By: Matthew Hester
Southern Indoor Football League
Media Relations Director

COLUMBUS, GA (JULY 20, 2010) – A day after it held its Championship Game, owners and league executives from around the Southern Indoor Football League convened for their annual season-ending league meetings at the Columbus Civic Center.

SIFL executives, team owners, coaches, and prospective members met at the Columbus Civic Center on Monday to discuss ways on improving the league, encouraging directions worth keeping around, and among other things expansion.

Some of the hot topic issues were of course the Houston and Greenville situations that hampered the SIFL from having a successful 2010 season.  Much of the morning’s discussion was centered on ways the current owners could be protected from problems like Houston and Greenville from re-occurring. 

“Were there some challenges this season? Without a doubt,” says Southern Indoor Football League President Thom Hager.  “We will learn from those mistakes and concentrate on becoming more stable by developing better marketing strategies for each of our teams, keeping the emphasis growing in areas of season tickets and securing team profitability.” 

Other topics discussed were helping officials better interpret the current SIFL rule book.  Some rule changes are likely to occur, but some fan favorites such as the “Uno” and “Ray-Rule” are expected to stay put.  Rule changes will be voted upon by the coaches and owners at the upcoming Winter Meetings taking place in early December.

“We have one of the most simplistic rule books in all of indoor sports,” says Hager.  “But their instances that allows certain rules to be interpreted different by the officials, those open interpretations must be solidified for the 2011 season.”

Lastly, prospective expansion members were in attendance while several other locations were discussed about joining such as Chattanooga, TN; Macon, GA; Augusta, GA; Mobile, AL; Jackson, MS; Tupelo, MS; Biloxi, MS; southeast Texas, and within the Florida panhandle.

“We have no desire to become the fastest growing league, we want to a strong foundation of clubs ensuring a stable footprint for the south,” iterates Hager.  “Our ultimate goal is two have a separate east and west divisions but we must be cautious not to grow too quickly and sacrifice the quality of ownership groups.”

The owners and coaches will reconvene on December 6th and 7th for the Winter Meetings set to take place in Lake Charles, LA.  At those meetings, the league hopes to put the final touches on their 2011 schedule consisting of 12 games, as well as having selected a new commissioner as current commissioner Dan Blum expressed his interest on focusing exclusively on officiating. 

For more information from around the Southern Indoor Football League, be sure to stay tuned to www.southernifl.com.