I must admit: I was never into the Albany Firebirds / indoor football thing all these years. Proof of that is the fact that I never once attended a game, even for the couple years that I kept an office but a few paces from the front door of the Pepsi Arena.
Yet it is with a ceratin degree of sadness to report that the team has ceased operations. Atetndance had steadily declined over the years, and the good citizen/owner Walt Robb is forced to finally stop the bleeding.
Indeed, it has been a pity to watch the death spiral that so many of our local professional teams suffer. The Yankees/Diamond Dogs, the Patroons and now the Firebirds.
The reasons are many, including:
* The rise of Siena and UAlbany as big time and near-big time basketball programs
* Cable television sports programming expansion, bringing just about every major-level contest into viewers' homes as part of various purchase options
* The inability of downtown Albany to reclaim the type of buzz it had for a brief moment time back in the 80's.
So, it';s fareweel to yet another local franshise. Please get to a River Rats game and show your support for that fine program. It would be a big time shame if they followed the same trend and dispappeared into the archives.
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