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Storm Looking At Short-Term Effects

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By ADAM ADKINS

aadkins@tampatrib.com

Published: December 16, 2008

TAMPA - The news Tampa Bay Storm officials were dreading for the past few weeks officially came to fruition Monday when the Arena Football League announced the 2009 season would be suspended.

The league's board of directors voted Sunday to approve the measure, which according to a league statement is still subject to the agreement of the AFL Players Association. The plan is for the league to construct a new business model that will ensure the long-term stability of the AFL and return to operations in 2010.

While the long term is what the AFL is hoping to stabilize, on Monday the short term was on the mind of Tampa Bay coach Tim Marcum, who still can't buy into the reasoning for suspending operations.

"How can this be good for this league? How can taking a year off be good for any league?," Marcum asked rhetorically. "We want to play. Storm majority owner Dr. Bob Nucci is concerned about the fans, concerned about the players. We're fighting. You see that we're fighting in every way that we possibly can to make the '09 season a reality. We can only do so much."

What Marcum said Storm representatives couldn't do during a conference call Sunday with the AFL's board of directors was convince enough of the league's other teams that playing this season was in the AFL's best interests. Marcum said the board voted 12-5 in favor of suspending operations, with New York, San Jose, Arizona and the representative from league patent-holder Gridiron Enterprises joining Tampa Bay in the minority.

Sunday's vote was the second in five days by the board, which is comprised of a representative from each of the league's 16 teams and one from Gridiron. On Wednesday, the board voted not to suspend the season. However, Marcum said Chicago changed its stance on the issue shortly after the initial vote, causing the board to vote again. Marcum said Orlando changed its stance Sunday, and that gave the board the two-thirds majority needed to suspend operations.

For Garry Adams, an avid Storm fan since the franchise moved to the Bay area from Pittsburgh in 1991, Monday's announcement was very disheartening.

"I can't imagine a year without Arena Football," said Adams, 51, a Tampa resident and Storm season ticket-holder since 1997. "And if they don't come back, it will be tragic."

Adams said he has many fond memories during his time following the Storm, including one of Marcum that truly expressed the league's fan-first philosophy, something Adams said no other professional sports league can match.

Following a game two years ago, Adams said his wife approached Marcum and asked the coach if he'd be willing to place a call at some point to offer some well-wishes and words of encouragement to his ill father-in-law, who was unable to attend that night's game. To Adams' surprise, Marcum did her one better.

"He called him right there from the plaza outside the Forum," Adams said. "You don't get that from the NFL."

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