Minnesota Havok fold

[David]

1.29.16 - 

For the second time in the last three months, a Minnesota based IFL team has seen its membership terminated by the league.

The IFL announced on Friday that the membership of the Minnesota Havok has been terminated effective immediately and will no longer participate in the upcoming 2016 season. The press release cited the Havok's membership was terminated due to the team failing to meet the minimal IFL operational standards. 

"As a result of the Havok organization failing to reach minimum IFL operational standards, the League has made the difficult decision to terminate the team's membership," IFL Commissioner Michael Allshouse stated in the release. "We greatly value the tremendous fans of the IFL and refuse to provide anything less than the highest professional product, both on and off the field, in the industry. We are highly anticipating the start of the 2016 season, which should prove to be the most exciting in League history."

The Havok never got to play a single game, as the franchise was an expansion team prior to the 2016 season. The team was based out of Mankato and become the second IFL team in the state of Minnesota to see its membership terminated by the league in the last three months. Last November, the Minnesota Axemen, based out of Bemidji, were axed from the league for failing to make the license agreement for their home arena.

Rumors of the team's demise arose early on Friday morning. According to the Mankato Free Press, the Havok's official website, Facebook, and Twitter all closed down. The IFL also removed the Havok from their homepage.

The unfortunate part of the Havok's demise is that the entire roster is now out of work. One of the players, QB Cory Murphy voiced his displeasure on Twitter.

As a result of the Havok folding, the IFL had to revise its schedule less than a month before the 2016 season is set to start. Fortunately, all home dates for all 10 teams will remain unchanged. The league has also re-aligned its league conferences, as the Wichita Falls Nighthawks will move from the Intense Conference and will fill in Minnesota's void in the United Conference. 

The conference alignments will appear as follows:

United Conference:

Cedar Rapids Titans
Green Bay Blizzard
Iowa Barnstormers
Sioux Falls Storm
Wichita Falls Nighthawks

Intense Conference:

Billings Wolves
Colorado Crush
Nebraska Danger
Spokane Empire
Tri-Cities Fever

-DKH


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[DiamondThief]

David, is this a threat of a trend? What I mean is do you think we will wee more teams in danger of folding prior or even during the season?

[David]

Jan 29, 2016 19:27:01 GMT -8 DiamondThief said:

David, is this a threat of a trend? What I mean is do you think we will wee more teams in danger of folding prior or even during the season?

Anything's possible. There have been IFL teams that have folded during the middle of the season. I found three examples: The Arizona Adrenaline, the Bricktown Brawlers and the Alaska Wild. The Adrenaline and Brawlers both ceased operations in the middle of the 2011 season, but finished out the season with replacement players (aka they took a lower tier team and made them play under the IFL team's brand). The Alaska Wild struggled in paying bills, getting season ticket holders and was unable to pay sponsors for the games. They folded after 9 games and did not finish the season, as the ownership had run out of money.

But to specifically answer if it's a threat of a trend? I'm not sure. From what I've been able to piece together, most of these teams that have folded were run poor ownership groups. I know for a fact the Minnesota Axemen did not have good owners in their 2 seasons in the league and their newest ownership group appeared to be trying to turn the team around, but they didn't have the money. As for the Havok? I suspect insufficient funds had something to do with it.

I think a good majority of the teams in the league are okay, though. Green Bay, Tri-City, Spokane, and Iowa have been operating since the af2 days, and Colorado and Sioux Falls have been around before the IFL was formed. Nebraska seems like a healthy team as well. However, I don't know about Wichita Falls, Cedar Rapids, or Billings. 

I'll give the IFL credit for trying to weed out the bad ownership and create a stable league. They don't want to end up like what the AFL has become with teams coming in and going out and other ownership groups having to pick up the bills. The IFL's trying to enforce the notion that if you don't pay your bills, you're not going to participate in the league.