September 12, 2024 • 24 mins
Billings Outlaws owner Steven Titus joined Press Pass again for the first time since the beginning of last season, where he voiced his frustration with Arena Football Management LLC and former commissioner Lee Hutton III. This time, Titus broke down the transition of moving forward with Jeff Fisher and the fallout with G6 Sports that put the ArenaBowl in jeopardy. Titus also shared more details about the new Arena Football One league and how owners plan to build a new identity and legacy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I can't tell you how angry I am with G
six and Chris Chetty about the continuous lies that they
just continue to double down on.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to the special edition of Arena Cider Press Pass.
I'm your host Anthony Carter, And on today's show, joining
us again is Billings Outlaws owner Steven Titus's great to
see against Steven.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
How are you doing good? Athy? How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm doing great. So a lot has happened. Is the
last time we spoke on this show, So to kind
of fast forward a little bit, I believe it was
about a week or so after we talked when the
league moved on and we're talking about Arena Football League
moved on from Lee Hunting at third moving in with
Jeff Fisher. Break that down on how you got to
(01:02):
that decision and kind of what prompt that.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Well, I think it was us owners needing to do
what we needed to do to finish the season. When
there were questions on rules, when there were questions on finances,
when there were questions on anything related to the functionality
of the league. You know, Lee Hunting was nowhere to
be found. We needed someone to be able to make
decisions and it was a natural choice with the experience,
(01:28):
the knowledge, and the trust that we all have in
Jeff Fisher, that we needed to do what we needed
to do to put Jeff Fisher in place to be
our commissioner at that point.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And how's it been working with Jeff Fisher.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Coach. Fisher is one of the most down to earth
good people I've ever met. It's funny. He called me
yesterday just to kind of catch up on things, and
he goes, hey, buddy, how you doing. And I go,
I'm good, Jeff, just at work and he goes he goes, well,
I want to pull oologized. I was driving through buildings
Sunday and I didn't stop and see you, and I go, well,
(02:05):
if it makes you feel better. I was in Laramie
at the University of Wyoming game anyway, so I wouldn't
have been there. And then we just kind of got
caught up on what was going on in af one.
And so he's one of the most down to earth, knowledgeable,
well connected people in the arena indoor football, I mean
even in the football industry in America. Anyone who's anyone
(02:27):
knows who Jeff Fisher is. So he's been an absolute
pleasure to work with.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And part of the announcement was bringing in G six Sports,
who for people, for people that may not know, G
six Sports owns the legal identity to the Arena Football League.
How did you work with G six Sports up until
that point and how's it been since then?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, you know, when we first met with G six
that would have been probably sometime in May or June.
I think it was in May. They were a delight
to work with. They kind of had the vision, they
had the knowledge, they had the resources to do to
a degree what Lee Hunting had promised.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
They were involved in day to day operations and kind
of some strategy moving forward, and then things with G
six and the teams of the that we're playing in
the AFL quickly fell apart.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Now leading up to as the season went on, from
them from moving in with Jeff Fisher, G six Sports
stepping in and the owners kind of keeping things going up.
We had the playoffs and then the Arena Bowl, which
was held in New Jersey. Before we get to the
Arena Bowl, walk us through the process of getting to
the playoffs and the matchups and kind of what happened
(03:52):
behind the scenes there.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Right There were a lot of questions at that point
whether the games would be broadcasted on national TV or not.
Once we made that decision and we had the resources
to broadcast those games on national TV, there was some
talk with CBS Sports about wanting to broadcast more games
(04:15):
than what our playoffs had originally called for. So that's
when we changed the five seed playoffs to the six seed,
and that's why we had that kind of last minute
adjustment that added Nashville into the playoffs. It was really
what the national networks wanted, and so we put that
together and then we did what we needed to do
(04:35):
to put on a heck of a show for arena football.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Fans leading up to the Arena Bull. You know, there
was the decision to have it at American Dream in
New Jersey. What was the decision behind it From an
owners standpoint, we didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Have a decision. Chris and G six had made certain
promises to owners to get them to buy into this. Obviously,
the costs of the arena would be paid for. Transportation costs,
expensive hotels, things like that would all be covered by
G six so that there would be no loss to
the teams that didn't happen. We get to the Arena Bowl,
(05:14):
I think Tuesday. I got there Tuesday night before the ArenaBowl.
Most of the bills hadn't been paid by G six,
the hotels hadn't been paid by G six. It was
just Lee hunting lies all over again. If it wasn't
for the guys in Albany, Mike Quorda, Andy Gulcher, Jeff
Fisher and myself putting well in probably over three hundred
(05:35):
thousand dollars into the Arena Bowl, there was never going
to be an Arenable And why we decided to form
a new league was because we're tired of people that
don't know the arena indoor football industry trying to run
the arena indoor football industry. The impressions that we got
for the Arena Bowl were great. I mean you saw
(05:57):
some of the barstool numbers. It showed three or four
million impressions. It made ESPN, it made CNN. I mean,
it did what it needed to do. But we could
have done that at Billings. For example, I lost a
lot of money out of that not having a home game.
I mean, I know what kind of profit Billings had
for having the Nashville game. We did really well there.
(06:18):
I can't imagine what it would have been for an arenable.
I mean, we lost a lot of money not having
the arenable and billings. It was not our decision. If
it was up to the owners, the owners would have said,
let's go to the highest seed, which is how it
should be. The highest seed should be rewarded for having
a great regular season. It just the fact of the
matter is is that the arenable costs the teams approximately
(06:42):
between three and four hundred thousand dollars a loss. We
could have had a big name celebrity concert, national broadcast
at the top seed for a fraction of that price.
It was a horrible business decision. They're making business decisions
spending other people's money. It's just something that we're tired
dealing with. We're tired of dealing with G six. We're
tired of dealing with Chetty, We're tired of dealing with
(07:03):
Lee Hunting. We're tired of dealing with AFL management tied
to dealing with AFL Capital Partners. They're just a bunch
of liars, frauds and people who deceit people, and we
just don't want anything to do with it. So that's
why we decided to form our own league and distance
ourselves as far as possible as we can from those
in the past, because I can tell you there have
(07:23):
been promises and promises and promises made to all the teams,
including the staff of the AFL, that their bills would
be paid, that the salaries would be paid. None of
that's happened, and so it's lies all over again, and
we don't want any part of that. We want clean hands.
We want our own organization, and we want people who
(07:43):
are going to do the right things and they're going
to say the right and they're going to do the
right things and say the right things. If someone comes
in and says, hey, Steve, you know we don't have
the money for the areadable, let's look at an alternate
plan instead of someone's ego getting in the way, it
just doesn't make sense. We want people that have the
football knowledge of the indoor and arena football industry to
(08:05):
be running our organization. And you know, with Gary Kerrz,
Gary Kompton, Jeff Fisher leading our organization, it doesn't get
much better than that.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Now, before we dive into arena football one because they
want to talk more about that, just to clarify on
what you touched on, because there was the rumors that
it's likely the arena football the arenable excuse me, will
not be played in New Jersey. So according to you,
that's true, and the owners actually had to save the Arenable.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
There were lots of light late nights in East Ruther
for New Jersey with myself, the Albany owners, leadership of
the AFL, the rumors that there may not have been
an Arenable. We met with the people at you know,
the mall production people. No one was getting paid. It
(09:00):
was Albany, Billings Jeff Fisher that saved the Arena Bowl
and continued to have it in East Rutherford. If it
wasn't for us and the other owners, there would never where.
There wouldn't have been an Arena Bowl thirty three in
East Rutter for New Jersey. We were all making backup
plans of possibly having the game, of Billings possibly having
the game, and Albany, I mean, everything was on the
(09:23):
table at that point to try to save an ArenaBowl.
It wouldn't have been fair to our players to have
and get to the get to the season. Everyone worked
so hard in there not be crowned a champion. So
we did what we needed to do to save the
Arena Bowl in East Routther for New Jersey. We were
promised that by G six and Chris Chetty that we
(09:46):
would be paid back soon thereafter. It's been two months
and no one received to die. It's a bunch of lies.
It's Lee hunting two point zero.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
When was the last time he spoke the Chetty or
anyone in a G six sports circle.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I think I had an email from Chris Chetty about
four weeks three or four weeks ago, asking him the
status of repayment, and he told me he was trying
to raise the money. He sent over some letters that
purported to be some investments into the league. We never
received anything or confirmation that those investments actually occurred. He's
(10:26):
went radio silent.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So after all of that, after dealing with everything with
G six Sports, even with Arena Football Management with Lee Hutton,
what led up to creating Arena Football one? How were
you able to get all of the owners together to
and Jerry Kerrz and everyone from that to just start
a new league.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I think it was the natural thing to do. I mean,
we all had to be honest trauma bonds from dealing
with Lee Hunting one point zero, Lee Hunting two point
zero through Chris chety g six. I mean, we all
have trauma bonds. We're all in this together. We're all
very much invested into making Arena football work in our
industries or into our local our localities. So we all
(11:11):
got together and we figured out what we needed to
do to put on a show in twenty twenty five
and create a sustainable business model that's going to work.
I mean, if you look in the last forty years
of arena and into our football, I don't think that
you know, you don't see a lot of profit for
these teams. I think probably you went into the IFL books,
there are maybe one, two three teams that actually will
(11:34):
turn a profit this year and not use it as
a ride off for some owner. But what they're looking
at is creating a new sustainable business model like the
AFL in the nineties and the two thousands when Jerry
Kurz was very involved. And I think we're doing what
we need to do to create a new business model
to make these to make these entities sustainable so that
(11:55):
they can last for the long term and that these
owners aren't losing, you know, a tremendous the money every year.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Walk me through like your approach to getting some of
these expansion teams, you got will experiences join, you got
stopped in and I'm sure you're in talks with some
other markets. Walk me through that process and how you're
reassuring those teams and those markets that this is different
and it's nothing like the rate of Football League.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
You know. That's a great question because I've read a
lot about this online lately, of AF one possibly expanding
too quick or having too many teams, and that's a
valid concern. It's a valid question. But I think what's
different between what AF one is doing and what other
leagues have done in the past with rapid expansion is
that we have very legitimate ownership groups. Ownership groups that
(12:46):
know the game, they know the industry, and they have
the resources to stick it out for a few years.
If when developing a market, I mean, when you're building
a brand new brand and a brand new team without
an identity, it's going to take two or three years
to really get a sustainable sponsorship, partnership base and fan
base going to create those rivalries. Make sure we have
those relationships with vendors and with arenas and things like that.
(13:09):
So we are very much vetting these teams with proper ownership.
They're not going to be LEA going teams. There's not
going to be a burden on the league to have
these teams like the former AFL did, which was a
completely broken business model. You know, even us as owners
were lied to about who owned those teams in the
(13:30):
old AFL by Lee Hunton. But here we know the owners.
We've seen their finances, we've seen their arenas, we've seen
what they bring to the table. They've all been interviewed
by all the ownership groups currently there are in the a
F one, and we've really vetted them to a process
to make sure that we're doing a controlled, reasonable, improved
(13:53):
and expansion and also being transparent about what we're doing here.
So I do look for there to be a little
bit more expand for the twenty twenty five AF one season,
but we're doing it reasonably, we're doing it prudently, we're
doing it cautiously, and we're doing it to make sure
that we don't have teams crashing mid season. We don't
have things happening to our franchises to upset a schedule
(14:16):
or something like that. So we're being cautious, we're being prudent,
and we're taking the necessary steps to make sure these
are the right people and the right playing partners that
we need for AF one to be successful.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
And what's the impact that AF one will have on
feature players?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You know, obviously our goal has always been is that,
you know, we want the next Kurt Warner. You know,
we want the next Jay Gruden. We want the next
set of arena football players to carry our torch into
the NFL. We're already doing that. We're doing that with
the UFL, We're doing that with the NFL, We're doing
that with other leagues. But you know, we're continue to
(14:58):
get on national TV. We're continuing to do the things
to get on that national stage where we are the
premiere non outdoor league in the country. And I think
that given time, you know, we're going to do what
we need to do to be that springball league in
(15:19):
America that everyone's watching.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
And that kind of went into the question, what's the
negotiations like with getting on whether it's TV, whether it's digital.
You know, what's that going on?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
You know, our president Jared Woman's working on that. He's
working with the production company that we use for the
twenty twenty four playoffs. We're currently in talks with several networks.
We have one of the networks we'll actually be presenting
at our Arena Football Owners conference here in a few
weeks in Chicago, So they're definitely in the loop about things,
(15:59):
and we're trying to figure out out what exactly we
can do to increase excitement for our game. I mean,
I can tell you one thing that has stood out
so much to me that we need to take advantage
of is we need to be micing up our refts.
We need to be micing up our owners. I thought
(16:19):
one of the most interesting things is I was watching
the playoff game between Orlando and Nashville, and Nashville's coach
was arguing with the white hat, you know, the head
referee in that game, just arguing over our call. And
it was such a great interaction that it really explains
to the fans what's going on between coaches, what's going
on between the rest, what kind of conversations are actually
(16:40):
taking place. And I think we need more of that.
I think that's a new aspect or a new dimension
of the game that the average football fan would absolutely enjoy.
I mean, I think it'd be great if we were
watching you know, the NFL this weekend and we can
hear those side judges arguing with the coach stand back,
you know, arguing over calls, you know, just bs and
(17:01):
them with them about the game, things like that. I
think that's it humanizes the game. It's more than just
a number, it's more than just a play. It's just
more than a score. But you you you learn to
like a player or a ref or a coach based
on that personality. And I think we need to do
more of that. And that's why when we meet with
our production companies, when we meet with these TV network
(17:23):
people execs that they're coming to us with what their
data says our fans want, football fans want, and how
we can incorporate that into our game moving forward. You know,
we don't want the streaming issues. We want high quality production.
You know, the IFL Championship game that was on CBS
Sports started with their sideline reffs Mike not working, So
(17:45):
we want to make sure that that's not our first impression.
You know, we want a solid, reliable broadcast that's comparable
to something that you're going to see on Sundays on
the NFL. And you know, we have that ambition, we
have that skill set, we have that knowledge, and we
have the right people to make that happen, you know.
And so I think the sky's the limit with AF one.
We're going to do what we need to do to
(18:07):
be the premier springball league in America. And I know
that we have the right people, we have the right ideas,
we have the right ambition, and I think sky's the limit.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Just a few more questions. Walk me through the upcoming timeline.
I know you briefly mentioned you have an owner's meeting.
I know your preparents are roll out more teams. What's
the timeline leading up to the inaugural season of Arena
Football one?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Right, We're still I expect our schedules to be released
between mid and late October, so we got about six
weeks before our schedules come out. We're finalizing our venues.
When you know, our first weekend is going to be
as early as possible, when half of our venues are available.
I mean, that's how you know if you can play
football or not that you're going to have venue availability
(18:55):
I know, and Billings for example, we don't have arena
availability till mid eight and so that means we're going
to be under away games start until we have our
first weekend open, and so other venues are the exact opposite.
They have March open, April open, but then they start
to shut down towards May with graduations and other activities
that they're locale and to have may have. So you know,
(19:18):
we're working on that right now. We have an owner's
conference here towards the end of September in Chicago for
four days. There's gonna be a lot discussed. We're having
a lot of presentations, you know, a lot of vendors,
you know, football companies, uniform companies, network TV production. We're
gonna have competition committees going to start meeting to look
over rule sets. I anticipate that we're going to start
(19:41):
reaching out to our fan base here in the next
week or two suggesting what kind of rules should be
changed or altered, and.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Really ways to create a new level of fan engagement,
even if it's something as little as you know, getting
on Facebook each team saying hey, you know, Billings Outlaws
are home this weekend.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Should we we wear, we have an all and just
having engagement. You know, should we have a wide out,
should we be wearing our wide away jerseys, our white pants,
wide away blue or white jersey blue pants, letting the
fans choose what jerseys are are our teams are wearing
something so simple as that. To create that level of
(20:23):
fan engagement that you know, no one's really taken advantage
of fan controlled football became really exciting because you know,
people watching the game really we're controlling the outcome of
the game. And I think there's a lot we can
take away from, uh, the engagement, even if it's fans
voting during the game what dance the cheerleaders should perform.
(20:46):
I mean, we can do different things to create that
engagement without affecting the outcome of the game. And so
those are the things we're looking at. We anticipate, you know,
Mark April kickoff and ju July August or aabowl. I
anticipate that the ARENABWL will be at the highest seed.
Unless you know, someone's some casino, some arena, some cities
(21:10):
wanting to drop a check to host us, which will
happily Greton. If anyone's interested, they can reach out to
me and we'll put them in the right direction. But
I anticipate us not losing three or four hundred thousand
dollars on a stupid, stupid idea that no one can
pay for except the team owners, which have sacrificed so
much this season. I can't tell you how angry I
(21:31):
am with G six and Chris Chetty about the continuous
lies that they just continue to double down on throughout
the season. And the fact of the matter is they're
not forking over the bill. There's no additional money in
my pocket, there's no additional money in Albany's pocket, there's
no additional money in Jeff Fisher's pocket to make us whole.
(21:51):
It's just frustrating being lied to again. But I anticipate
that they'll see a courtroom sooner rather than later the
answer to what they did as well.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Perfect. That was going to be one of my questions.
What was your message to G six Sports? But I
think we got it there. Just lastly, what's your message
to the fans? What can they expect that may you
touched on it a little bit, but Pashua fans get
excited for the inaugural season.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I think once we you know, we're already seeing that
our social media team has already been working hard and
having informal Q and as on Twitter, on x Make
sure you follow us on our social media's thea flor
I'm sorry, theaf one dot com to get all the
links on all of our socials. We're going to see
a new level of fan engagement that you don't see
(22:40):
the IFL having, you don't see the NAAL having, you
don't see any other indoor league have. Let's vote on
rule changes, let's look at rerle changes, Let's bring to
the fans. Let the fans propose rule changes. Because at
the end of the day, there is no arena football
without the fans. There is no arena football without our partners.
There is no arena football without making sure our fans
(23:02):
are happy and that we're putting out a quality product.
And so that's what I foresee happening very quickly, is
that we do the things we need to do to
create that fan engagement. More Q and as, more interviews
with the Commissioner, more interviews with Jerry, more interviews with Gary.
We have an all star cast here with the af one.
(23:22):
It's time to just show the trailer for their All
Star movie, which will be the twenty twenty five season.
I think we have a lot to offer our fans.
I think that you know, when they're paying their fifteen
or twenty dollars ticket every week, we know how hard
they work for that money. We know that there's so
much other stuff they could do with that money. And
it's very flattering when you see three, four or five
(23:45):
six thousand people at a game, it's spending their harder
earn money to see you be your team play and
walking around billing seeing people wearing billings, outlaws, merchandise, you know, messages, emails,
people congratulating us on the championship. It's very flattering, and
I want to do what we need to do to
keep everyone happy, to keep a quality product on the field.
(24:09):
Make sure we have consistent rule sets that are exercised,
make sure we have good officiating, make sure we have
quality venues with quality teams, and that we have a
great twenty twenty five season all around the country. And
you know it'll be great once the international market gets
announced that you know, we'll we'll be playing all over
(24:30):
It'll be a good year.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Steve Insiders, thank you so much. For joining us saying
good luck next season.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Anthony, thanks again for everything you do and to bring
accountability and transparency to Arena football with the fans have
a lot to thank you for.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Thank you
I can't tell you how angry I am with G
six and Chris Chetty about the continuous lies that they
just continue to double down on.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to the special edition of Arena Cider Press Pass.
I'm your host Anthony Carter, And on today's show, joining
us again is Billings Outlaws owner Steven Titus's great to
see against Steven.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
How are you doing good? Athy? How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm doing great. So a lot has happened. Is the
last time we spoke on this show, So to kind
of fast forward a little bit, I believe it was
about a week or so after we talked when the
league moved on and we're talking about Arena Football League
moved on from Lee Hunting at third moving in with
Jeff Fisher. Break that down on how you got to
(01:02):
that decision and kind of what prompt that.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Well, I think it was us owners needing to do
what we needed to do to finish the season. When
there were questions on rules, when there were questions on finances,
when there were questions on anything related to the functionality
of the league. You know, Lee Hunting was nowhere to
be found. We needed someone to be able to make
decisions and it was a natural choice with the experience,
(01:28):
the knowledge, and the trust that we all have in
Jeff Fisher, that we needed to do what we needed
to do to put Jeff Fisher in place to be
our commissioner at that point.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And how's it been working with Jeff Fisher.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Coach. Fisher is one of the most down to earth
good people I've ever met. It's funny. He called me
yesterday just to kind of catch up on things, and
he goes, hey, buddy, how you doing. And I go,
I'm good, Jeff, just at work and he goes he goes, well,
I want to pull oologized. I was driving through buildings
Sunday and I didn't stop and see you, and I go, well,
(02:05):
if it makes you feel better. I was in Laramie
at the University of Wyoming game anyway, so I wouldn't
have been there. And then we just kind of got
caught up on what was going on in af one.
And so he's one of the most down to earth, knowledgeable,
well connected people in the arena indoor football, I mean
even in the football industry in America. Anyone who's anyone
(02:27):
knows who Jeff Fisher is. So he's been an absolute
pleasure to work with.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And part of the announcement was bringing in G six Sports,
who for people, for people that may not know, G
six Sports owns the legal identity to the Arena Football League.
How did you work with G six Sports up until
that point and how's it been since then?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, you know, when we first met with G six
that would have been probably sometime in May or June.
I think it was in May. They were a delight
to work with. They kind of had the vision, they
had the knowledge, they had the resources to do to
a degree what Lee Hunting had promised.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
They were involved in day to day operations and kind
of some strategy moving forward, and then things with G
six and the teams of the that we're playing in
the AFL quickly fell apart.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Now leading up to as the season went on, from
them from moving in with Jeff Fisher, G six Sports
stepping in and the owners kind of keeping things going up.
We had the playoffs and then the Arena Bowl, which
was held in New Jersey. Before we get to the
Arena Bowl, walk us through the process of getting to
the playoffs and the matchups and kind of what happened
(03:52):
behind the scenes there.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Right There were a lot of questions at that point
whether the games would be broadcasted on national TV or not.
Once we made that decision and we had the resources
to broadcast those games on national TV, there was some
talk with CBS Sports about wanting to broadcast more games
(04:15):
than what our playoffs had originally called for. So that's
when we changed the five seed playoffs to the six seed,
and that's why we had that kind of last minute
adjustment that added Nashville into the playoffs. It was really
what the national networks wanted, and so we put that
together and then we did what we needed to do
(04:35):
to put on a heck of a show for arena football.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Fans leading up to the Arena Bull. You know, there
was the decision to have it at American Dream in
New Jersey. What was the decision behind it From an
owners standpoint, we didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Have a decision. Chris and G six had made certain
promises to owners to get them to buy into this. Obviously,
the costs of the arena would be paid for. Transportation costs,
expensive hotels, things like that would all be covered by
G six so that there would be no loss to
the teams that didn't happen. We get to the Arena Bowl,
(05:14):
I think Tuesday. I got there Tuesday night before the ArenaBowl.
Most of the bills hadn't been paid by G six,
the hotels hadn't been paid by G six. It was
just Lee hunting lies all over again. If it wasn't
for the guys in Albany, Mike Quorda, Andy Gulcher, Jeff
Fisher and myself putting well in probably over three hundred
(05:35):
thousand dollars into the Arena Bowl, there was never going
to be an Arenable And why we decided to form
a new league was because we're tired of people that
don't know the arena indoor football industry trying to run
the arena indoor football industry. The impressions that we got
for the Arena Bowl were great. I mean you saw
(05:57):
some of the barstool numbers. It showed three or four
million impressions. It made ESPN, it made CNN. I mean,
it did what it needed to do. But we could
have done that at Billings. For example, I lost a
lot of money out of that not having a home game.
I mean, I know what kind of profit Billings had
for having the Nashville game. We did really well there.
(06:18):
I can't imagine what it would have been for an arenable.
I mean, we lost a lot of money not having
the arenable and billings. It was not our decision. If
it was up to the owners, the owners would have said,
let's go to the highest seed, which is how it
should be. The highest seed should be rewarded for having
a great regular season. It just the fact of the
matter is is that the arenable costs the teams approximately
(06:42):
between three and four hundred thousand dollars a loss. We
could have had a big name celebrity concert, national broadcast
at the top seed for a fraction of that price.
It was a horrible business decision. They're making business decisions
spending other people's money. It's just something that we're tired
dealing with. We're tired of dealing with G six. We're
tired of dealing with Chetty, We're tired of dealing with
(07:03):
Lee Hunting. We're tired of dealing with AFL management tied
to dealing with AFL Capital Partners. They're just a bunch
of liars, frauds and people who deceit people, and we
just don't want anything to do with it. So that's
why we decided to form our own league and distance
ourselves as far as possible as we can from those
in the past, because I can tell you there have
(07:23):
been promises and promises and promises made to all the teams,
including the staff of the AFL, that their bills would
be paid, that the salaries would be paid. None of
that's happened, and so it's lies all over again, and
we don't want any part of that. We want clean hands.
We want our own organization, and we want people who
(07:43):
are going to do the right things and they're going
to say the right and they're going to do the
right things and say the right things. If someone comes
in and says, hey, Steve, you know we don't have
the money for the areadable, let's look at an alternate
plan instead of someone's ego getting in the way, it
just doesn't make sense. We want people that have the
football knowledge of the indoor and arena football industry to
(08:05):
be running our organization. And you know, with Gary Kerrz,
Gary Kompton, Jeff Fisher leading our organization, it doesn't get
much better than that.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Now, before we dive into arena football one because they
want to talk more about that, just to clarify on
what you touched on, because there was the rumors that
it's likely the arena football the arenable excuse me, will
not be played in New Jersey. So according to you,
that's true, and the owners actually had to save the Arenable.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
There were lots of light late nights in East Ruther
for New Jersey with myself, the Albany owners, leadership of
the AFL, the rumors that there may not have been
an Arenable. We met with the people at you know,
the mall production people. No one was getting paid. It
(09:00):
was Albany, Billings Jeff Fisher that saved the Arena Bowl
and continued to have it in East Rutherford. If it
wasn't for us and the other owners, there would never where.
There wouldn't have been an Arena Bowl thirty three in
East Rutter for New Jersey. We were all making backup
plans of possibly having the game, of Billings possibly having
the game, and Albany, I mean, everything was on the
(09:23):
table at that point to try to save an ArenaBowl.
It wouldn't have been fair to our players to have
and get to the get to the season. Everyone worked
so hard in there not be crowned a champion. So
we did what we needed to do to save the
Arena Bowl in East Routther for New Jersey. We were
promised that by G six and Chris Chetty that we
(09:46):
would be paid back soon thereafter. It's been two months
and no one received to die. It's a bunch of lies.
It's Lee hunting two point zero.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
When was the last time he spoke the Chetty or
anyone in a G six sports circle.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I think I had an email from Chris Chetty about
four weeks three or four weeks ago, asking him the
status of repayment, and he told me he was trying
to raise the money. He sent over some letters that
purported to be some investments into the league. We never
received anything or confirmation that those investments actually occurred. He's
(10:26):
went radio silent.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So after all of that, after dealing with everything with
G six Sports, even with Arena Football Management with Lee Hutton,
what led up to creating Arena Football one? How were
you able to get all of the owners together to
and Jerry Kerrz and everyone from that to just start
a new league.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I think it was the natural thing to do. I mean,
we all had to be honest trauma bonds from dealing
with Lee Hunting one point zero, Lee Hunting two point
zero through Chris chety g six. I mean, we all
have trauma bonds. We're all in this together. We're all
very much invested into making Arena football work in our
industries or into our local our localities. So we all
(11:11):
got together and we figured out what we needed to
do to put on a show in twenty twenty five
and create a sustainable business model that's going to work.
I mean, if you look in the last forty years
of arena and into our football, I don't think that
you know, you don't see a lot of profit for
these teams. I think probably you went into the IFL books,
there are maybe one, two three teams that actually will
(11:34):
turn a profit this year and not use it as
a ride off for some owner. But what they're looking
at is creating a new sustainable business model like the
AFL in the nineties and the two thousands when Jerry
Kurz was very involved. And I think we're doing what
we need to do to create a new business model
to make these to make these entities sustainable so that
(11:55):
they can last for the long term and that these
owners aren't losing, you know, a tremendous the money every year.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Walk me through like your approach to getting some of
these expansion teams, you got will experiences join, you got
stopped in and I'm sure you're in talks with some
other markets. Walk me through that process and how you're
reassuring those teams and those markets that this is different
and it's nothing like the rate of Football League.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
You know. That's a great question because I've read a
lot about this online lately, of AF one possibly expanding
too quick or having too many teams, and that's a
valid concern. It's a valid question. But I think what's
different between what AF one is doing and what other
leagues have done in the past with rapid expansion is
that we have very legitimate ownership groups. Ownership groups that
(12:46):
know the game, they know the industry, and they have
the resources to stick it out for a few years.
If when developing a market, I mean, when you're building
a brand new brand and a brand new team without
an identity, it's going to take two or three years
to really get a sustainable sponsorship, partnership base and fan
base going to create those rivalries. Make sure we have
those relationships with vendors and with arenas and things like that.
(13:09):
So we are very much vetting these teams with proper ownership.
They're not going to be LEA going teams. There's not
going to be a burden on the league to have
these teams like the former AFL did, which was a
completely broken business model. You know, even us as owners
were lied to about who owned those teams in the
(13:30):
old AFL by Lee Hunton. But here we know the owners.
We've seen their finances, we've seen their arenas, we've seen
what they bring to the table. They've all been interviewed
by all the ownership groups currently there are in the a
F one, and we've really vetted them to a process
to make sure that we're doing a controlled, reasonable, improved
(13:53):
and expansion and also being transparent about what we're doing here.
So I do look for there to be a little
bit more expand for the twenty twenty five AF one season,
but we're doing it reasonably, we're doing it prudently, we're
doing it cautiously, and we're doing it to make sure
that we don't have teams crashing mid season. We don't
have things happening to our franchises to upset a schedule
(14:16):
or something like that. So we're being cautious, we're being prudent,
and we're taking the necessary steps to make sure these
are the right people and the right playing partners that
we need for AF one to be successful.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
And what's the impact that AF one will have on
feature players?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You know, obviously our goal has always been is that,
you know, we want the next Kurt Warner. You know,
we want the next Jay Gruden. We want the next
set of arena football players to carry our torch into
the NFL. We're already doing that. We're doing that with
the UFL, We're doing that with the NFL, We're doing
that with other leagues. But you know, we're continue to
(14:58):
get on national TV. We're continuing to do the things
to get on that national stage where we are the
premiere non outdoor league in the country. And I think
that given time, you know, we're going to do what
we need to do to be that springball league in
(15:19):
America that everyone's watching.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
And that kind of went into the question, what's the
negotiations like with getting on whether it's TV, whether it's digital.
You know, what's that going on?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
You know, our president Jared Woman's working on that. He's
working with the production company that we use for the
twenty twenty four playoffs. We're currently in talks with several networks.
We have one of the networks we'll actually be presenting
at our Arena Football Owners conference here in a few
weeks in Chicago, So they're definitely in the loop about things,
(15:59):
and we're trying to figure out out what exactly we
can do to increase excitement for our game. I mean,
I can tell you one thing that has stood out
so much to me that we need to take advantage
of is we need to be micing up our refts.
We need to be micing up our owners. I thought
(16:19):
one of the most interesting things is I was watching
the playoff game between Orlando and Nashville, and Nashville's coach
was arguing with the white hat, you know, the head
referee in that game, just arguing over our call. And
it was such a great interaction that it really explains
to the fans what's going on between coaches, what's going
on between the rest, what kind of conversations are actually
(16:40):
taking place. And I think we need more of that.
I think that's a new aspect or a new dimension
of the game that the average football fan would absolutely enjoy.
I mean, I think it'd be great if we were
watching you know, the NFL this weekend and we can
hear those side judges arguing with the coach stand back,
you know, arguing over calls, you know, just bs and
(17:01):
them with them about the game, things like that. I
think that's it humanizes the game. It's more than just
a number, it's more than just a play. It's just
more than a score. But you you you learn to
like a player or a ref or a coach based
on that personality. And I think we need to do
more of that. And that's why when we meet with
our production companies, when we meet with these TV network
(17:23):
people execs that they're coming to us with what their
data says our fans want, football fans want, and how
we can incorporate that into our game moving forward. You know,
we don't want the streaming issues. We want high quality production.
You know, the IFL Championship game that was on CBS
Sports started with their sideline reffs Mike not working, So
(17:45):
we want to make sure that that's not our first impression.
You know, we want a solid, reliable broadcast that's comparable
to something that you're going to see on Sundays on
the NFL. And you know, we have that ambition, we
have that skill set, we have that knowledge, and we
have the right people to make that happen, you know.
And so I think the sky's the limit with AF one.
We're going to do what we need to do to
(18:07):
be the premier springball league in America. And I know
that we have the right people, we have the right ideas,
we have the right ambition, and I think sky's the limit.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Just a few more questions. Walk me through the upcoming timeline.
I know you briefly mentioned you have an owner's meeting.
I know your preparents are roll out more teams. What's
the timeline leading up to the inaugural season of Arena
Football one?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Right, We're still I expect our schedules to be released
between mid and late October, so we got about six
weeks before our schedules come out. We're finalizing our venues.
When you know, our first weekend is going to be
as early as possible, when half of our venues are available.
I mean, that's how you know if you can play
football or not that you're going to have venue availability
(18:55):
I know, and Billings for example, we don't have arena
availability till mid eight and so that means we're going
to be under away games start until we have our
first weekend open, and so other venues are the exact opposite.
They have March open, April open, but then they start
to shut down towards May with graduations and other activities
that they're locale and to have may have. So you know,
(19:18):
we're working on that right now. We have an owner's
conference here towards the end of September in Chicago for
four days. There's gonna be a lot discussed. We're having
a lot of presentations, you know, a lot of vendors,
you know, football companies, uniform companies, network TV production. We're
gonna have competition committees going to start meeting to look
over rule sets. I anticipate that we're going to start
(19:41):
reaching out to our fan base here in the next
week or two suggesting what kind of rules should be
changed or altered, and.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Really ways to create a new level of fan engagement,
even if it's something as little as you know, getting
on Facebook each team saying hey, you know, Billings Outlaws
are home this weekend.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Should we we wear, we have an all and just
having engagement. You know, should we have a wide out,
should we be wearing our wide away jerseys, our white pants,
wide away blue or white jersey blue pants, letting the
fans choose what jerseys are are our teams are wearing
something so simple as that. To create that level of
(20:23):
fan engagement that you know, no one's really taken advantage
of fan controlled football became really exciting because you know,
people watching the game really we're controlling the outcome of
the game. And I think there's a lot we can
take away from, uh, the engagement, even if it's fans
voting during the game what dance the cheerleaders should perform.
(20:46):
I mean, we can do different things to create that
engagement without affecting the outcome of the game. And so
those are the things we're looking at. We anticipate, you know,
Mark April kickoff and ju July August or aabowl. I
anticipate that the ARENABWL will be at the highest seed.
Unless you know, someone's some casino, some arena, some cities
(21:10):
wanting to drop a check to host us, which will
happily Greton. If anyone's interested, they can reach out to
me and we'll put them in the right direction. But
I anticipate us not losing three or four hundred thousand
dollars on a stupid, stupid idea that no one can
pay for except the team owners, which have sacrificed so
much this season. I can't tell you how angry I
(21:31):
am with G six and Chris Chetty about the continuous
lies that they just continue to double down on throughout
the season. And the fact of the matter is they're
not forking over the bill. There's no additional money in
my pocket, there's no additional money in Albany's pocket, there's
no additional money in Jeff Fisher's pocket to make us whole.
(21:51):
It's just frustrating being lied to again. But I anticipate
that they'll see a courtroom sooner rather than later the
answer to what they did as well.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Perfect. That was going to be one of my questions.
What was your message to G six Sports? But I
think we got it there. Just lastly, what's your message
to the fans? What can they expect that may you
touched on it a little bit, but Pashua fans get
excited for the inaugural season.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I think once we you know, we're already seeing that
our social media team has already been working hard and
having informal Q and as on Twitter, on x Make
sure you follow us on our social media's thea flor
I'm sorry, theaf one dot com to get all the
links on all of our socials. We're going to see
a new level of fan engagement that you don't see
(22:40):
the IFL having, you don't see the NAAL having, you
don't see any other indoor league have. Let's vote on
rule changes, let's look at rerle changes, Let's bring to
the fans. Let the fans propose rule changes. Because at
the end of the day, there is no arena football
without the fans. There is no arena football without our partners.
There is no arena football without making sure our fans
(23:02):
are happy and that we're putting out a quality product.
And so that's what I foresee happening very quickly, is
that we do the things we need to do to
create that fan engagement. More Q and as, more interviews
with the Commissioner, more interviews with Jerry, more interviews with Gary.
We have an all star cast here with the af one.
(23:22):
It's time to just show the trailer for their All
Star movie, which will be the twenty twenty five season.
I think we have a lot to offer our fans.
I think that you know, when they're paying their fifteen
or twenty dollars ticket every week, we know how hard
they work for that money. We know that there's so
much other stuff they could do with that money. And
it's very flattering when you see three, four or five
(23:45):
six thousand people at a game, it's spending their harder
earn money to see you be your team play and
walking around billing seeing people wearing billings, outlaws, merchandise, you know, messages, emails,
people congratulating us on the championship. It's very flattering, and
I want to do what we need to do to
keep everyone happy, to keep a quality product on the field.
(24:09):
Make sure we have consistent rule sets that are exercised,
make sure we have good officiating, make sure we have
quality venues with quality teams, and that we have a
great twenty twenty five season all around the country. And
you know it'll be great once the international market gets
announced that you know, we'll we'll be playing all over
(24:30):
It'll be a good year.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Steve Insiders, thank you so much. For joining us saying
good luck next season.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Anthony, thanks again for everything you do and to bring
accountability and transparency to Arena football with the fans have
a lot to thank you for.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Thank you
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