Elway Is Ready to Enter the Arena

Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway is close to getting back into football--but not with the NFL.

Elway and a group of investors are deciding whether to go ahead with placing an Arena Football League expansion team in Denver for the 2003 season.

“If we’re going to do it we want to do it next year,” Elway said Friday. “And we have about a three-to four-week window to decide if we’re going to try.”

Elway and the investors--who include Pat Bowlen, owner of the Denver Broncos, and Stan Kroenke, owner of the Pepsi Center, NBA’s Denver Nuggets and NHL’s Colorado Avalanche--were approved for an expansion franchise by the league’s board of directors last August.

The Arena league currently has 16 teams, including the Los Angeles Avengers. Dallas and Atlanta are the newest teams, and there are plans for the league to expand by four teams next year and add two more teams over the next three seasons.

Besides Denver, other expansion franchises are being considered in New Orleans, Washington, Philadelphia, Nashville, Jacksonville and San Francisco. Denver had an Arena team from 1987, the league’s first season, to 1991. The team, known as the Dynamite, won the league’s first championship game, defeating Pittsburgh, 45-16.

Elway spoke at a luncheon Friday for the Avengers in Staples Center.