1973 NAAF League Meetings

NAAF Celebrating 25th Season
The 1973 season marks the 25th season in the NAAF. To honour the event, the league will debut a 25th anniversary patch later this offseason. The patch will be featured on all jerseys for the 1973 season. Some other festivities may also come up later in the season as well.

Ryan Jameson addressed the league. Noting how grateful he was for all the support the league has grown over the 25 seasons. When the league came together with 7 teams in 1949, Jameson had some belief in its success but didn’t exactly imagine the league would become one of the biggest in the world. He was thankful for everyone who has been involved in the league and hopes to keep moving forward and upward. 

NAAF in Expansion Talks with Several Potential Markets to Pair Up with Kansas City
Last offseason, an update on the Kansas City situation was provided with prospective owner, Jacob Cross, being frustrated by the whole process. His financial backing had fallen through, leaving the stadium project unfinished. Cross has been unable to come up with new financial partners but left with the hope that if the NAAF can nail down a potential expansion partner, the bid from KC will have more legitimacy and attract more sponsors. 

During the 1972 season, Commissioner Ryan Jameson has been hard at work speaking with several potential markets for a new team. The current bids all reside in the West in hopes of adding more teams in the West Division Region. Here are the current prospective locations.

Denver, Colorado
The city of Denver is viewed as one of the biggest untapped markets in the country, having little sports attraction thus far. Only one professional team has attempted to put a team in the city, that being a baseball club that joined the North American Baseball Championship in 1963, but after just 6 years had to relocate due to the ownership going bankrupt. The city had invested a lot into the team and built a whole new park downtown for the club but now looks like a big waste. Luckily, the city has allowed Mile High University to use the park in recent years for their baseball team as well as a few attempts at a football setup as well. A new ownership group is stepping up and hoping to bring a baseball team back to the city, but have also turned their interest to the NAAF as well. Plans are already coming together to renovate the park to make it more compatible for football games, adding the ability to change its configuration properly. The untapped market does make it a very interesting opportunity for the NAAF. However, the NAAF should keep in mind that the group’s purpose is baseball first, so they also have to make sure that the team will be taken care of if they do manage to bring a baseball team back as well. 

Seattle, Washington
The other top market is Seattle. Seattle hasn’t been touched by pro football, but they do still have a Hockey club as well as a Baseball team in the city already. There is also a big college following behind Seattle State’s football team, proving that there is a viable football fan base in the city. The current prospective ownership is a lot less prepared than the Denver group, being in the very early stages of the process. Luckily, the market does have some legs, with Seattle State’s already solid stadium being a place where a team could play if needed. That being said, the college may also see a pro team as some competition. There is a history of attempted expansions to the city in the Pacific Football League and Western Football Union, however, they fell through, some believe because of the university, but that is mostly based on rumours. With roughly 1.8 million people in the city, Seattle is a big market and could serve as an immediate rival to Vancouver, but they will probably need some stronger ownership and have some conversations with Seattle State. 

Omaha, Nebraska
NAAF’s conversations with Omaha date back to the 1969 expansion wave. They remain in consideration once again for a potential team. They had been considered as a temporary home for KC’s team while their stadium is finished but were turned down since they wanted a team they could keep. Especially if the potential ownership group was going to have to put money into the team to help Jacob Cross. The NAAF once again returned to the city with the potential for their own team as an expansion partner to KC. Omaha has a stadium option with the field at Major Nebraska University, although, on the smaller side, it is still a very viable location that would be similar to that of London and Halifax with a bit more population in the overall market. However, the smaller market size is once again working against the bid due to Denver and Seattle being much more attractive for their market size. 

The league has also visited Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah, but both cities are far from a potential team being ready to go. Both likely needing a new stadium to host a team, as well as having only preliminary interest from prospective owners.

The conversations will continue, but the league hopes that the current progress will lead to some help going Jacob Cross’ way in his ventures to try and fund the completion of the stadium in KC. Cross is getting the unfinished stadium’s progress evaluated to obtain more concrete numbers on how much still needs to be done and how much they need to raise.

New Stadium coming to Pittsburgh, set to Open in 1975
Last offseason, the Blacksmiths were able to secure the lease for Riverfront Stadium of Pittsburgh and in doing so also ended the deal that the Hammers had in place with the city to prevent the Blacksmiths from obtaining a new stadium. Over the 1972 season, a new stadium plan would be put together and officially passed to begin construction in 1973. The location of the new stadium will be just down the river from where Riverfront Stadium currently is. The current proposal does have the stadium set to eclipse 60,000 seats, which would help it join New Providence Stadium as the only NAAF stadium to do so. The Stadium is set to break ground in the spring of 1973 and be completed in time for the 1975 NAAF season. 

Search for New Ownership in Boston continues for Benjamin Harris
Last offseason it was announced that Benjamin Harris would be stepping down from leading the operations of the Boston Independents. Control over the operations of the team had been passed onto Robert Albertson last offseason. He has now been managing the team while Benjamin looks for new ownership. Albertson provided an update on the team's current search. The team’s ownership was initially offered within the family. Ben’s Daughter, Stefanie Anderson, was offered the team first, but she declined with no interest in running the organization amongst her own career and family. Next, the ownership discussion turned to Benjamin’s extended family. His Nephew, Gordon Crawford, showed a little interest in the team but is still considering whether he wishes to take on the responsibility. For now, Ben has continued to extend the search beyond his family, having met with a couple of prospective owners about the possibility of taking on ownership. Albertson remains in charge of the team while the process continues, finally stating that Ben hopes to have at least some idea of who is going to be taking on the team by this time next year. 

1973 McCallister Cup is Headed to Minneapolis, Minnesota
For the first time, the McCallister Cup host vote was held during the League Meetings rather than during the awards voting process. For 1973, the championship game will be heading to the Land of 10,000 Lakes and will be held at Midgard Stadium in Minneapolis, MN. The 50,230-seat stadium opened at the University of Minneapolis in 1969 ahead of the Serpents’ first season. The fan base in the city has steadily increased with each season as Minnesota has had 4 fantastic seasons since joining the league. The University of Minneapolis is also planning on holding more festivities around campus in the lead-up and during the game in connection to celebrating the NAAF’s 25th season. 

TL;DR
- NAAF is celebrating 25 seasons with a patch that will be on all jerseys for the season
- The league has begun expansion talks with several cities to partner up with a KC team, Denver and Seattle are the current front runners with Omaha also in consideration
- Jacob Cross is getting KC’s stadium progress evaluated to understand the remaining cost to finish the project
- The Blacksmiths have worked out a new stadium deal with the city of Pittsburgh and a new stadium is being built, set to open for the 1975 season
- Benjamin Harris continues his search for new ownership in Boston, nephew Gordon Crawford has not decided whether he will take on the team, so the search is being extended outside of the family
- Minneapolis, Minnesota is set to host the 55th McCallister Cup