Arena Football

Every sport has its own terminology. Arena football is no different. Here are some aspects of the game that differ from the NFL: * Drop kick. A field goal that is made by a drop kick instead of the conventional hold is worth four points instead of three. An extra point that is drop-kicked is worth two points instead of one. * Ironman. Used to recognize a top two-way player. Each game has an Ironman award designation, and at the end of the season there is an Ironman of the Year trophy.

Tim Tebow just wants to be a pro quarterback. Is that too much for a Heisman Trophy winner/two-time national champion/NFL playoff victor/all-around good guy to ask for? Not in the opinion of Orlando Predators owner Brett Bouchy, who told the Orlando Sentinel he's ready to sign Tebow the second the as-of-now-but-likely-not-much-longer backup quarterback for the New York Jets is available. That's the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League. OK, perhaps we should have clarified that Tebow would like to be an NFL quarterback.

Orange County's new Arena Football franchise unveiled six logo and nickname finalists Wednesday, two of which play off the team's home arena--The Pond of Anaheim. The team, formerly the Las Vegas Sting, will announce its choice Nov. 14. The finalists: --The Anaheim Piranhas, a snarling fish taking a bite out of the team's name. --The TigerSharks, a snarling shark that resembles the NHL's San Jose Sharks logo. --The Beach Dogs, a bulldog wearing sunglasses. --The Crush, a generic football logo.

The Arena Football League is on the brink of folding and declaring bankruptcy, an inglorious end for the 22-year-old indoor league that has gone through a year of turmoil. James Guidry, the regional director of the AFL players association, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that it "seems to be inevitable at this point" that the AFL will soon announce it has ceased operations. Guidry said the players association will accept the owners' decision.

Following its busiest offseason, a new partnership with the NFL and plans for more expansion, Arena Football enters its 13th season this weekend. Commissioner David Baker, with a five-year contract extension and dozens of cities clamoring to join the indoor football league, is even taking calls from potential team owners and from commercial sponsors eager to sign on. "First and foremost, some of the good stuff had to do with the NFL," Baker says. "It is a significant alliance for us.

NBC is finalizing a deal to secure broadcasting rights to Arena Football League games, beginning next season, The Times has confirmed. The deal, which is expected to be announced next week, is the latest attempt to attract male viewers to a network that in the last five years has lost broadcast rights to Major League Baseball and the NFL. NBC will lose its NBA rights at the end of this season.

Arena Football will begin its fourth season on June 8, with six teams playing an eight-game regular season in competition leading up to the Arena Bowl in August, officials said Wednesday. The top four teams at season's end will meet in two playoff games the week before the Arena Bowl. The winners will participate in the championship game Aug. 10 or 11 at a site to be determined. The Detroit Drive, Arena Football's champions the last two years, head the list of four returning teams.

Arena football makes its debut in San Diego tonight at 7:30 when the Arizona Rattlers play the Cincinnati Rockers in an exhibition game at the Sports Arena. It will be the first arena football game played in Southern California since the now-defunct Los Angeles Cobras played in the Los Angeles Sports Arena in 1988. The Arena Football League plays on a field with a length of 50 yards and a width of 80 feet, half the width of regular outdoor field.

Six Orange County businessmen are attempting to bring an Arena Football League team to Anaheim, according to Roy Englebrecht, who heads the group. The group has made a tentative offer to buy the Las Vegas Sting, Englebrecht said. The purchase would be contingent on the new ownership securing a deal to use The Pond of Anaheim. "We have been negotiating with The Pond for four months and it's a matter of dotting the i's and crossing the t's on the lease," Englebrecht said.

Al Lucas, a lineman for the Los Angeles Avengers, died Sunday afternoon after sustaining an apparent spinal cord injury while trying to make a tackle early in the Arena Football League team's game at Staples Center, officials said. Lucas, 26, was injured on a kickoff return five minutes into the game against the New York Dragons. He was pronounced dead at California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles after attempts to revive him at the arena and hospital failed.

The only pro football team in Los Angeles is calling it quits. After nine seasons, the L.A. Avengers are terminating their membership in the Arena Football League, team owner Casey Wasserman said Sunday. The move comes four months after the AFL voted to suspend the 2009 season to devise a new business model in hopes of restarting in 2010. That plan has not materialized, and the 16-team league is set to vote today on a new collective bargaining agreement with its players union.

The Arena Football League canceled its 2009 season Monday pending an agreement with its players' union. The decision throws the future of the 22-year-old league into question just days after it said next season had not been suspended. The AFL's owners voted against playing next year during a conference call Sunday night. It was unclear what had changed since the league issued a statement Wednesday night that said the 2009 season had not been suspended "despite rumors and reports to the contrary."

After 21 years of expanding and shrinking, adapting and morphing, the Arena Football League is weighing the possibility of something new: Taking a breather. Against a backdrop of a weakened economy and mounting financial losses -- and belt-tightening even by the NFL and other professional sports leagues -- the AFL is considering suspending its 2009 season. It hasn't happened yet, however.

After weeks of hype -- OK, maybe minutes -- the big game has finally arrived. Renewing a rivalry nobody outside San Jose and Columbus, Ohio, knew existed, the SaberCats and Destroyers will meet for the Arena Football League championship today in New Orleans. If San Jose is successful in ArenaBowl XXI, it will be the third title in six years for the SaberCats. They are undefeated in the game, having won in 2002 and 2004. Most factors point to the American Conference champions remaining perfect.

Change will be in order for the Avengers when they begin a three-week training camp for the 2007 season today in San Jacinto. For the first time since their inaugural season, the Avengers will hold training camp outside the Los Angeles area when they start practice at Oak Stadium on the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians Reservation. And, for the first time since Coach Ed Hodgkiss took over in 2002, the Avengers will open camp after a losing season that did not include a trip to the playoffs.

The ever-increasing demand for luxury has helped shorten the life span of numerous arenas and stadiums built in the last three decades -- most notably the Miami Arena, which failed to anticipate the coming boom in luxury suites and lost its major league tenants after only 11 seasons. Which is why the company that owns Staples Center has been seeking to fend off the ravages of time, only six years after the $403-million arena opened south of Los Angeles' downtown core.

The Arena Football League will field six teams in 1989, each playing a 12-game schedule, and might expand to include franchises in Washington and Denver, James Foster, league commissioner announced Friday. Foster said few on-field changes will be made, but the league is trying to restructure to stop enormous financial losses. "The concerns are building a better mousetrap . . . and (finding) a better way to run this football league," he said.

In the wake of the 1988 Arena Bowl, few people are asking if the Detroit Drive can repeat as champions. A more pertinent question is, will Arena Football repeat in 1989? Its founder, Jim Foster, says the indoor league will return next season and will be bigger and more visible than in 1988. Arena Football completed its first full season (there was a 13-game test campaign in 1987) when Detroit upset the regular season champion Chicago Bruisers 24-13 in the Arena Bowl July 30 at Rosemont, Ill.

Al Lucas, a lineman for the Los Angeles Avengers, died Sunday afternoon after sustaining an apparent spinal cord injury while trying to make a tackle early in the Arena Football League team's game at Staples Center, officials said. Lucas, 26, was injured on a kickoff return five minutes into the game against the New York Dragons. He was pronounced dead at California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles after attempts to revive him at the arena and hospital failed.