AFL Gains Popularity With Predetermined ArenaBowl Site
The AFL Sunday will host the Soul-SaberCats ArenaBowl XXII at New Orleans Arena, and after the league for the first 18 seasons hosted the championship on the home field of the highest seed, the switch to a predesignated site "seems here to stay," according to Ted Lewis of the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE. AFL Commissioner David Baker: "We probably don't have any owners who want to go back to the old format." Moving the ArenaBowl to a predesignated site "enables the league to plan more activities for the weekend." This weekend's festivities include a Saturday night Huey Lewis & the News concert and a golf tournament at TPC Louisiana for "current and potential sponsors." More than 1,000 VIPs have been brought to town "for the game and other events." Baker: "If we do this right, we'll make more money from this event than we would have at a home site. We're a business, and frankly, that's what we should be doing." While the first two ArenaBowls at a designated site, held in Las Vegas "were disappointments, attendance-wise," last year's game at New Orleans Arena was a sellout, and as of Friday morning, "fewer than 1,000 tickets remain for Sunday's game." Baker: "New Orleans is more football territory than Las Vegas. Las Vegas was more about entertainment." Chicago, Tampa, K.C., Orlando and Phoenix are among other cities "mentioned as contenders" to host future ArenaBowls, and "exotic venues like an outdoor game in Hawaii or London also have been discussed." Baker said that the league next month will "start considering the site for its 2009 game," and a decision is expected by October. While the '09 game will not return to New Orleans, Baker said that he "can see New Orleans as a site in a three- or five-year rotation" (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 7/25).
SOUL POWER: Baker, in a special to USA TODAY, writes the AFL and its partners after this weekend's ArenaBowl are "leaving behind several playgrounds, visits to children's hospitals and numerous homes built through the generosity" of Soul co-Owner Jon Bon Jovi (USA TODAY, 7/25).
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