Rockford MetroCenter
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Rockford MetroCenter
The BMO Center (formerly known as BMO Harris Bank Center and Rockford MetroCentre) is a multi-purpose arena located in downtown Rockford, Illinois. It is currently home to the AHL's Rockford IceHogs hockey team. The arena formerly served as the home of several defunct minor league sports teams, including the Rockford Lightning basketball team, the Rock River Raptors indoor football team, and the Rockford Rampage indoor soccer team. The BMO Center also secured a spot in history when it hosted the first Arena Football League test game in 1986 between the Chicago Politicians and the Rockford Metros. Due to its outdoor appearance, it is often referred to as the "Big Orange Box", although IceHogs officials refer to the arena as "the Barnyard". History The opening night gala in 1981 was headlined by Bob Hope and Lynda Carter. Certainly, the most significant event in BMO Center history occurred in the inaugural year, when The Rolling Stones made an appearance on their 1981 North ...
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BMO Harris Bank Center
The BMO Center (formerly known as BMO Harris Bank Center and Rockford MetroCentre) is a multi-purpose arena located in downtown Rockford, Illinois. It is currently home to the AHL's Rockford IceHogs hockey team. The arena formerly served as the home of several defunct minor league sports teams, including the Rockford Lightning basketball team, the Rock River Raptors indoor football team, and the Rockford Rampage indoor soccer team. The BMO Center also secured a spot in history when it hosted the first Arena Football League test game in 1986 between the Chicago Politicians and the Rockford Metros. Due to its outdoor appearance, it is often referred to as the "Big Orange Box", although IceHogs officials refer to the arena as "the Barnyard". History The opening night gala in 1981 was headlined by Bob Hope and Lynda Carter. Certainly, the most significant event in BMO Center history occurred in the inaugural year, when The Rolling Stones made an appearance on their 1981 North ...
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United Indoor Football
United Indoor Football (UIF) was an indoor football league in the United States that operated from 2005 to 2008. Ten owners from the National Indoor Football League, including one expansion (the Dayton Warbirds, which never played a game in UIF) and two from arenafootball2 (af2) took their franchises and formed their own league. The league was based in Omaha, Nebraska. On July 22, 2008, it was announced that the UIF would be merging with the Intense Football League 2009 season. The merged league is known as the newest incarnation of the Indoor Football League. Field United Indoor Football was played exclusively indoors, in arenas usually designed for either basketball or ice hockey teams. The field was the same width (85 feet) as a standard NHL hockey rink. The field was 50 yards long with up to an 8-yard end zone. (End zones could be a lesser depth with League approval.) Depending on the stadium in which a game was being played, the end zones may be rectangular (like a baske ...
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The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically driven sound that came to define hard rock. Their first stable line-up consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, guitarist Keith Richards, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. During their formative years, Jones was the primary leader: he assembled the band, named it, and drove their sound and image. After Andrew Loog Oldham became the group's manager in 1963, he encouraged them to write their own songs. Jagger and Richards became the primary creative force behind the band, alienating Jones, who had developed a drug addiction that interfered with his ability to contribute meaningfully. Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the Rolling Stones started out playing covers and were at the forefront ...
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Rockford Metros
The Rockford Metros were an Arena football team formed by Arena Football League founder Jim Foster for the purposes of playing a "test game" in Rockford, Illinois in the spring of 1986 at the MetroCentre. The team was named after the MetroCentre itself. Players were taken from different semi-pro leagues in the area or those who just finished their final years of college football. They defeated the Chicago Politicians, despite Rich Salzer's two TDs, 30–18. The test was successful, as the Arena Football League began operation the next spring with four teams and operated continuously until 2008; a successor operation bought the rights to the game and its trademarks in bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ... proceedings and continues to play . References Exte ...
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Chicago Politicians
The Chicago Politicians were a team formed in 1986 by Arena Football League founder Jim Foster to play an initial "test game" in Rockford, Illinois, at the MetroCentre. They were defeated by the Rockford Metros, 30–18. The test was deemed successful, as a four-team "demonstration season" was held the next year, and arena football has been played every year since, although the original Arena Football League itself ceased operations after its 2008 season, and the current organization of that name bought the rights to it in bankruptcy proceedings. Some Politicians players went on to play for the Chicago Bruisers and the other charter AFL teams, the Denver Dynamite, Pittsburgh Gladiators, and Washington Commandos. External linksAFL official website Defunct Arena Football League teams Politicians A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that gov ...
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Arena Football League (1987-2008)
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in North America after the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the National Football League (NFL) until the AFL closed in 2019. The AFL played a formerly proprietary code known as arena football, a form of indoor American football played on a 66-by-28 yard field (about a quarter of the surface area of an NFL field), with rules encouraging offensive performance, resulting in a typically faster-paced and higher-scoring game compared to NFL games. The sport was invented in the early 1980s and patented by Jim Foster, a former executive of the United States Football League (USFL) and the NFL. Each of the league's 32 seasons culminated in the ArenaBowl, with the winner being crowned the league's champion for that season. From 2000 to 2009, the AFL ...
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Indoor Soccer
Indoor soccer or arena soccer (known internationally as indoor football, fast football, or showball) is five-a-side version of minifootball, derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arena. Indoor soccer, as it is most often known in the United States and Canada, was originally developed in these two countries as a way to play soccer during the winter months, when snow would make outdoor play difficult. In those countries, gymnasiums are adapted for indoor soccer play. In other countries the game is played in either indoor or outdoor arenas surrounded by walls, and is referred to by different names (such as "fast football" (''futbol rapido'') in Mexico, ''Futebol Society'' or ''showbol'' in Brazil, and "indoor football" (''futbol indoor'') in Spain). Indoor soccer has different regulations from other versions of association football designed for indoor play, such as futsal and five-a-side football. Unlike futsal, which is played on wood ...
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Indoor American Football
Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller arena. It is distinct from traditional American or Canadian football played in larger domed or open-air stadiums, although several early college football games contested on full-sized or nearly full-sized fields at Chicago Coliseum (1890s) and Atlantic City Convention Center (1930s and 1960s) helped to show that football could be played as an indoor game. History Early history The first demonstration of football on a small field was actually played outdoors at the original open-air Madison Square Garden. Using nine-man sides, Pennsylvania defeated Rutgers 10–0 at the annual meeting of the Amateur Athletic Union on January 16, 1889. The first documented indoor football game was an exhibition between the Springfield YMCA Training School ...
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Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria metropolitan area, Illinois, Peoria and Rockford metropolitan area, Illinois, Rockford, as well Springfield, Illinois, Springfield, its capital. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the List of U.S. states and territories by GDP, fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the List of U.S. states and territories by population, sixth-largest population, and the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 25th-largest land area. Illinois has a highly diverse Economy of Illinois, economy, with the global city of Chicago in the northeast, major industrial and agricultural productivity, agricultural hubs in the north and center, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south. Owing to its centr ...
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Arena
An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators, and may be covered by a roof. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the lowest point, allowing maximum visibility. Arenas are usually designed to accommodate a multitude of spectators. Background The word derives from Latin ', a particularly fine-grained sand that covered the floor of ancient arenas such as the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, to absorb blood.. The term ''arena'' is sometimes used as a synonym for a very large venue such as Pasadena's Rose Bowl, but such a facility is typically called a ''stadium'', especially if it does not have a roof. The use of one term over the other has mostly to do with the type of event. Football (be it association, rugby, gridiron, Australian rules, or Gaelic) is typically played ...
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X League (women's Football)
The Extreme Football League (X League) is an American women's semi-professional tackle football league. The league was originally founded in 2009 as the Lingerie Football League (LFL), and later rebranded as the Legends Football League in 2013. On December 13, 2019, the league announced that it would not be holding a 2020 season and that it had instead restructured under its current name, placing new teams mostly in the same locations as the 2019 LFL season. The X League's 8-team 2022 season began play on June 11, 2022, ending September 11, 2022 with the restructured league's inaugural championship, the X-Cup. History LFL 2009–2012 The concept of the league originated from an alternative Super Bowl halftime television special called the Lingerie Bowl, a pay-per-view event broadcast opposite the Super Bowl halftime show. In 2009, league chairman Mitch Mortaza expanded the concept from a single annual exhibition game to a ten-team league, branded as the Lingerie Football Leagu ...
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Chicago Blitz (X League)
The Chicago Blitz are a women's American football team in the Extreme Football League ( X League) based in Rockford, Illinois, a city west of Chicago. They won the league's inaugural championship, the X Cup, in 2022. History The Extreme Football League ( X League) was announced in December 2019, as a successor to the Legends Football League (LFL). The announcement included the Blitz, a successor to the LFL's Chicago Bliss. The X League's 2020 season was postponed, and the league also did not operate during 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Blitz first competed during the 2022 X League season, winning both of their regular season games, over the Kansas City Force and Seattle Thunder. The Blitz advanced to the postseason, where they again defeated Seattle to advance to the X Cup championship match against the Atlanta Empire The Atlanta Empire are a women's American football team in the Extreme Football League ( X League) based in Duluth, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. The t ...
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