With the recent announcements that the Arena Football League and participating teams are suffering financial hardships that resulted in the suspension of operations for the 2009 season, the American Indoor Football Association, along with the New Mexico Wildcats, who play at Santa Ana Star Center, will continue with business as usual.

While the 2009 AIFA season, the league’s third, is not scheduled to begin until March, the league is already planning much further ahead. Two expansion franchises (Richmond, Va., and Trenton, N.J.) have been added to the league’s line-up for the 2010 season.

The AIFA will be going into its third season of operations with 16 participating teams and a footprint that reaches from Baltimore to the Prescott Valley in Arizona. League co-owner John Morris is reportedly working tirelessly to secure the future of the young, but growing, AIFA. “We are in a great position today. We have 16 teams in four divisions on two different coasts.” Morris said. “You cannot drive up and down I-95 without driving through a city that is represented in the AIFA. We have teams in Harrisburg, Erie and Reading, Pa., Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Florence, S.C., just to name a few.”

Morris said the close proximity of the teams is no coincidence.

“That’s what makes our business model successful. Travel costs are kept low because of our strategically placed teams,” Morris said.

The Wildcats’ divisional opponents are in Utah, Wyoming and Arizona. New Mexico was 5-9 in its inaugural season.

“When an owner can take his team on the road, play the game, and drive home all in fewer than seven hours, that saves the participating teams thousands of dollars in operating expenses,” he said.

Morris and the AIFA have implemented a first-of-its-kind Playoff Incentive Package (PIP). The package is essentially a nest-egg of $110,000 that will be utilized to financially aid teams that advance past the fourteen-game regular season.

“We want our teams to be able to play into the postseason. Each team has a projected budget going through the regular season. Should they advance into the playoffs and beyond, they should not have to worry about where they will fit post-season travel expenses into their budget,” Morris explained. “They need to focus on winning football games and a championship.”

Later, Morris speculated that the landscape of the sport of indoor football could change. “I have an enormous amount of respect for the AFL and what they've been able to do over the last 23 years. I'd like to see them straighten things out and get back into this. Indoor football is better off having them in.”

Morris said the AFL’s decision not to play in 2009 could impact a number of areas, ranging from the availability of players to sponsorship.

“We've already had phone calls from coaches and players in different parts of the country who want to have an opportunity to play in our league,” he said. “They also understand that if they are playing, a lot of good things can happen. If they aren't playing, then they're just sitting around. I think it's going to drive a lot of really solid players into our league.”

The American Indoor Football Association will announce its 2009 schedule shortly. The Wildcats’ site is at newmexicowildcats.com.