Postponement of WIFL Season Is Likely Today

The World Indoor Football League, which was scheduled to open its inaugural season next Thursday, probably will vote today to postpone its debut until next year, President Roger Gill said Wednesday night.

News of the league’s uncertain future led San Diego Thunder Coach Don Matthews to cancel practice Wednesday night until further notice.

“I couldn’t in good conscience let the players practice if there might not be a league,” Matthews said. “Somebody could get hurt.”

The year’s postponement would be necessary because several teams in what was planned to be a six-city league have had trouble financing their teams, Gill said. Team officials are to vote on the league’s future in a conference call with Gill starting at 10 a.m. PDT.

“At this point, I feel the consensus is going to be table it until next year,” Gill said in a telephone interview from his home in San Antonio.

The Thunder had been practicing for about a week with 30 players in preparation for its opener June 20 in St. Louis and its home opener June 26 against Baltimore in the San Diego Sports Arena.

“I know we’re ready to go,” said Johnny Sanders, the team president, who will represent the Thunder on the conference call. “What’s going on with the other teams, how they are preparing, I don’t know. The only people I’ve talked to are in St. Louis, and they said they’re ready for our opening.”

The league already has lost one team with the announcement Tuesday by Las Vegas owner Rick Kulis that his franchise was disbanding because of concerns that three other teams in the league would soon fold. Gill identified those teams as Baltimore, Indianapolis and San Antonio.

Kulis made his decision after he met in Denver on Monday night with San Antonio owner Harry Lander, Gill said. Lander, a San Antonio businessman, has been unable to raise the $200,000 minimum necessary to operate a franchise, Gill said.

Lander’s financial problems have contributed to the difficulties in Indianapolis because Jim Young, the president of Lander’s San Antonio company, is listed as the half owner of the Indianapolis franchise. Lander and Young have been given until the start of the conference call to raise the franchise minimum and related expenses.

“I’m not real confident it will happen,” Gill said. “It’s an awfully short time to raise that money.

“We all agreed this is the deadline. We had postponed it and postponed it. Frankly, the fact that San Antonio is still not funded has not helped the Baltimore or Indianapolis situations. Both had prospective investors that could more than meet the minimum requirement, but they are very suspect of going into a season with San Antonio still hanging out there.”

Gill said the owners could decide to subsidize the San Antonio franchise to keep it operating or play with four teams, but he said it was more likely that the league would delay its start for one year. Adding to the pressure to postpone is that the league will lose its cable television contract with Financial News Network and a related sponsorship agreement if it does not field six teams.

Plans had called for a 10-game regular-season to start June 16, with a championship game to be played Aug. 30 at a site to be determined.

“We were convinced this was the year to get started,” Gill said. “We felt we had to get started this year to get the exposure. In hindsight, maybe we needed more time.”