City of Kent and ShoWare Center officials are hoping to strike a deal soon with a local ownership group to help bring an Arena Football League 2 team to Kent for the 2010 season.
“We’re still trying to get a deal done,” said Tim Higgins, ShoWare general manager, in a phone interview Aug. 12. “We hope to get it done soon.”
Higgins said more meetings are scheduled with the potential owners.
Jerry Kurz, president of the Chicago-based AF2, met with city of Kent and ShoWare Center officials June 25 at the arena to discuss adding a team in Kent for the 2010 season. The minor-league team would play eight home games at ShoWare during the regular season that runs from mid-March through July.
Kurz said in a June interview that the expansion teams for 2010 would be announced at the league’s championship game Aug. 22 in Las Vegas.
“We may not make that announcement,” Higgins said. “We’re not there yet.”
Negotiations started three months ago between city and ShoWare officials with a potential ownership group.
“We are still in negotiations with an ownership group,” said Ben Wolters, city economic development director, in a phone interview Aug. 11. “Both sides have identified key issues to address.”
Wolters declined to disclose the names of the potential owners. He said the group includes a Kent businessman as well as one other person from the Puget Sound region.
“We need to be assured there’s a reasonable chance for the building to make money on each event,” Wolters said. “We need to have some security our expenses will be covered should the team not perform well. Those are basic issues and there are different ways of getting there (to an agreement).”
The AF2 requires a $500,000 fee to join the league, Wolters said.
“The attractiveness of the AF2 is it already has teams in the Northwest in Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Boise,” Wolters said.
Neither Wolters or Higgins say they’re worried about getting a deal done in time to be announced at the championship game.
“We will not allow negotiations to be rushed,” Wolters said. “There are basic needs to get answered in any contract.”
One issue between the city and potential owners involves the purchase of an arena football field to be placed in the ShoWare Center. The city does not own an arena field.
But the recent decision by the Arena Football League to end operations could make fields available at a lower price, Higgins said. But he added that he did not know how much a field might cost.
Wolters said the AF2 is a separate league from the Arena Football League and operates on a different business model, so he is not concerned that the failure of the higher-profile league would impact AF2.
“The AF2 appears to have long-term viability,” Wolters said.
The AF2 started 10 years ago and features 25 teams. The league plans to add as many as five teams for 2010.
The city of Kent has a 30-year lease with the Seattle Thunderbirds minor league hockey team as the anchor tenant at the ShoWare Center and would like a long-term agreement with an arena football team.
“We achieved that with the Thunderbirds, we’ll see now if we can achieve that with arena football,” Wolters said. “To have a long-term winning presence in the community is our ultimate goal.”
It’s possible Kent might not join the league until 2011.
“We’re still hoping for next year, but I will not recommend to rush negotiations,” said Wolters, who did not rule out joining the league in 2011 rather than 2010. “No deal is better than a bad deal.”
Everett had a team in the league for two years before the franchise folded after the 2007 season because of financial problems.
“We definitely have an interest in creating a long-term relationship,” Wolters said. “If a team is in here for a year before it folds, that’s not in our best interest.”
Eight players are on the field for each team in the high-scoring, fast-paced game.
The field is a padded surface 85 feet wide and 50 yards long with 8-yard end zones. Rebound nets around the goal posts are 30 feet wide and 32 feet high. The receiving team may field any kickoff or missed field goal that rebounds off the net. Sideline barriers are 48 inches high and made of high-density foam rubber.
“I remain hopeful we can come to an agreement,” Wolters said. “We keep working at it.”
If negotiations break down between the city, ShoWare and the current potential owners, the city plans to pursue other options.
“If an agreement with this ownership group doesn’t work out, we’ll explore other opportunities to bring arena football here to be successful,” Wolters said. “We’ve seen it can be successful in Spokane and other communities.”
Officials with the AF2 office in Chicago said Thursday that additional announcements of expansion teams in 2010 could come as late as the end of September.
Kurz, the league president, told the Kent Reporter in June that he believed the city would get a team but that worked remained to be done to find local owners.
For more information about the Arena Football League 2, go to www.af2.com.
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