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Kindred: Winds of change leave UIF fielding only eight teams
We’ve all heard it, and history seems to support the theory. That is, if you don’t like the weather in Central Illinois, wait five minutes and it will change. The same can be said of minor-league professional sports leagues, which seem to reorganize and/or reinvent themselves with each shift in the wind. United Indoor Football is no exception, fielding 11 teams in 2005, 10 in 2006, 11 this year and, it was announced Thursday, eight for next season. The Bloomington Extreme has been on the roller coaster since 2006, and for now, owner Ed Brady is not ready to jump off. To the contrary, Brady sees downsizing to “eight good markets and eight good business models” as a positive after Evansville, Lexington (Ky.), Ohio Valley and Rock River (Rockford) were lost from last year. Newcomer Wichita will join returnees Bloomington, RiverCity (St. Louis), Billings, Colorado, Omaha, Sioux City and Sioux Falls in 2008. “I think what the UIF is trying to do is get away from that stereotype (of constant change),” Brady said. “We had to take a step back to do that … to not have to worry about who will be around the next year. “We came up with eight great teams in good markets and with good operations.” The revamped Eastern Conference will include Bloomington, RiverCity, Wichita and Omaha, with Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Billings and Colorado in the Western Conference. Teams will play 14 regular-season games in a 15-week period, beginning in mid-March, with schedules to be announced later. The Extreme had 15 regular-season contests each of its first two years in the league. Travel also will be impacted. By losing Rock River (to the Continental Indoor Football League), the Extreme loses its shortest trip. “It will mean a little more time on the road and a little more money to travel,” Brady said. “We would have loved to have kept Rockford in. We went to the brink in negotiating with them.” The desire was to secure 10 teams for 2008, and Brady said there were inquiries from “good markets.” However, some potential owners lacked experience in operating a franchise, leading UIF commissioner Dakota Crow and the current owners to shy away. Their plan is to establish stability this year and try to expand to 10 teams, possibly 12, in 2009. Will it happen? Who knows? This is minor-league professional sports, the same world in which the Bloomington PrairieThunder went from the 10-team United Hockey League last year to the six-team International Hockey League this season. No telling what next year will bring. Ted Schmitz will let others worry about that. The Extreme coach is just relieved to know where his team stands for 2008. Why? He is actively recruiting new players, and the UIF’s uncertainty was working against him. “Other teams who are recruiting the same players have been bashing the league,” Schmitz said. “I had guys in Canada tell me today, ‘I hear the UIF is going down.’ I said, ‘No, you’ll find out that we’re solid.’ “This way, guys will know I’m not lying to them when I say, ‘We’re Bloomington, we’re in a league and we’ll be solid.’” Brady said it took “longer than we had hoped” to announce the teams, but added, “We’re excited about the ownership and the markets we’re in.” Crow went so far as to predict “a banner year” in a UIF news release. That’s a bold statement at this level of the food chain. Stability is a more attainable goal, and perhaps this streamlined UIF will find it. Time will tell. And we won’t have to wait long. Randy Kindred is a Pantagraph columnist. To leave him a voice mail, call 820-3402. By e-mail: rkindred@pantagraph.com. The Randy Kindred Blog is at www.pantagraph.com/blogs Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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