Following the completion of the 1971 season, the ACFL took a big hit with the Pittsburgh Hammers losing control of Riverfront Stadium of Pittsburgh, meaning they must pay the Blacksmiths of the NAAF to play in the city. The increasing severity of the issues now surrounding the Hammers would have to be put on the back burner for now as the ACFL was in deep talks about the acquisition of the Southern Football League.
First, a little background on the Southern Football League (SFL). The SFL is one of the weakest and smallest leagues in North America. The league only has 6 teams, the Atlanta Redtails, the Birmingham Ironclads, the Jacksonville Admirals, the Miami Rays, the New Orleans Crescents, and the Tampa Tropics. They have seen a decline in talent in recent years with adjacent leagues (the ACFL and Texas Football Championship) poaching some of the top talent. The owners of the SFL are not very concerned with the status of the league. In the simple point of view, the fans seem to enjoy the product, regardless of the decline in skill, they still sell decent tickets, and the teams just add to the bottom line of several owners who own much more successful franchises in other sports.
When the ACFL approached the SFL, there wasn’t much to discuss on the overall plan as it was clear that the ACFL intended to get the SFL teams into their league. All they really had to do was put some money down and the SFL owners were all over it. It was an overall win for the SFL owners who would get a little payday and then likely see an increase in profits with more eyes on their product with the ACFL on their side and hopefully an injection of talent back into the teams. It’s a marvel that the deal didn’t happen sooner, though that may have been because of the passing of late Atlanta Owner, Greg Blackwood, who was pretty attached to the league as the commissioner up until his passing a few years ago. With that, the ACFL officially has obtained the SFL teams and is expanding to 14 teams for the 1972 season. The 6 SFL teams will form a South Division while the other 8 teams will remain in their respective division alignment as before:
NORTH
Brooklyn Guardians
New Jersey Chargers
New York City Bulls Football Club
Philadelphia Rebels
MID-ATLANTIC
Richmond Lions
Baltimore Lancers
Washington Stars
Pittsburgh Hammers
SOUTH
Atlanta Redtails
Birmingham Ironclads
Jacksonville Admirals
Miami Rays
New Orleans Crescents
Tampa Tropics
Since Commissioner Don Soriano took over the ACFL from Stephen Van Fossen, the changes to the league have pretty much been to undo the mistakes of Van Fossen, primarily by retracting teams from the unsuccessful expansion into Boston and Rochester. Now that the ACFL has stabilized a little under Soriano, it is time for the new commissioner to execute his plan for the future. The first big move to get the SFL and bring the league up to 14 teams could very well be the comeback move the league needed to remain near the top of the pecking order when it comes to talent and TV deals.
However, Soriano is not stopping there. Unlike Van Fossen, he is willing to concede that Ryan Jameson and the NAAF have done a great job in growing their league to be the biggest football organization in North America. He sees how competitive the NAAF is and hopes to get the ACFL moving in the same direction. The first step comes in the season’s format. Not only will the league expand its schedule to match the NAAF’s 14-game season, but also expand the playoffs to 8 teams, copying the NAAF’s current format. Soriano hopes the additional game and playoff spots will foster more competition.
The next step for the ACFL may be to improve how talent moves around in the league to allow smaller/weaker teams to start to catch up to the juggernauts at the top of the league, something that has been difficult with the spending ability of NYC, Brooklyn and Philadelphia who have been the dominant trio with Baltimore and Washington usually being the contenders out of the other division.
Overall, this next step will likely be tough to convince, some of the owners, mainly Van Fossen, to go along with a more significant core operational change, as well as figure out a plan for the now rent-paying Hammers. Regardless, a lot more eyes are on the ACFL as they begin taking steps back towards the top despite some setbacks.
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