Utah Blaze optimistic despite troubles

WEST VALLEY CITY — By all account the 2010 season of the Utah Blaze has been a failure.

The Blaze sport a 1-11 record heading into tonight's home-finale against the Jacksonville Sharks and the prospect of getting more wins isn't very good.

"It's been the most frustrating season I've ever had," veteran Utah receiver Aaron Boone said. "It's been real tough."

The wins — er, win — and losses are the most visible indication of how challenging the season has been. And considering the Blaze play in a league that is well known for seeing teams shut down, relocate or struggle in numerous ways, it's not surprising to hear people ask if there will even be a team in town next season — or, for that matter, if the Arena Football League will be around.

"The ownership group is committed to fielding the team again," Blaze general manager Steve Videtich said. "That's an easy one to answer: We'll be back next year."

The tougher questions are the ones Videtich asks himself often.

Questions like "What could we have done differently?" and "How are we going to sell tickets after a one-win season?"

The answers to those questions, he admits, are complex.

For starters, the Utah Blaze had barely enough time to put a team together after the AFL was reborn.

The Ken Garff family is no longer involved with the team and the new AFL bought all names, logos and historical information associated with the old AFL — which suspended operations and folded nearly two seasons ago.

So, while the Blaze have the same name, colors, uniforms and statistics from the days of Joe Germaine and Danny White, the league is a much different organization.

After collapsing under a business plan that couldn't keep up with expenses, the AFL now has a much lower salary scale, and operating expenses have been redrawn at a significant decrease.

The biggest issue, all asked said, was the timing.

"We only had about 2 1/2 months to put together a team, a front office and everything else," Videtich said. "The league announced they were going to start up again and after the ownership group got together we didn't have much time to get up and running."

The inexperience in the ownership, the front office and the coaching staff — combined with a roster that had very little AFL experience — resulted in trouble almost from the opening kickoff.