No indoor football in Yakima for 2011
January 19, 2011 by YH-R Sports
YAKIMA, Wash. — The indoor football league that included the Yakima Valley Warriors is shutting down for the 2011 season after one year of play.
The move is immediate for the American Indoor Football Association West, league Commissioner Michael Mink said in a news release issued this morning.
He said the league would focus on building a stronger business plan for a 2012 relaunch.
Mink had said in September that he expected the Warriors to “be a staple in Yakima.”
The league was already losing teams that bolted for a rival league. A Tucson, Ariz., franchise that had been expected to be part of the league dropped off the roster of new teams. Only the Yakima and San Jose, Calif., franchises were to remain a part of the original league formation.
Mink said he hopes to bring eight to 12 teams into the league for 2012.
The Wenatchee Valley Venom, the Warriors’ closest rival last year in the AIFA, has joined the Indoor Football League, which also has teams in Kent, Wash., and the Tri-Cities.
Yakima’s last venture into indoor football — the Yakima Shockwave of the National Indoor Football League — also played just one year. The Shockwave completed its 2001 slate despite a coaching and ownership change during the season, and a fluid schedule that saw games moved to different sites within a few days of their scheduled date.
The Shockwave folded just weeks before the start of the 2002 season.
The Yakima Herald-Republic will have more information on this development later at www.yakimaherald.com and www.sportsyakima.com.
- Mark Morey and Jerrel Swenning
Filed under All, Yakima Valley Warriors/AIFA
