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Storm coach saddened by reports of league's demise

Tribune file photo (2005)

The Tampa Bay Storm, who play their home games at the St. Pete Times Forum, were five-time league champions.

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 4, 2009

Updated: 08/04/2009 03:56 pm

TAMPA - Tampa Bay Storm head coach Tim Marcum is inclined to believe reports of the Arena Football League's pending demise.

And he is saddened.

A charter member of the league since 1987 and Tampa Bay's coach since 1995, Marcus said Tuesday he's hearing the same things being reported in the media about the league's plan to fold.

"I don't know anything other than what you guys know, but I know whatever will happen will happen pretty quick,'' Marcum said. "If we didn't have the debt that we have, we'd be playing right now. But the leadership we had took us down this road.''

The AFL suspended play last season amid financial difficulties.

The league's pending demise is being reported by several news outlets, with the Facebook page of former Tampa Bay Storm president Jim Borghesi a fueling source. On it, Borghesi writes: "The AFL will be having a press conference to announce that the league will not be returning," according to the Albany-Times Union in New York.

Borghesi, a cousin of Storm owner Bob Nucci, was hired by the team in January 2008 but was let go later in the year.

Marcum is the winningest coach in Arena league history with 173 wins with the Denver Dynamite, Detroit Drive and Storm. He won seven championships, including three with Tampa Bay. He won Coach of the Year honors in 1987 and 1998, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998 and received the Founder's Award in 2001.

"I have 20 years of my coaching career invested in this,'' Marcum said. "It's a sad day, we started this with four teams.''

Arizona Rattlers majority owner Brett Bouchy confirmed the AFL's end with the Orlando Sentinel and said the league expects to go into Chapter 7 litigation. Grand Rapids Rampage executive Scott Gorsline denied there were bankruptcy plans, but other publications reported confirmations of Bouchy's statements.

The league suspended operations indefinitely after its board of directors couldn't agree Thursday on how to move forward.

The plan to revamp the league was developed by Columbus Destroyers owner Jim Renacci.

"The board has worked diligently for the last six to nine months, coming up with numerous plans to bring in front of the owners," Renacci told the Columbus Dispatch. "The board has not been able to get a supermajority to approve. At this point, we're suspended indefinitely until we come up with the next plan."

Bouchy said the owners could never get a consensus.

"You had one group of committed owners who contributed capital and [were] willing to do whatever it took to bring the league back in 2010," he told the Sentinel. "I have been in that group the entire time. Then there was another group that just wasn't willing to make the investment."

The stalemate proved "too tough a hurdle to get over," Gorsline told the Grand Rapids Press in Michigan. "We needed to get 75 percent of the votes to continue with any plan. We just couldn't get that."

The league has yet to make an announcement or publicly say one is coming. Profootballtalk.com reported one may come by Wednesday.

Bouchy and Gorsline didn't rule out the possibility that some of the franchises may regroup and play somewhere in 2010, either in a new league or with the minor-league arenafootball2.

According to sources, the AFL's owners lost a combined $41 million in 2008. Two teams from that season, Los Angeles and New Orleans, are defunct.

After suspending the 2009 season in December, a new collective bargaining agreement between the league and players was finalized in March. Terms called for a nearly 50 percent reduction in the salary cap and reduced health benefits and insurance to the players.

Owners never ratified the CBA, and the league abruptly terminated all benefits to players on June 1.

The Storm, who play their home games at the St. Pete Times Forum, are a five-time league champion. The league began play in 1987.

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