Move up the start of the season three months and lose 90 selling days. Switch games from traditionally successful Friday and Saturday nights to Sunday afternoons. Make the jump from cable to major network TV.
All in an attempt to reach more viewers.
It was a risk Arena Football League commissioner David Baker said Thursday he is glad the league took.
As it prepares for its 17th championship game June 22 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, the league comes off its most successful season with promise of better times ahead.
The league will add teams in New Orleans and another market next season, bringing its membership to 18 with plans to expand to 22 by 2006.
Counting its developmental league, arenafootball2, the game is played in 48 U.S. cities.
Eventually, Baker sees the league with as many as 150 franchises with the chance to expand globally.
"We think there's a tremendous opportunity out there to grow Arena football," Baker said.
Baker's enthusiasm is understandable.
The 50-yard game Jim Foster created while watching an indoor soccer game 22 years ago reached an all-time high for attendance (1,458,830, including 17 sellouts), saw merchandise sales increase 40 percent, enjoyed more than $25-million in advertising and sponsorship revenue and was televised to 60-million.
Despite competing against events such as PGA Tour tournaments, Daytona 500 and NBA and NHL playoffs and coinciding with the war in Iraq, the league's 1.1 average TV rating was better than the WNBA, MLS, NFL Europe and CART and approached that of the NHL.
Thanks to a unique revenue-sharing agreement with NBC Sports that included zero rights payments, the AFL on NBC was profitable in its first season at a time when most networks are losing money on sports programing.
"Our primary purpose this season was not really ratings, it was credibility," Baker said.
How did a niche sport grow to nip at the heels of the Big Four (Major League Baseball, NFL, NHL and NBA)? By giving the public all the excitement of major pro sports without the unwanted side effects.
The league is fan friendly (postgame autograph sessions), inexpensive ($12 average ticket price) and has the perfect ambassador in Baker, whose first order of business after becoming commissioner in 1996 was to draw up a Mission Statement and Fans' Bill of Rights.
"What we want is for this to be a very interactive game with the fans," Baker said.
Unlike the XFL, the Arena League enjoys a cozy relationship with the NFL. Nine NFL owners have teams, and current or former NFL players such as Kurt Warner, Tommy Maddox and John Elway actively promote the league in TV commercials or interviews.
"Maybe this is a little bit of nostalgic feeling here," Baker said, "but as commissioner, it makes me feel real good, not only about where we are today, but where we're going."
CHAMPIONSHIP TICKETS: Tickets to the ArenaBowl, featuring Tampa Bay and Arizona, are available at the Times Forum box office, Ticketmaster locations, by calling (813) 301-6600 or visiting tampabaystorm.com.
BUFFALO FIRES COACH: Buffalo fired coach Ron Selesky after a 5-11 season. He was the Storm's director of player personnel from 1997-99 and served in the same capacity a month in the offseason before leaving for Buffalo. He was named arenafootball2 coach of the year in 2002 after leading Albany to a 14-4 record.
