Let's Talk About The Great Indoors.
Yes, I seriously mean that. Brand New Shield, the Blog and the upcoming Podcast are covering all aspects of football. A topic of importance that needs to be written about more is the rise, fall, and the ruins that remain in regards to Arena/Indoor Football.
Arena Football was originally an idea drawn up on paper, much like many of my ideas to improve football are. Then the idea evolved over time and led to actual patents. The patents were then put into a holding company and through a series of events, the Arena Football League was born. In 1987 there was a trial season and from 1988-2019, the league operated with a significant footprint though there were some interesting goings on behind the scenes. In 2009, the original Arena Football League and its little brother if you will af2 were dissolved. In 2010, a unified league with some franchises from both the original Arena Football League and af2 formed the new Arena Football League. This lasted until 2019 and the Arena Football League has been dormant since.
There have been other Arena/Indoor Leagues that have come and gone such as the National Indoor Football League, the Continental Indoor Football League, and yes, even the cryptocurrency driven Fan Controlled Football League. What all these leagues have in common, including the original Arena Football League, was unstable team ownership, over reliance on celebrity endorsement, paltry player salaries, and an absolutely absurd amount of franchise relocation. These problems still persist in Arena Football/Indoor Football today.
The current leagues going on right now are AF1 (whose leadership is over reliant on celebrity endorsement), the IFL which has struggled to gain any real traction, the National Arena League which is in the same boat as the IFL, and The Arena League which is a regional attempt at recreating a Midway football video game without the things that made Midway football video games fun. There is a mantle to be had here to lead arena/indoor football into the future which unfortunately no one has taken yet.
At its height, Arena Football was incredibly popular airing on ESPN2 with a couple of video games made by Electronic Arts (the people who make Madden). After a series of bad decisions behind the scenes at the AFL, it faltered, had a little bit of a comeback, then disappeared for good. What's now left are scattershot leagues that lack direction and a version of the nation's most popular sport that should be much more mainstream is now an afterthought at best.
The opportunity to truly create a Brand New Shield in my view is actually in the indoor game. It can't be the same as the current and all prior attempts though, it has to bring something different to the proverbial table. Before you ask, yes, there are ideas for this, but publishing them in a blog for everyone to see I don't think is the correct move at the moment. The time will hopefully come when the Brand New Shield becomes a reality and such ideas can be shared in full.