Big changes for Lions indoor season, including a trip to Mexico
The Columbus Lions’ 2017 indoor football season became more clear last week.
Their new league, the National Arena League, released its schedule Thursday. The league is comprised of eight teams, spanning from Pennsylvania to the north to Florida and Texas in the south — and, for the first time in indoor football history, farther south than that — into Mexico.
The NAL beat every other league — including the NFL — to the punch, with the Monterrey Steel becoming the first Mexican-based professional football team. While Mexico City has hosted NFL games over the years, most recently a game between Houston and Oakland on Nov. 21, a pro football team had yet to call the country home.
The Lions face the Steel at home on May 6, then will travel south of the border to become the first Columbus-based professional sports team to play internationally on June 12.
While the NAL is more stretched geographically than American Indoor Football, the Lions’ league last season, one thing the NAL has to its advantage are very stringent guidelines for their ownership groups. Owners are required to have letters of credit and other safeguards in place to prevent issues the AIF had last season, such as teams having unsuitable arena conditions, cancelling games, or folding prior to the conclusion of the season.
“Monterrey’s owners are phenomenal,” said Lions head coach Jason Gibson, who met them at an owners meeting last month in Atlanta. “They’re great guys. They’re passionate, they know what they’re doing, they’ve got money, and they’ve got a plan. It’s going to be even bigger next year. I was a little skeptical at first, but the AFL and NFL have been trying to put teams in Mexico for years, and we got it done. That says a lot.”
Gibson also put to rest any doubts or questions about travel and logistics to Monterrey. While passports are required for international travel by boat or plane, the Lions and other NAL teams will be using buses for their point of entry in Mexico; therefore, only a valid birth certificate is needed.
“The way we have it set up, all the American teams will fly and stay in Texas,” Gibson said. “The day of the game, we’ll bus into Mexico, play the game, and bus back out. We won’t touch Mexican soil unless we’re in the arena. When the game’s over, we’ll get back on the bus and back to Texas. It’ll be like a same-day trip. All the questions were asked, and of course, people are flipping out, but it won’t be hard at all.”
The NAL scored another coup with the signing of the Jacksonville Sharks, a former Arena Football League team. The Sharks will have an eight-game home schedule, matching the number of home contests they had in their 16-game AFL seasons. Corpus Christi and Dayton each gave up one of their home games to allow Jacksonville to have eight home contests, while the rest of the league, including Columbus, will play a six-game home slate in 2017.
The Lions will get to know them early as the Sharks travel to Columbus for the season opener on Friday, Mar. 17.
“It’s exciting,” Gibson said. “They have a great, storied franchise.”
Gibson also put to rest any questions of disparity in talent between a former AFL team and the other teams in the NAL.
“I put half my roster in the AFL anyway,” he said. “Some of those guys (on the Sharks) have already played in Columbus. Some of the guys we’ve had like Dion (Small), Damian (Daniels) and Aaron Wheeler (now with the Georgia Firebirds), they could have played in the AFL for years. They chose not to because they had great jobs here.
“We already have the players. I’m not worried about that. It’s a perception thing, and I like it. It’s more exciting knowing Jacksonville is coming for our opening game instead of a Myrtle Beach or a Savannah, I can promise you that. It’s good for all the teams. Jacksonville brings value, and we expect a sellout (opening night). We really do. It’s an AFL champion versus a three-time indoor champion. Let’s measure it up.”
After leading Glenwood to an 8-4 record and the AISA semifinals this past season, Gibson is 100 percent into his role as head coach of the Lions with a little more than three months to go before opening night.
“It feels good to be doing arena again,” Gibson said. “What we’re doing with the Lions, I kind of mirrored it at the high school level, and it reaffirmed what I’m doing was working. It’s not the golden nugget, but for what I’m trying to do with the Lions and then going to Glenwood seeing the results — and I didn’t expect to have those kind of results that fast — but those players responded well. It let me know what I was doing with the Lions works.
“I had a great time at Glenwood with great people and great everything. I’m looking forward to next year and further building that program, but now it’s into my Lions job and what I do. I love my job.”
2017 COLUMBUS LIONS SCHEDULE
Home games in CAPS and start at 7 p.m., 4 p.m. on Sunday
Friday, Mar. 17 — JACKSONVILLE
Sunday, Mar. 26 — at Corpus Christi
Sunday, Apr. 2 — GEORGIA
Sunday, Apr. 9 — at Lehigh Valley (Pa.)
Saturday, Apr. 22 — HIGH COUNTRY
Saturday, Apr. 29 — at Jacksonville
Saturday, May 6 — MONTERREY
Saturday, May 20 — DAYTON
Saturday, May 27 — at High Country (Boone, N.C.)
Saturday, June 3 — CORPUS CHRISTI
Monday, June 12 — at Monterrey
Saturday, June 17 — at Georgia (Albany)
This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Big changes for Lions indoor season, including a trip to Mexico."