Post by fwp on Apr 28, 2010 9:58:45 GMT -5
www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/sports/professional/article/SPED28_20100427-223004/340549/
Ten years ago tonight, the curtain lifted on Richmond's first Indoor War. It was a huge success at the gate, a flop on the Coliseum's new 50-yard long carpet.
Two arena-football franchises -- the Richmond Revolution, of the Indoor Football League, and the Richmond Raiders, of the American Indoor Football Association -- kicked off inaugural seasons this year. They draw 3,000-4,000 to home games on most nights.
The Richmond Speed, of arenafootball2, played the first indoor football game here April 28, 2000, and 10,631 fans at the Coliseum answered the opening-night buzz. Not many in the near-capacity crowd knew what to expect of the Speed and the Augusta Stallions, with eight-men sides, rebound nets affixed to goal posts, and the game's quirky rules, with which even officials struggled that Friday night a decade ago.
Maybe the Coliseum has been louder for a Springsteen concert, or in the final minute of a tight championship game in the Colonial Athletic Association basketball tournament. But that's unlikely. The between-snaps music mixed with crowd noise was nearly as overwhelming as the Stallions, who romped 44-13. Augusta rang up 37 unanswered points after Richmond scored the evening's first touchdown.
"I didn't even really know the plays," Speed receiver Tim Mack said after the game.
Mack, from East Carolina, was one of five midweek additions on the 18-man roster by coach Durwood Roquemore. Players practiced at night after completing their day jobs, and were paid $200 a game, with a $50 bonus for each victory. The Speed's personnel shuffle, made in response to an 0-3 start, did not enhance offensive continuity.
Former University of Richmond quarterback Jimmie Miles, an alumnus of George Wythe High, passed 32 times and completed 9 for the Speed. He spent most of the game escaping the Stallions' rush, or buried by it.
"The indoor game was so much faster. You had to get rid of the ball so quickly, and I wasn't used to that yet," Miles, 33, said this week from Northern Virginia, where he works as a government contractor. Miles recalled Speed blockers supplying maximum effort, but minimal protection, on that historic occasion.
"We were all so new, and things changed in a second," he said. "That's all right. I didn't have much of a line in high school, so I was used to getting hit."
Perhaps the Speed would have maintained very strong home attendance if that opening act in front of so many curious observers had gone better. But Richmond fans seemed turned off by confounding rules that were very different from the outdoor game, numerous officials' meetings to decipher the infractions, dropped passes, and an overall lack of execution by Richmond.
Harry Feuerstein, the Speed's managing partner, said following the game that his biggest disappointment, was that "we didn't show people what arena football is all about."
The Speed closed its first season with an eight-game average home attendance of 5,925. By the franchise's fourth season, the team had changed ownership, and coaches a few times. The average home attendance in 2003 was 3,570, and the Speed folded.
But on this night a decade ago, the Coliseum was the place to be, and it was "Go Time," the Speed's motto.
"Everybody came out. Richmond supported us. It was all there," Miles said. "We just didn't play well."
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Contact John O'Connor at (804) 649-6233 or joconnor@timesdispatch.com .
Ten years ago tonight, the curtain lifted on Richmond's first Indoor War. It was a huge success at the gate, a flop on the Coliseum's new 50-yard long carpet.
Two arena-football franchises -- the Richmond Revolution, of the Indoor Football League, and the Richmond Raiders, of the American Indoor Football Association -- kicked off inaugural seasons this year. They draw 3,000-4,000 to home games on most nights.
The Richmond Speed, of arenafootball2, played the first indoor football game here April 28, 2000, and 10,631 fans at the Coliseum answered the opening-night buzz. Not many in the near-capacity crowd knew what to expect of the Speed and the Augusta Stallions, with eight-men sides, rebound nets affixed to goal posts, and the game's quirky rules, with which even officials struggled that Friday night a decade ago.
Maybe the Coliseum has been louder for a Springsteen concert, or in the final minute of a tight championship game in the Colonial Athletic Association basketball tournament. But that's unlikely. The between-snaps music mixed with crowd noise was nearly as overwhelming as the Stallions, who romped 44-13. Augusta rang up 37 unanswered points after Richmond scored the evening's first touchdown.
"I didn't even really know the plays," Speed receiver Tim Mack said after the game.
Mack, from East Carolina, was one of five midweek additions on the 18-man roster by coach Durwood Roquemore. Players practiced at night after completing their day jobs, and were paid $200 a game, with a $50 bonus for each victory. The Speed's personnel shuffle, made in response to an 0-3 start, did not enhance offensive continuity.
Former University of Richmond quarterback Jimmie Miles, an alumnus of George Wythe High, passed 32 times and completed 9 for the Speed. He spent most of the game escaping the Stallions' rush, or buried by it.
"The indoor game was so much faster. You had to get rid of the ball so quickly, and I wasn't used to that yet," Miles, 33, said this week from Northern Virginia, where he works as a government contractor. Miles recalled Speed blockers supplying maximum effort, but minimal protection, on that historic occasion.
"We were all so new, and things changed in a second," he said. "That's all right. I didn't have much of a line in high school, so I was used to getting hit."
Perhaps the Speed would have maintained very strong home attendance if that opening act in front of so many curious observers had gone better. But Richmond fans seemed turned off by confounding rules that were very different from the outdoor game, numerous officials' meetings to decipher the infractions, dropped passes, and an overall lack of execution by Richmond.
Harry Feuerstein, the Speed's managing partner, said following the game that his biggest disappointment, was that "we didn't show people what arena football is all about."
The Speed closed its first season with an eight-game average home attendance of 5,925. By the franchise's fourth season, the team had changed ownership, and coaches a few times. The average home attendance in 2003 was 3,570, and the Speed folded.
But on this night a decade ago, the Coliseum was the place to be, and it was "Go Time," the Speed's motto.
"Everybody came out. Richmond supported us. It was all there," Miles said. "We just didn't play well."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact John O'Connor at (804) 649-6233 or joconnor@timesdispatch.com .