ROANOKE, Va. – The new startup indoor football league set to bring arena football to Roanoke announced Tuesday its inaugural season is delayed, but said the season will still happen despite speculation by players, local leaders and fans that the league will not materialize. Among the many red flags is the fact that the team has yet to make its down payment on the rent for the Berglund Center, where it's set to play.
According to the schedule posted online, the Virginia Iron Horses were set to host the Mississippi Mudcats March 31 at the Berglund Center. League Chariman Joe McClendon said the league as a whole is not ready to meet that deadline and instead opted to delay the season until May.
"We could move forward if we want but I just don’t feel comfortable enough with everything, we want a great first experience and I don’t want to rush that process," McClendon said. "So if that takes just up a slight delay so our fans can have the best experience possible than by all means we’re going to do that."
As of a two weeks ago, the league was making announcements about the last team to join, the Texas Big Horns based in Beaumont, Texas and said the league is now fully fleshed out. McClendon said it's difficult to start a new league from scratch and there were unforeseen hurdles dealing with the local governments and venues in each of the places that would house a team. He said the league wants more days to market the teams and the bureaucratic red tape in other cities cost them precious time.
City of Roanoke leaders made their announcement the team was coming in June 2018 with excitement, looking to build off the success of other sports franchises like the Rail Yard Dawgs. Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea stood front and center at the team's unveiling last summer and now questions whether or not the money to fund the team and the league exists.
"We want arena football, I'm disappointed because I looked forward to football in the spring," Lea said.
According to Lea, the team has yet to pay its rent to the Berglund Center. There's not a mention of the team anywhere on the signs or marquee with just two weeks to go before the original scheduled start of the season
"I'm still hoping that there's an outside chance that we'll play, it doesn't look too encouraging but we'll wait and see," Lea said.
Berglund Center Assistant General Manager Mike Stenzler said in this relationship the city and the arena are nothing more than landlords to the team which keeps them a degree removed from the situation and that they had not been kept in the loop by the league. No incentives were given to the team to come to town so if it does fall through there will be no actual cash lost from the city's pockets.
But there is the potential cash that could be lost by the Berglund Center. The team has reserved dates at the arena for its games and if the league backs out that could leave the arena with empty dates that could have been sold to someone else. But Stenzler said the arena has not had to turn away another show because of a scheduling conflict with the proposed team as of yet.
Lea said the Berglund Center has re-opened some of the dates that were originally locked in for the football team.
According to the league, players are expected to move to the Roanoke area over the next week and begin work. McClendon also said the team would be making promotional appearances around town and intends to launch a marketing campaign to get the word out.
Many of the players listed on the roster went to colleges far outside Roanoke and presumably don't live in town. But there are a few local faces on there, like kicker Remington Hinshaw. He played at Patrick Henry High School and then at the University of Richmond and Virginia Tech. He said he was recruited by the team and signed a contract to play but he's not sure if he'll ever actually see a down.
"I think the league has a good vision, I think they intend for it to happen at least I hope they do," Hinshaw said. "My personal opinion is that it was not properly managed to the point to where the infrastructure was created to where it actually would happen."
He signed to the team last year and participated in a scouting event but after that he said communication quickly slowed down. He said there was supposed to be a pre-season camp starting March 7th and that he didn't even receive information that the camp would be postponed until after March 7th.
He questions if the economics are there in this case. He said all of the teams are league owned which means the league is responsible for paying for them all, unlike in other minor league sports where teams are individually owned and typically have visible local investors. Hinshaw now plays rugby for fun and has a full time career in marketing in Roanoke so the opportunity to play again under the lights was not about trying to make it to the NFL. He worries though for some of the players that are still trying to chase the dream.
"I hope for the sake of the guys that would have to quit jobs and move here that it works out for them or that if it does not work out that they have a backup plan," Hinshaw said.
When you try to buy tickets on the team's website, you're only presented options for season tickets and there are no single game options. The league said it's handling its own ticketing and that has factored into the delay as well. Berglund Center staff said questions about tickets needed to be answered by the team.
The National Gridiron League's social media presence is riddled with comments and questions from fans in other cities and arena football insiders who challenge whether the league will ever play a down. But the McClendon said despite the naysayers, the National Gridiron League will happen.
"It's been a tremendous amount of effort and hard work that went into this, we have been a little bit more cautious than other leagues because we just want to make sure everything is right because we only have one chance to make that first impression," McClendon said. "We're pleased and we just want to make sure the presentation is proper."
The league is expected to release its updated schedule within the next week.