1967 League Meetings

1967 League Meetings

NAAF

ANNOUNCING THE HALL OF FAME
Last offseason, Stephan Van Fossen, commissioner of the ACFL, announced that there would be the creation of the American Football Hall of Fame. The emphasis was on “American” as  Van Fossen made it clear that anyone connected to hybrid football and more specifically the NAAF would not be eligible to be inducted into the Hall. The decision to exclude the hybrid members was not well received by fans of the NAAF, their players, staff, and owners. NAAF commissioner Ryan Jameson took the decision to heart and acted over the offseason. It was a no-brainer decision for the rest of the owners and players that the NAAF would form their own Hall for Hybrid Football. A building will be constructed in Ottawa, specifically at Lansdowne Park, the old home of the Ottawa Royals and the first place where Hybrid Football was played professionally. Jameson announced that they would call the building the Hybrid Football Hall of Fame. The initial class of inductees will be announced during the lead-up to the 49th McCallister Cup in Ottawa.

THINGS HAVE CHANGED IN MINNEAPOLIS
A new stadium has been in many city council talks in Minneapolis for several years now. There has been no success to get it through, even to the point where Minneapolis mayor Brad Kennard has just ignored any new proposals. With Twin Cities Stadium getting older and not being the best fit for football (with its usual baseball usage), there has been the urge to build a new spot to better suit football. Recently, a new development has formed and the city council is looking at a proposal from the University of Minneapolis. With the increasing popularity in football at the college level, the University is hoping they can build a new building on campus. 

Hearing of these rumours, Kris Matheson, the one who had been an advocate for a new stadium all these years, has decided to jump in to help. Although he certainly had his own demands or desires with the facility. He said that he would help with the stadium if it meant that it would increase their planned capacity to be able to field a professional team and that it would still have the ability to fit a hybrid-sized field in the stadium. The University certainly liked the idea that it could also bring in more revenue for them as well if they help him get a team to the city. 

With that agreement and the funding increase, as well as the fact the city had a professional team in the GLFL, the city was willing to listen. However, there was immediate push back from Harold Smith, owner of both the Baseball team and the GLFL’s new Minneapolis team, as he liked his monopoly over the professional sports in the city and had quite the attachment to the old Twin Cities Stadium. In fact, throughout the process, he officially cut Kris Matheson out of the football team after letting him in last season due to Matheson complaining that Smith had gone over his head to get the team. Smith’s actions immediately put a stick in the mud. Matheson was now desperate, and he would return to Ryan Jameson and the NAAF looking for support. 

After hearing of the developments, Jameson and the NAAF decided to support the plan themselves. The NAAF has been interested in the Twin Cities for a long time as a market without much in terms of football, however, they never felt that there was a stadium suited for a team. With the new plan, the NAAF has decided to reopen conversations with the city and Kris Matheson about a potential team, however, they will only do so if the stadium plan gets approved. 

The city council is still to vote on the plan, but there is new life in the NAAF heading further west. 

ACFL

VAN FOSSEN’S PLANS FOR ANOTHER ATTACK
The last few seasons have been quite hectic for the ACFL. One of the main causes has been Commissioner Stephen Van Fossen whose pinnacle move has been adding Boston and Rochester to the ACFL. However, favour has certainly turned against him as Boston has continued to lack any improvements in attendance despite the team’s improving success on the field. On top of that, Pittsburgh has continued to lose attendance as well. The Blacksmith’s more successful season (especially at home going 4-2), was the most successful season for a Pittsburgh football team in a decade. The success has seen many fans willing to spend their money on tickets for Blacksmith games versus Hammers’ games. 

Several other owners are seriously questioning if the attack of the NAAF is in the best interest of the league. However, Van Fossen continues to point out how important it is to continue the push for growth and be the top league in North America. The owners certainly agreed that they would want to be the top, they also don’t want that to rip a hole in their pockets. The whole situation was why the owners were considering a vote to remove Van Fossen as the commissioner. However, Van Fossen had one last thing up his sleeve. He revealed the second phase and the “true” nature of his overall plan. It certainly seemed like a gamble, but he maintained that the NAAF has been putting teams in their markets ever since the ACFL formed. Starting with Long Island, which Van Fossen left behind when joining the ACFL from the NYFL, and then more recently Pittsburgh. He even pointed out the move out to Indianapolis and Louisville was a huge push into the GLFL’s territory. He quickly showed that if they can do the same with markets in the north, they could A) take away territory from the NAAF and B) expand their league to be bigger and better. The idea seemed to be enough for some of the ACFL owners to allow Van Fossen to carry on as the commissioner, however, he was still on thin ice. 

With at least a little longer of a leash, Van Fossen would attempt to put his plan into action. He quickly started looking for owners and stadiums in several more northern markets in hopes of expanding the ACFL by 4 teams to get to 14 teams and become the biggest professional league in North America. The first cities he has marketed on the map are Hamiton, ON, a city that lost its team because of the Ontario Football Union’s merger with the NAAF and Hartford, CT, a city that lost its historic team to the relocation of the Long Island Raiders. Both could certainly be valuable markets to the ACFL if it works out, however, one issue could be a lack of great stadium options in both cities (a big reason the NAAF are not in either city right now). Along with those two main targets, several others are being considered: Syracuse, NY, Albany, NY, Worcester, MA/Springfield, MA, Portland, ME, Norfolk, VA, and Scranton, PA. There are a lot of smaller markets in contention, but Van Fossen is getting desperate to find places for teams so he is not taking any options off the table. 

GLFL

MINNEAPOLIS’ FIRST SEASON
The big news this season was the city of Minneapolis finally joining the GLFL and a professional football league. The Minneapolis Black Bears as they would be eventually called. In their first season, the Black Bears’ performed as expected. They were certainly behind the mark compared to the other teams only winning a couple of games. However, the most important mark for success is attendance. This season, the numbers started out well with the first game being a sellout. However, as the season went on, the attendance went down. Many fans complained that certain parts of the baseball stadium were difficult to watch the football game from. Once again adding more fuel to the fire to the new stadium discussion that was covered earlier. Owner Harold Smith is hoping that with more success next season, the attendance shall improve purely based on the success of the team.