They're Ba-ack...

Philadelphia Soul return to AFL


PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The Philadelphia Soul are returning to the Arena Football League.

The former league champions will return for the 2011 season without their famous former co-owner owner, Jon Bon Jovi. Co-owner Craig Spencer and former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski are part of the new ownership group.

The Soul will play their home games at the Wachovia Center.

The Soul shut down after winning the ArenaBowl championship in 2008.

The AFL canceled its season in 2009 and returned this year with 15 teams under new leadership and economic model.



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Soul Eye Candy...

Some pics from last night Free Soul Show... Damn Richie, holy tight black tee batman...

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Don't Forget...

LISTEN TO BON JOVI PERFORMING LIVE IN PHILADELPHIA TODAY AT 5PM EST


Bon Jovi will give a free, special ticketed performance for former Philadelphia Soul season ticket holders and fans on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at the Wachovia Center at 5:00pm. While only fans with tickets can be admitted, through the cooperation of WMMR, those that can't attend can tune-in live via a commercial-free radio broadcast at 93.3FM in Philadelphia or stream it live via WMMR.com. Be sure to listen in to be part of this special live stream event!

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For Sale: The AFL?

All that’s left of AFL on the block
Print This Story By JOHN LOMBARDO
Staff writer

The AFL’s Philadelphia Soul had to fight to win 17 games and the right to hoist the Jim Foster ArenaBowl trophy in 2008. Now, anyone with a checkbook will likely be able to buy the championship hardware as part of a bankruptcy auction set for Nov. 25.

If the 60-pound silver trophy isn’t attractive enough, how about the authentic playing field from the Grand Rapids Rampage franchise? The field is listed as an asset of the shuttered league, which is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Northern District of Illinois U.S. Bankruptcy Court has appointed a trustee to sell the AFL’s assets.

As a result, the AFL’s intellectual property, including the name and logo for the league and all of its teams’ names and logos, is on the block along with myriad other items, such a 25 boxes of AFL equipment stashed in an O’Hare Airport storage facility, 40 boxes of AFL merchandise, and two flat-screen televisions still attached to a wall in the league’s Chicago office.


It is unclear what the sale means for any future iteration of the league, or whether a buyer of the AFL assets will resurrect it. A group led by Jerry Kurz, a co-investor in the AFL, already has created arenafootbal1, a new startup indoor league based in Tulsa, Okla.

There is no minimum bid or value listed for the assets and all proceeds are earmarked for a wide-ranging list of AFL creditors, including Fifth Third Bank, the largest secured creditor, which is owed $7.7 million. Other nonsecured creditors include former rights holder NBC, which is owed $1.59 million. Former AFL Commissioner David Baker is owed $985,000.

Baker said he is “saddened and disappointed” by what has happened to the league, adding that in 2008, the AFL had a $1 million gate for the ArenaBowl, record expansion fees and record attendance. “I sincerely believed the league was never stronger,” he said.

Former TV rights holder and minority investor ESPN is owed $540,000 and the AFL Philadelphia Soul franchise, co-owned by Jon Bon Jovi, is due $219,250. Full disclosure: Street & Smith’s Sports Group, publisher of SportsBusiness Journal, is owed $6,250 as an unsecured creditor.

“The real value is in the intellectual property,” said Alex Moglia of Moglia Advisors, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based corporate restructuring firm that was appointed on Oct. 20 to serve as the trustee to sell the AFL’s assets. As for the Foster Trophy, it’s likely to be sold after Moglia determines that it is AFL property.

“We preliminarily conclude that the trophy is included,” said John Collen, a partner at Tressler, which is representing Moglia Associates.

The AFL successfully filed in late August to move from a forced Chapter 7 bankruptcy to Chapter 11 protection in late August, the latest twist in the league’s demise. Jim Renacci, owner of the Columbus Destroyers, is listed as acting chief executive officer of the AFL. He did not return calls for comment.

“A Chapter 11 takes the bankruptcy into a public forum and creates a fair and thorough sale process,” said Richard Lauter, an attorney in the Chicago office of the law firm Freeborn & Peters, which has been retained to represent the creditors committee made up of the largest unsecured creditors. “In any bankruptcy, the value of any asset is what someone is willing to pay for it. That’s the hallmark of the bankruptcy sales process.”

The deadline to submit a bid on the AFL is Nov. 20, with the auction set for Nov. 25. There is no requirement that a bid must include all assets listed. It is also possible that a “stalking horse” bid will already be filed by the auction date, a process that could drive up the value of the sale.

“In the sales process, you can have what is known as a stalking horse bid, and it is an initial bid that is out as the baseline for other bidders to exceed,” Lauter said.

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Name Change...

So, I found this little tidbit whilst I was surfing around the web tonight. Apparently the Philadelphia Soul Foundation is now the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation. Don't know what this means for our beloved Philadelphia Soul, but I would hazard to guess the news for the team can't be good. I guess I should be glad I made it to the one game I got to.

For more information and to check out pictures and the new website, click here.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I'm glad he kept the foundation going. Many amazing things have been accomplished through the charitable foundation. But, on the other hand, he has never been one to flaunt his philanthropic efforts. So why would he name the foundation after himself?

Comments, thoughts?

Anyone?

Anyone?

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No Return for AFL, Soul?

It's not looking good for all us Arena Football fans. According to Philly.com a return is not on the radar for the Soul or the AFL.

The 1-year anniversary of the Soul's ArenaBowl championship is days away and rather than celebrate, fans, players and even coaches continue to sit in limbo.

Since suspending the 2009 season 7 months ago, the AFL has sat in purgatory while some owners try to salvage the league and others have thrown up a white flag.

Even Soul co-owner Jon Bon Jovi is struggling to grasp optimism. When asked by the Daily News whether the league would play in 2010, Bon Jovi replied by e-mail, "Do you believe in miracles? Are you a betting man? I said it all in the [New York] Times article. We are trying . . . hard. Every day."

The league, awash in red ink, got the players union's approval in March on a new collective bargaining agreement that basically slashed salaries in half. Still, the franchises in Los Angeles and New Orleans have folded, and others are on the ropes.

"But here's the truth," Bon Jovi told the New York Times 2 weeks ago. "If we come back, we will set a new benchmark for what is sports ownership. This is more than a lockout. We're on the brink of the abyss."

Even if everything came together tomorrow, it's still difficult to imagine a 2010 season beginning in March. Many players have gotten on with their lives and won't be able to resume their football careers at half the pay. There will always be younger players looking for an opportunity, but will the quality of play (and name recognition) be enough to draw crowds at venues such as the Wachovia Center?

Chicago Rush co-owner Mike Ditka earlier this month told the Chicago Sun-Times bluntly: "I would love to see the AFL come back. But if you ain't heard anything by now saying they will, I don't see them coming back because there were too many weak sisters. If the league does [return], it will probably have to scale itself down and make sure it has more solid ownership and much better team management."

At last year's championship parade, Philadelphia coach Bret Munsey sent the City Hall Plaza crowd into a frenzy when he proclaimed that the Soul would repeat. Today, he doesn't even live in the area.

Munsey is the director of player personnel for Orlando, of the fledgling United Football League, where Jim Haslett is the head coach. Munsey moved his family to Florida in June.

"I've had zero communication with ownership and have been in the dark [regarding the return] of Philadelphia and the Arena Football League," he said. "I couldn't sit around and wait. I waited long enough." *

Sorry Big Apple Jovi Girl, I know you were pulling for them to come back. I was too. But, sadly, it doesn't appear that it's meant to be. I guess we just have to keep waiting to see for sure, but it just isn't looking good right at the moment.

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What are our Beloved Soul Doing Now?

Soul players tackling other interests with AFL idle

By ED BARKOWITZ
Philadelphia Daily News
barkowe@phillynews.com

If idle hands are the devil's workshop, think of what Lucifer could do with an entire football team in the midst of an inactive season.

But while facilities all around the Arena Football League sit in darkness, a number of the Soul's premier players have resisted temptation and instead gotten on with their lives. No choice. The league flushed 2009 down the toilet back in December and the future beyond '09 has remained in limbo ever since.

The thoughts of star wide receiver Chris Jackson, who turned 34 in February, are a common theme among AFL players in exile.

"It has forced me to not procrastinate about thinking about life after football," said Jackson, who helped lead Philadelphia to the 2008 AFL title in his first season with the Soul. "Do I go through my savings account or do I try to do something else? It has forced me to go back to school and explore other options."

This time last year, Jackson was playing football. Now, he's pursuing a master's degree at the University of Phoenix and will coach at St. Mary's High School in Phoenix where his son will be a freshman this fall.

A vice president in the AFL Players Association, Jackson was part of the group that agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement in March that slashed the salary cap in half to around $1 million per team.

"We've done all we can," he said. "It's all in the owners' hands at this point."

Until the owners come to an agreement on the new business plan, the league sits.

When last we saw Matt D'Orazio, he was rolling along the championship parade route on Market Street last July. He had come off the bench midway through the year and quarterbacked the Soul to a title in just its fifth season; grabbing Arena-Bowl MVP honors along the way.

Instead of defending that title, D'Orazio is headed for a shot at the other extreme of football. Compared to Arena Football, the dimensions of the Canadian Football League are akin to Ray Kinsella's corn patch in "Field of Dreams." Through Pete Costanza, his former offensive coordinator at Columbus (Ohio) of the AFL, D'Orazio will take a shot at making the roster of the Calgary Stampeders. Training camp begins the first week of June.

"Usually, I try to think positive, but I'm flying out to Calgary [for camp]," D'Orazio said. "It's a 35-hour drive from Columbus and I didn't want to have to drive back in 2 weeks if I didn't make the team. Seventy hours in 2 weeks would be rough."

The Stampeders won the 2008 Grey Cup and have three other quarterbacks on the roster, including incumbent starter Henry Burris, a Temple product.

For being named the ArenaBowl MVP, D'Orazio was presented with a canary-yellow Mitsubishi convertible that barely could hold his equipment much less provide comfort for his 6-4 frame. Just like the 2009 AFL season, that vehicle is long gone.

"We got rid of it and got a minivan," laughed D'Orazio, who has a 2-year-old daughter and a 5-month-old son. "If this was 10 years down the road when we didn't need two car seats, maybe I would have kept it."

The shutdown led to the end of Tony Graziani's stellar Arena football career. Graziani, who turned 35 in December, has decided to retire.

One of the league's all-time greats, Graziani arrived in Philadelphia before 2005 and gave the organization a face. He was coming off a season in Los Angeles in which he threw a ridiculous 99 touchdowns with just five interceptions. The Soul gave him the league's richest contract at $165,000 annually. Those days, like D'Orazio's convertible, are a distant memory.

"I'm getting out of shape as quickly as I can," Graziani joked. "I'm working on my 'office' body."

Graziani, who works in commercial real estate, will continue to serve on the AFL Players Association's executive board and serve as an analyst for Sports USA radio.

Among other Soul players, defensive lineman Gabe Nyenhuis (Saskatchewan) and offensive lineman Phil Bogle (Montreal) have signed with the CFL. Defensive back Eddie Moten is one of the remaining contestants of Michael Irvin's reality TV series "4th & Long" on the Versus network. Fellow defensive back Rob Keefe is an assistant coach with Spokane, of af2.

"With the year we had [in 2008], it would have been nice to play this year," D'Orazio said from his home in Columbus. "It's so rare to win a championship and it would have been fun to come back and have a ring ceremony and reconnect with the fans." *


Source: Philadelphia Daily News

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Arena Football, Coming Back?

I certainly hope so and from the sounds of this article, so does Ron Jaworski. I'm not holding my breath, but I just might have to keep my fingers crossed...

Arena Football leaders to discuss business plan

There is a meeting today in Chicago that could serve as the next step to breathing life back into Arena Football.

Philadelphia Soul president Ron Jaworski characterized the gathering as "an informational meeting." Fans hope that its direct result will be a resumption of the sport.

"I'm incredibly confident that we will be playing next year," Jaworski said. Co-owner Craig Spencer will represent the Soul in Chicago.

The biggest hurdle is having the owners ratify a business plan that proponents hope will stem the sea of red ink that forced the league to shut down in 2009. The Soul won the league's championship in 2008.

According to a report in the Sports Business Journal, the gist of the plan would call for the AFL to use outside companies for ticket sales, marketing and other league business. In March, the players union agreed to a modified collective bargaining agreement that, most significantly, slashed the salary cap in half to somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million per team.

In other team news, Soul defensive back Eddie Moten will be a contestant on "4th & Long," a reality-TV show led by former Dallas Cowboys star Michael Irvin that premieres at 10 o'clock tonight on the Versus network.

The contest features six wide receivers and six defensive backs in an intense competition that will give the winner a spot on the Cowboys' training-camp roster. Each week, one player will be cut. Former Soul wide receiver Steve Gonzalez also is a contestant. *

source: Philly.com

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AFL On its Way Back?

I'm hoping we get our Soul back next season and, according to the following, we may be that much closer to seeing it happen. Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

AFL taking new plan to owners
ESPN.com

The Arena Football League, which suspended play for the 2009 season, said Thursday it has a revitalized business plan ready to present to the league's 16 remaining teams.

Jim Renacci, the co-owner of the Columbus Destroyers and chairman of the AFL executive committee, said details of the plan will be shared with owners "over the next two weeks."

"The group that developed the new viability plan is set to meet with owners across the league to review it and the amendments to the [collective bargaining agreement]," Renacci said in a league-issued news release. "We hope to see everything ratified in the next 30 days."
In March, AFL players and management said they reached agreement on a new CBA. A term sheet was signed by both sides.

"The owners of the AFL realize we have the most fan-friendly, affordable and accessible sport anywhere," Craig Spencer, co-owner of the Philadelphia Soul, said in the news release. "The process of revamping our business model will ensure that the AFL continues to provide value to its fans, not only surviving in the years to come, but thriving. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I am excited that we are close to bringing this great game back to the fans."

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