Go Brigade!

I got a call yesterday afternoon from my friend, Mike B., who asked, "do you want to go to the Arena Football Game tonight?" For free? Why that's just in my price range!

We went down to Kemper Arena and watched the Kansas City Brigade demolish the Utah Blaze, 60-41. It's funny to think of it but the game wasn't even that close, as the half time score was 40-7. The Brigade, now 6-4, is doing really well and have shown themselves to have a stingy defense and a solid offense that actually runs a little as well as passes. The new kicker is from Pitt State and one of the defensive backs was from K-State. Former NFL tight end Boo Williams is also one of their better players.

The official attendance last night was 13,655 but that's far from reality. At kickoff Kemper was embarrassingly vacant with more than 90% of the seats empty. For a long time Mike and I were the only ones in our section (and our tickets were free), though eventually the lower sections filled in with people descending from the upper level. You might convince me that 50% of the seats (many of the lower seats and some of the upper level seats) eventually had someone sitting in them, but Kemper's expanded capacity is around 19,000 and that means fewer than 10,000 were actually at the game.

It's a shame that the Brigade are doing well and so few people are seeing their success. Oh well, perhaps the attendance will be better when the new Sprint Center opens. I know I can't wait to go there!

The Sprint Center is supposed to be the new home of the Brigade and is looking for other tenants as well. The NHL and NBA are both interested in sending teams here. The Penguins almost made a deal but it didn't work out and rumor has it the three NBA teams, including the Clippers, are interested. Indoor soccer might also return.