Post by David on May 9, 2022 14:39:21 GMT -8
5/9/22 --
Henderson, NV - The Indoor Football League turned the page onto the next chapter of its league championship game, announcing a new branding and the confirmed sites for the next three championships.
On Monday, the IFL announced that the United Bowl Championship will be rebranded after twelve seasons. The championship game will be known as the IFL National Championship (or The Dollar Loan Center IFL National Championship for branding purposes) beginning with this year's game. The move comes in conjuncture with the league announcing that the Dollar Loan Center, home of the Vegas Knight Hawks, will host the championship game for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons.
"This is another giant step forward for our league," Commissioner Todd Tryon stated in the league's press release. "We have had a desire to go with a predetermined site for a couple years now. Given the location, venue, partnerships, title sponsor of Dollar Loan Center and a three-year commitment, the timing was now."
Owned and Operated by Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, the owners of the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights, the Dollar Loan Center is the home of the Golden Knights's AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, as well as the IFL's Knight Hawks. The arena opened on March 8th, 2022 with the Big West Basketball Tournament as its first sporting event, followed by the Knight Hawks inaugural game ten days later.
"We are thrilled to crown the IFL champion for the next three seasons at The Dollar Loan Center," stated Vegas Golden Knights President and Co-Chief Executive Officer Kerry Bubolz in the press release. "It is great to see yet another premier sporting event call the Las Vegas Valley home. The community has embraced the Vegas Knight Hawks and I know our fans will enjoy seeing the best of the IFL compete in our building."
Founder and CEO of the Dollar Loan Center, Chuck Brennon, followed up by stating, "We have been major fans of Indoor Football since its inception. "Not only were we able to bring an IFL team to our state-of-the-art new venue in Henderson (Vegas Knight Hawks), but now we are bringing the biggest game of the year to our house for the next three years. Elated would be an understatement from team DLC."
The establishment of the Dollar Loan Center as the host for the IFL National Championship marks the high probability of the first neutral site IFL Championships in league history, should the Knight Hawks (3-5 and in the final playoff spot at the time of the announcement) fail to win the Western Conference. Prior to 2022, all the previous United Bowl Championship games were held at the home venue of the highest seeded team.
The United Bowl name for the championship was originally created by United Indoor Football in 2005, where it was the championship game for four seasons. When the UIF and the Intense Football League merged to create the Indoor Football League in 2009, the league continued to use the United Bowl name, although the 2009 United Bowl is considered by the league as the inaugural title game.
The change in the championship game is the latest change as the IFL continues to change from its previous identity. Since introducing the new shield logo in 2020, replacing the iconic eagle logo used from 2009-2019, the league has also retired the use of United and Intense as conference names in favor of Eastern and Western.
The IFL National Championship will take place Saturday, August 13th. The league has opened up ticket reservations with sales to the general public beginning Friday, June 3rd.
- DKH
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