A Lafayette, LA, franchise will join af2 for the 2001
season, playing home games at the Cajundome. The ownership
group will consist of President "Woody" Kern, who is the
current owner of the AFL Storm, and VP & GM Hollis Godfrey,
who was a founding Owner of the AFL Kats (af2). The team
will join Shreveport-Bossier City, LA, and Ft. Myers, FL,
becoming the third af2 expansion team for the 2001 season
(RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 4/13)....The UHL has approved New
Haven, CT, as the league's 17th franchise, which is
scheduled to begin play in October 2000 in the 8,000-seat
New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum (UHL)....In
Jacksonville, Michael DiRocco writes that the ECHL Lizard
Kings "will cease operations" until the city builds a new
arena to replace the "aging" Coliseum. Lizard Kings
Minority Owner Bruce Burge said that it "didn't make
financial sense for the team to continue playing" in the 39-
year-old arena after losing $2.2M over a four-year period.
City officials indicated that a new arena will be built
"sometime in the next three to five years," and the team
"will remain a presence" in the area "throughout the hiatus"
(FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 4/13)....In Las Vegas, Dean Juipe
wrote that the IBL Silver Bandits, who had "precisely 188
spectators on hand" for a recent game, are not a "bad
product, but the real question is the same as when the
season began: Does anyone care?" (L.V. SUN, 4/12).
