9/16/2010 at 5:23pm
Just one season after Central Arkansas' Indoor Football League team, the Arkansas Twisters announced a name change to the Arkansas Diamonds, co-owner Jim Smith predicts the team will not return for another in 2011. However, he and partner Jeff Everett will soon announce the creation of a new team they’ll be taking to Allen, Texas.
He said unless additional investors show interest in the Diamonds, the team won’t be back – and they won’t be moving to Texas with Smith and Everett either.
“I don’t think they’ll back, unfortunately,” he said. “We’re starting a whole new team.”
Smith will be in Allen, Texas, on Sept. 29 to announce the new team during a press conference.
The Little Rock area franchise, which played its games at Verizon Arena, began life in 2000 as the Arkansas Twisters in arena football 2, formed by the group that started the Arena Football League. Attendance in the early years of af2 was strong, and in North Little Rock it was especially high, with some crowds topping 10,000 fans.
Those five-figure attendance nights during the late spring and early summer eventually gave way to a usual 3,500 fans regularly supporting the team, still among the best figures among the af2 teams in the region, including Tulsa and Shreveport-Bossier City.
The Arena Football League folded in 2009, and a new league was created with some leftover af2 teams. Smith and Everett chose to take the Twisters to the upstart Indoor Football League, which were similar-sized franchises in the southwest region. The Arkansas franchise was among the few indoor football franchises to remain active for more than 10 years.
Tagged: Arkansas Twisters, Jim Smith, Arkansas diamonds, Verizon Arena