10 Ways to Save the Arena Football

As you may be aware, a few weeks ago I began writing about Los Angeles’s very own arena football team, the LA Avengers. Over the past twenty years, the Avengers and the rest of the AFL have become a fairly popular sport in the United States with contracts with ESPN and Fox Sports Net. However, the league needs to get its act together and capitalize on the burst of football’s popularity of in this country that has been going on since the inception of the BCS in 1998 and the expansion of the NFL in the 1990s. A burst which has caused the NFL Draft to actually get a better television rating than most NBA and MLB playoff games. Like that would have happened in the 1980s. So, let me put on the commissioner hat, wave the magic wand, and make some changes in order to save the Arena Football League.

1. Use ESPN More
Despite having a contract with ESPN, the AFL fails to garner much airtime with just one or two games televised each week. Other sports like the NFL, NBA, and MLB, all feature daily highlight shows such as NFL Live, NBA Fastbreak, and Baseball Tonight. If possible the AFL should at least work towards creating a weekly show dedicated to the arena league. Such a program, although being televised just once a week, would help to create a better understanding of the game and the increase a greater perception of the league in general.

2. AFL teams vs. NFL Teams
While, this certainly has never been tried before, who wouldn’t want to see the Philadelphia Soul versus the Philadelphia Eagles at Franklin Field or the Los Angeles Avengers versus the San Diego Chargers at Staples Center. Because the average AFL team is much smaller than an NFL team it would be much more logical to play a seven on seven game rather than a full blown eleven on eleven. Seeing Tom Brady or Peyton Manning throwing the ball around on a 50 yard field would be pretty fun and help to create attention surrounding the arena league.

3. Bring Known Players to the League
This should definitely be a major focus of the league and something that they should continue to pursue. While the AFL, won’t be able to snag guys away from the NFL, they should still look to add high profile college stars that failed to make the NFL or currently reside on practice squads. Grabbing former college stars like Florida’s Chris Leak or former Heisman Trophy runner up Brad Banks would create some popularity in the player’s college fan base. A former USC or UCLA star playing for the Avengers would certainly create some buzz locally.

4. Use an NFL-like schedule
Typical AFL games are played either on Saturdays, Sundays, or Mondays. In order to maintain a more consistent schedule, like the NFL, games should be played entirely on Sundays. The day should begin with AFL Countdown on ESPN (see idea number one) and begin with games at 10 PST, 1 PST, and a Sunday night game. Besides Sunday Night Baseball, nothing major is broadcasted on ESPN. This consistency in scheduling would make it easier to follow for the casual fan.

5. Have a Community-Owned Team (ala the Packers)
While this probably won’t happen in the near future, the spirit of the idea is what’s important here. The fans need to get involved, which isn’t happening in most professional sports. Getting the fans involved with the team creates a better sense of community, similar to the Packers’ situation in Green Bay.

6. Player Meetings Before Games
The lack of personal interaction with players is one of the many problems in professional sports today. Recently, the Dodgers have banned fans from walking up close to the field during batting practice to seek autographs from players. So having the players talk to fans and sign autographs before the game would be a great idea here.

7. Improve Team Websites
One of the things that makes sports more enjoyable for me is the numerous message boards, websites, and sports blogs, that give fans a voice. Unfortunately for AFL fans, few sites actually exist where they can post their opinions regarding their teams. Teams should look to expand their websites and create more user-friendly options in order to enable fans to discuss some of the team’s current issues.

8. Increase the Salary Cap
Over the past few years, the league has seen marginal improvement of the quality of play, but has been hamstrung by the ridiculously low salary cap (around $1.65 million this year). The commissioner needs to give AFL teams the resources to compete for players on the open market and enable them to bring in young players in their primes, not just aging stars or unproven kids. Many talented players in would be interested in playing in the AFL instead of residing on an AFL practice squad, but the money keeps many of them away.

9. Use Fantasy Football
One of the ways that has allowed the NFL to become so popular is the rise of fantasy football leagues at Yahoo, ESPN, Fox Sports, etc. Each Sunday, millions of fans watch even more NFL games, simply because one of their fantasy players is playing. If a Dallas Desperados fan had Timon Marshall on his team, don’t you think he’d check out a few  Avengers games. If these networks could create some AFL fantasy football leagues, hundreds of new fans would be born overnight.

10. Promote Gambling and the Spread
It’s time to face it America, one of the reasons that has enabled the growth of football in this country is gambling. A countless number of fans, spend their time making bets on games in order to enjoy the games a little more and earn a few extra dollars. The more gambling opportunities available to AFL fans would help to increase the sports popularity and the TV ratings.