New wall of Soul: From left: Assistant head coach/line coach Phil Bogle, linemen Michael Simons, Keith Newell, Mykel Benson, Wayne Tribue and Justin Wells. Photo by Al Thompson

The Arena Football League (AFL) was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster, making it the third longest-running professional football league in North America, after the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the National Football League (NFL).

During these past 30 years, the AFL has seen more ups and downs that elevators at the Empire State Building.

In 2008 the AFL peaked with 16 teams and at the same time tapped out. There were too many NFL owners doing what they do best…overpaying players. There was no TV money to bail them out and so the league shut down for the 2009 season.

The next chapter of the AFL was about decline. The league had just eight teams left at the start of the 2016 season, a season that ended with the Soul winning its second AreaBowl title in franchise history.

Three more teams left over the offseason, for reasons that included finances and disagreements about the direction the league wanted to go in.

The 2017 Arena Football League has just five teams operating under four ownership groups.
AFL Commissioner Scott Butera decided to draw the line and make his league an exclusive club.

Going forward, AFL teams must be owned and operated by NHL or NBA franchises. No more fly-by-knight owners who are here one day, gone the next.

The Soul are the lone exception to that rule based on its strong ownership group led by majority owner and former Eagles great Ron Jaworski, Craig Spencer-Chairman and CEO of Arden Group, Pete Ciarrocchi-Chairman and CEO, Chickie’s and Pete’s, Cosmo Denicla-Chairman of CD Companies, Martin Judge-CEO, Judge Group, former Eagles head coach Dick Vermeil, NFL players and Philadelphia natives Jahri Evans and Marques Colston plus Nicholas Giuffre-President & CEO, Bradford White Corp, Philip Jaurigue-President & CEO, Sabre Systems Inc., Stewart Anmuth-Principal, Kistler Tiffany Benefits and Gil Peter and Hal Brunson.

Soul General Manager and assistant head coach Phil Bogle talked about the new AFL.

“The league is going in a direction where they are looking for more NBA and NHL owners,” Bogle said in an interview on the Footballstories radio show (610 Sports ESPN radio) recently. “It’s a great format, a great formula I think for the league, for the growth of the league. We’re probably the only team without that. But with our ownership group being so strong, it makes us very competitive so we can compete with those guys (other owners) as well. With Ted (Leonsis), he brought a great team down there (actually two, Washington & Baltimore)…the Cleveland Cavaliers owner as well, Dan Gilbert, he has brought a team to his arena. We’re looking to expand in the near future as well. There’s a lot of good things happening for the Arena Football League and we’re excited.”

Last year Monumental Sports & Entertainment (Ted Leonsis, chairman), which also owns the NHL’s
Washington Capitals, NBA’s Washington Wizards, and WNBA’s Washington Mystics started the Washington Valor who play at the Verizon Center. Eventually Leonsis was granted a second franchise, the Baltimore Brigade. Home games are played at the Royal Farms Arena.

The Tampa Bay Storm are owned by Jeffrey Vinik, also the owner of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning. Home games are played at the Amalie Arena in Tampa.

The Cleveland Gladiators are owned by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and play at the Quicken Loans Arena.

“That’s the way to go,” Soul head coach Clint Dolezel said at a recent practice at the team’s new facility in Pitman, NJ. “From the outside looking in you might say ‘what’s going on here?’ but we needed to upgrade ownership and that’s what we did.”

The Soul recently saw two players on their roster get signed by NFL clubs.

Jake Metz (6-foot-6, 265, Shippensburg), who was the AFL Defensive Lineman of the Year in 2016 was signed by the Buffalo Bills and John Kling, a 6-8, 320 pound offensive lineman, signed to play for Soul earlier this year, recently signed a free agent contract to play for the Washington Redskins.

“That was a win-win situation for us,” Dolezel said. “Players now who may be right outside getting on an NFL roster can see the Arena League as a real option to keep their pro football dream alive.”
Many Soul players liked the new ownership parameters.

“It’ a good thing to have,” said recently signed offensive lineman Michael Simons. “It’s great to have support from a big organization like that, it’s very important. It’s good that they weeded out all the bad owners. I feel like it’s a rebuilding process for this league. In the next couple of years it is going to be something special, something big.”

Newly acquired fullback Mykel Benson also felt it was a great move for the league.

“I love what they are doing,” said Benson, who is 29 years old. “It’s good for the young guys coming in. I’ve been in the league six years. I don’t know how many more years I have here but for what this game’s given me, I hope it gives the young guys a little more. They are doing the right thing, they’re bringing the right owners in and bringing the right people in.” Veteran defensive back James Romain said he liked the league’s new approach during an appearance on the Footballstories radio show. “I think it’s good, it brings the league in the right direction,” Romain said. “We need great owners behind great organizations for the league and teams to grow. The league said they wanted to clean house and get great owners to buy into the league. The guy in Washington is doing a good job, Tampa’s doing a good job.”

Romain said he and his teammates went to the Valar home opener where there was a reported turnout of nearly 16,000 people at the game, their first ever.

“It was packed, there was definitely a lot of energy there,” Romain said. “The promotion down there was pretty good. They looked like they’d been in the league a few years and this was their first game of their first year in the league.”

Bogle said he looks at the Arena Football League as a business that is starting fresh.

“With any business you have to find the right formula,” Bogle said. “It has to be he the right format for it to take off. Everybody started somewhere and I think we found found that groove. We found the people who really, really believe in the product, they’re invested in it, fully committed to it. It’s great things ahead, I’m really looking forward to the future of the Arena Football League.” *
Some team and league information was taken from wikipedia.org and team websites.

Follow Al Thompson on Twitter @thompsoniii