Options exist for Pioneers franchise

The Oct. 9 deadline for owners to declare for the Arena Football 1 league came and went.

A new deadline has been set for this weekend to accommodate owners wishing to be involved in the league.

According to the Des Moines Register, the league is waiting for 11 teams to work out ownership or other details.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers franchise was not listed as one of those teams.

“I’m still working with a potential buyer and that potential buyer is not sure what league they will play in if that buyer buys that team,” said Cosmo DeNicola, who put the Pioneers organization up for sale in August. “The importance of that statement is that the deadline wasn’t a hard deadline. The Oct. 9 date that was supposedly a deadline wasn’t a hard deadline.”

DeNicola said that the Pioneers are being sought after by two other leagues, the Indoor Football League (IFL) and the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA). So if Arena Football 1 adds a drop-dead deadline sometime in the near future, the organization can still join one of the other leagues.

There is no deadline to join either of the other two leagues, according to DeNicola.

“We’re in a unique situation where we are a successful franchise,” he said. “We’re ready to come out of the box as soon as a decision is made, as long as we still have the working assets. And we do have them.”

As for a prospective buyer, DeNicola, who has been a part of the franchise since 2006, said he had a 90-minute teleconference with an interested party on Tuesday. He added that there is no formal deadline to close on a deal, but an informal deadline would be to benefit season-ticket holders.

“People haven’t been asking for their money back. They have been patient and waiting to see what is going on,” the 54-year-old DeNicola said. “The informal deadline is soon enough so that you can have a smooth transition for season tickets. We’re still staffed and there’s still an office in Wilkes-Barre.”

The IFL consisted of 19 teams in the 2009 season with the closest team geographically to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton based in Rochester. The league’s schedule started in March and the championship game was held in August.

Fourteen teams participated in the AIFA last season, which began in March and ended with July’s title game. Reading, Harrisburg and Erie all have teams in the AIFA.

According to the Des Moines Register, the following 11 teams are interested in participating in Arena Football 1: Albany, Cleveland, Green Bay, Kansas City, Kent, Wash., Las Vegas, Manchester, San Jose, Tampa, Texas and Toledo.

Arkansas, Bossier-Shreveport, Central Valley, Chicago, Iowa, Jacksonville, Kentucky, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Spokane, Tennessee Valley, Tri-Cities and Tulsa are already members of the AF1.

The 2009 season marked just the third year in which DeNicola and his wife Janet have been 100 percent owners of the franchise. Prior to full ownership, they were a part of the previous ownership, Big Win Ventures, a Connecticut-based investment group.

Big Win purchased the controlling interest in the Pioneers from Greg Smith and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Sports Ventures in 2004, which was also backed by Hall of Fame quarterback and Baltimore Colts legend Johnny Unitas.

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Pioneers

Two other leagues could be landing points for WBS if the team doesn’t join the new AF1.

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