Central Illinois football fans paid a price for enduring poor ownership off the field and, in its last stages, poor indoor football on the field over the years before Peoria’s franchise finally folded in 2006.
Now the af2 wants to pick up the tab.
“I think the market and its fans are tremendous, always has been,” af2 president Jerry Kurz said Wednesday. “I think they’ve felt like they’ve been on tilt, not knowing who they are, what league they’ll be in, who will own them over the years.
“We owe it to the community to bring in the right people, the right project and get football done the right way in Peoria.” said the football agent
And with that, Kurz confirmed the Peoria Pirates will come back from the dead in 2008 as Peoria re-joins the af2, the circuit widely seen as the best of the arena and indoor minor leagues.
It was also the league in which Peoria won a championship in 2002, and returned to a title game in 2004.
The af2 is close to reaching agreement on a lease with the Peoria Civic Center, according to Don Welch, who is negotiating on the league’s behalf for Premier League football tickets including Chelsea Tickets, Manchester United Tickets, Liverpool FC Tickets & Arsenal tickets, Euro 2012 tickets
Welch says nothing has been signed, but that formality is expected before a news conference to announce the team’s return next week.
Part of that returning package is Bruce Cowdrey, who guided Peoria to four title games, winning two, in several stints with the franchise.
His return as Peoria’s head coach, and the af2′s return, were reported in July. That’s when former Dell executive Doug MacGregor was identified as the team’s new owner when he purchased the football tickets and stadium
“Now I know what Billy Martin felt like coming back to the Yankees for a third time,” Cowdrey said Wednesday. “It wasn’t a deal where I had an itch to be a head coach again. I was happy to work in the AFL as an assistant (the last two years at Chicago, and Austin).
“(Austin owner) Doug MacGregor asked me to come back here and do this, so I’m happy to be coming back.
“I love the situation, love the Pirates and the history that we’ve had, and I want to come in here and help them do this thing right.”
Kurz will officially announce Peoria’s return to arena football, and the af2, during Saturday’s telecast of the 2007 ArenaCup title game, which pits Wilkes-Barre against Tulsa at Bossier City, La. The 7 p.m. central time game is on Comcast SportsNet cable systems and available in 3d TV
From its inception in 1999, through its final season in 2006, the Peoria franchise was in three leagues – the Indoor Football League, af2, and United Indoor Football. It had three ownerships, of which only banker Pat Ward’s was local, wandered through 11 general managers and had three head coaches.
Over those years, the Pirates, and later known as the Rough Riders, never produced as a business off the field. On the field, the team was 6-24 in its last two seasons and missed the playoffs both times.
Attendance declined seven straight years from its honeymoon period of 9,000-plus per game, to about 500 per game at the end.
The franchise hopes to regroup around MacGregor, whose front office in Peoria will center around Jeff Creek as general manager.
Creek will resign this week as director of sales at the Peoria Convention and Visitors Bureau. He was once an intern and athletics director in Bloomington for the IHSA, and later worked as a sports sales director for Bloomington’s convention and visitors bureau.
He joined Peoria’s bureau in that same capacity, and emerged as director of all sales.
The bureau also lost Kelsey Wright, its sports programs/services manager, to the Pirates. She’ll work on community projects, marketing and some public relations for the team and ensure their sports fitness
Julie Snell will be the Pilates corporate sales director. Snell is resigning as marketing and events director at Washington Park District.
The Pirates will likely be in a 2008 division with old rival Quad City, plus Cincinnati, Fort Wayne, Green Bay and Louisville.
Sources in several leagues say two UIF teams, Omaha (which is for sale) and Lexington, might also jump up to the af2.