Until then, and optimistically, we present the "Arena Football League 2000 Preview?"

The Arena Football League begins its fourteenth season this April and fans will see plenty of changes. New teams, an expanded playoff format and a different television network are some of the highlights.

The AFL will add three new teams, and one has relocated, so the league will expand to an all-time high eighteen teams for the upcoming season. The Los Angeles Avengers will bring the indoor game back to the nation's second largest city for the first time since the Los Angeles Cobras folded after a single season in 1988. Speaking of Cobras, that is the nickname of the new Carolina team, which will play its games at a new arena in Raleigh. The Charlotte Rage were the last AFL team to play in North Carolina from 1992 to 1996. The Fury is the new team in Detroit, where one of the more successful teams in league history, the Detroit Drive, played from 1988 to 1993. The Portland Forest Dragons have moved to Oklahoma City and have been renamed the Oklahoma Wranglers.

With more teams, and more on the way, the playoff format will expand. Instead of eight teams making the postseason, twelve will go to the playoffs with the four top seeds getting a first round bye. For the first time, there will be an open week before the Arena Bowl. Having twelve of eighteen teams make the playoffs seems like too many, but there is the age old argument of more teams in contention later in the season. The league could have waited another season, when teams in Chicago, New Orleans and perhaps a total of four teams will be added. Washington D.C. has also been awarded a team, but it may not play until 2003.

A factor in the expanded playoffs may have been a new television deal. The new agreement will bring a game of the week, twelve Thursday nights and two Friday nights, to the Nashville Network. ESPN and ESPN2 will join in to telecast playoff games and every postseason game will be on TV. Once again, the Arena Bowl will be broadcast on ABC. The Tampa Bay Storm will continue to have some games on Sunshine Network.

Speaking of our local team, at this early juncture, there is not too much news on the Storm front. As the team begins its tenth season in Tampa Bay, one notable move was the trading of offensive specialist George LaFrance to the new Detroit team. His playing time had been reduced last season, so LaFrance will return to Detroit were he had a very successful stint with the Drive.

The 2000 Arena Football League season will be here before we know it. The regular season opener, defending champion Albany at Nashville, will be shown by TNN on Thursday April 18. There are many changes in store, but if Tampa Bay head coach Tim Marcum has his way, one of the constants will the Storm contending for another league title.