Randy Brown will hit Year No. 18 this August at Memorial Coliseum, meaning he's been around long enough to have dealt with ownership for all the incarnations of indoor football in the city.
Brown and I chatted a few weeks ago for the stories that were published in Sunday's Journal Gazette. (Sorry for the delay. I've been out of town attending a family issue.) Here's some of what didn't make it in the paper, and be sure to check back on the blog daily through the week for other perspectives from the city's key players.
How do you think we've gotten to this point where we've had three franchises in three seasons?
I have to put the blame at the feet of the various leagues. They're just not doing a good job of pre-qualifying the respective groups.
How are you involved in the process?
Unfortunately, by the time it gets to us, our hands are pretty well tied because a league has made a commitment to an ownership group and there aren't too many options for the Coliseum at that point. We could say, 'no.' What we try to do is protect our interests and we do that through letters of credit and the lease and the term of the lease and all those things.
Two years ago, it seemed that you had an option of choosing. There was Bill Bean's proposal that would have kept the city in United Indoor Football and then the proposal from Jeremy Golden to play in arenafootball2. You chose af2. If Bean was the choice instead, we may not be where we are right now.
Hindsight is great, isn't it? But the other thing is the UIF had stability concerns. So it was a matter of we were looking at af2 as being a stable league, and af2 had endorsed an ownership group that they said they had extensive experience with. We made the best decision at the time with the information that was available to us. It turns out that all of the details that had been given to us weren't exactly as presented. It's one of those if you could do a do-over, but ... (leaves thought hanging)
You meet with the ownership groups?
We meet them. But at that point, most cases the decision has been made, and it's not the Coliseum decision. It's the league's decision. With the exception of the time when both the af2 and the UIF group here as pick an ownership group. More often than not, you don't have that luxury. It's 'here it is, take it or leave it.' It's a tough situation for a building to say to its market, to its citizens, we don't want this entertainment option. That's not what we do. We certainly want to make sure the facility and the market is protected as much as possible. That's why, by and large, we've been fairly demanding to the ownership groups, making sure the season ticket holders and the sponsors have been protected. I think that, by and large, the groups have stood by those previous commitments that have been made. It hasn't always been by their choice.
Were you ever concerned this season that the team wouldn't make it?
We've had concerns. It's not just indoor football where this has come up, if you think about the past. We've had the same issues, not necessarily our team, but the opposing team coming to town, wondering will they be here and what the ramifications of that are. Sports, it's an interesting business, and more often than not, people don't realize to the extent sports franchises operate on a shoestring, almost a 'by gosh' and 'by golly.' You hope it's going to hold together. Certainly this season was one of those seasons we had concerns.
Is there a point when the Coliseum just says 'no,' and you stop the cycle?
We certainly hope the next group has the money to be successful. We want a group that can come in, be successful, that can make a commitment, two to three years minimum, and then put together a winning team. The potential is there.
-- By Stacy Clardie, The Journal Gazette
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