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Printer-Friendly ModeSaginaw gets stung
7 on 7 arena football coming to TheDow next March
November 19, 2007 —
A new kind of "sting" in mid-Michigan's Continental Indoor Football League will grace the Saginaw community in the 2008 season. The Dow Event Center and SMG Management announced the arrival of a new indoor football team, the Saginaw Sting.
With the arrival of the Saginaw Spirit hockey team five years ago and the Loons' inaugural season just having finished up, the idea of adding an arena football team to the list is no surprise. Both the hockey and baseball teams have received significant support.
Owner and General Manager Mike Johnson announced the Sting's head coach to be Carl Featherstone, a former college and professional player. Featherstone served in the U.S. Marine Corps. and has past experience coaching high school football. In addition to these experiences, the new coach also played for the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL and the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League.
Johnson is looking forward to the new season and said Saginaw was one of his main choices when deciding where to bring the new team.
"The arena was open to having a new team," he said. "When you're wanted, that's nice."
Hoping to provide a family atmosphere in which everyone can have fun, the 27-year-old general manager wants to give back and stay involved with the Saginaw community.
The Dow Events Center will host six of the Sting's home games. Even in a short season, Assistant General Manager in Sales and Marketing Regina Brown-Demski feels the new team will bring more than football games to the facility and community.
"The team will add an additional entertainment to choose from, continued quality of life issues, economic impact from tourism and the support to the Dow Event Center," she said.
Once the schedule is finalized, Johnson said the next step is building a fan base that he hopes to find in the community and at SVSU. He believes the games will be a fun event for students to attend at an affordable price.
Sophomore Matt Pierson believes if the Sting has fans comparable to that of the Spirit, the team will be successful not just throughout the community, but at the national level as well.
"If there are as many ecstatic Sting fans as Spirit fans, with the emergence of the SVSU football program improving, I believe Saginaw has a chance of being a well-known sport-crazy city around the entire U.S.," he said.
Johnson said internship and job opportunities will become available to students seeking these positions. He is unsure when the descriptions will be posted, but said interested students should keep checking their Web site.
The Sting will hold a mini-camp and tryouts in February for interested athletes, choosing 30 to 35 athletes to add to the roster. The teams can have 25 players on the roster, dressing 21 for the games.
Johnson said anyone is welcome to try out for team, but cautions that the athletes in the league are very talented.
"We're looking for high level caliber players," he said. "It's very difficult to make it without first playing at the collegiate level."
This level of competition provides an incentive for the players, paying them $100 to $300 per game. This amount, however, does not include twice weekly practices which are unpaid.
The CIFL has a unique style of indoor football, complete with the 7-on-7 concept being played on a 50-yard football field. The professional league has been around since the 1920s and does not own any or part of any team. The CIFL currently holds 12 teams for the 2008 season, three of which are in Michigan. Included in these three are the new Saginaw Sting, the Muskegon Thunder and the Kalamazoo Xplosion.
The event center's announcement stated the new team will add to the community's quality of life and to the choices of entertainment available for the residents of the tri-county area. The 2008 inaugural season will begin in March and run through June with playoffs. Tickets are expected to range between $6 and $14. Season tickets will go on sale in December, following the finalization of the Sting's game schedule in the next few weeks.
Some facts:
- Home games will be played at TheDow Events Center.
- Team is an expansion franchise of the CIFL, or Continental Indoor Football League.
- Games are 7 on 7 and played on a 50-yard field.
- Other teams include: Chicago Slaughter, Chesapeake Tide, Lehigh Valley Oulaws, Kalamazoo Explosion, Marion Mayhem, New England Surge, Miami Valley Silverbacks, New Jersey Revolution, Milwaukee Bonecrushers, Rochster Raiders, and Muskegon Thunder.