SPOKANE, Wash — Nearly three weeks ago the Indoor Football League cancelled its season, but Spokane Shock owner Sam Adams is still determined to see his team play this year.
However, there are some stipulations for Sam in order to play the season.
"It kind of doesn’t make sense for us to play games without my fans. I want my fans to be able to come," Adams said via a Zoom interview.
Games without fans equals no games for Sam. He also said that if his season overlaps with the high school, college, and NFL seasons, he will also be forced to have his squad hang up the cleats until 2021.
"There’s so much football that’s being played, there’s no room for us. It doesn’t make any sense. We are an off-season sport. We’re the only game in town when it comes to football in the off season so we would not do that, no."
If the Shock play this season, they will play a schedule that is independent. It could feature both IFL and non-IFL teams. I asked Sam which IFL teams they would play, and he said that he cannot speak for those squads.
As for the assertion some have made that the team is just playing exhibition games? He’s got some things to say about that.
"To me an exhibition game is you lining up against someone else, like a foreign team. This isn’t that kind of thing. These are more like bowl games," Adams said. "It gives us an opportunity to see where we match up not just in the IFL but around the country. If you want a national championship, you’ve got to have a chance to play everybody. UCF claimed themselves as a national champion, and they didn’t even play Alabama. That’s what we’re looking at. We’re going to line them up, and we’re going to take on all comers. We’re going to prove that we’re the best city and the best football town in America. We’re going to whoop everybody’s butt that we get a chance to play."
Obviously, when season ticket holders paid for the season it was based on the assumption that the team would play an IFL sanctioned schedule. Adams says that if his team is able to play a full slate of home games this year, the price for season ticket holders will remain the same even though the teams on the schedule will change.
"First of all, when I looked at our season tickets from 2006 to 2015, ticket prices went up 100%. For the last season of the Empire, for example you could buy a front row season ticket for $400 in 2006, and for the Empire in 2015 it was $800. So what I’ve done is when I brought those season ticket prices back, I actually cut those in half. If I’m able to play seven games, the prices that we’re charging are already discounted."
Adams says most season ticket holders have opted to roll their season tickets over to next season if there isn’t a season this year and only 5-6 season tickets holders have asked for refunds so far.
However, those refunds haven't always gone smoothly. I spoke with a season ticket holder who reached out to the Spokane Shock on April 9th and has yet to receive a refund. On Thursday April 30th, the team said the refund would be in his bank account at the end of the day. As of Friday, May 1st, the refund had not come through. The season ticket holder reached out to both his ticket rep and Sam personally multiple times.
"He shouldn’t be emailing me in the first place because I’m the owner, and I don’t even live there," said Sam when he was asked about the situation. "They have their rep who they work with. They should email their rep and our reps will get back. There’s a stay at home order and so somebody emailing you saying well we haven’t gotten in touch with anyone, well, if you call their work you probably won’t get them either."
Sam said the best way to get ticket related situations handled is to contact your season ticket rep or email tickets@spshock.com. If you have any questions, you can email us at sports@krem.com.