SPOKANE, Wash — On Monday night, the Indoor Football League announced that they were cancelling their season. Hours later, the Spokane Shock announced that they weren't giving up quite yet.
"Just by the IFL announcing that they weren’t going to play, does not mean that IFL teams weren’t going to still play. I’m an IFL team, we are going to play, we just don’t have our dates," Spokane Shock owner Sam Adams told KREM on Tuesday.
Adams says the team hopes to play seven to ten exhibition games this year, against both IFL and non-IFL teams. The team told us on Monday night that they expected a schedule to be out Tuesday, but according to Adams it is not completed quite yet.
"We are currently talking to several other teams, and they have not confirmed their dates with their arena. We’re just waiting on people to get their dates," said Adams.
When the Shock announced they wished to continue their season, many wondered if the IFL would have a problem with that. Adams said there's no issue.
"I already have permission to play exhibition games. I’m not going rogue or anything like that. Several other partners wanted to play games. We will play against IFL teams if it makes sense for them. There’s other owners in the IFL that plan on playing games," Adams said.
Of course one of the biggest questions in all of this, is what the organization is doing if season ticket holders want their money back?
"First of all, if anyone needs their money back, we’re going to work with them on it. Right now, I’ve had two requests for money back for seasons tickets, that’s it. I saw that there were some people on Facebook who said, 'I need my money,' this that and the other. Well, none of them have talked to me. No one has talked to my staff about it," he said.
Adams remains confident that the season will happen, and thus remains confident in his team.
"We’re going to compete for some kind of trophy. We’re the best team in the country. We’re going to be national champions somehow. This allows us to play teams from all over the country. I’m the type of person who looks at the positive. This gives us the opportunity to beat some people down. Personally, I’m tired about hearing about which league has the best teams and which teams are the best. So me being able to play this exhibition schedule, I can play teams from all over the country and claim our right as Spokane being the best indoor football team in the country."