National Indoor Football League - Colorado Venom

Colorado Venom Unveil Name

Indoor football team slithers into region

Story by Nate A. Miller

LOVELAND - The Budweiser Events Center will add football to its lineup when the Colorado Venom kicks off its season in March.

"You get a chance to see one of the great American sports up close and personal," team owner Garmez Parks said. "You're going to get the real-deal action. There's no glass between you and the action."

Parks made months of rumors official Thursday when he announced that his Tennessee-based ownership group will bring a National Indoor Football League team to Colorado. The company signed a lease with the Budweiser Events Center that will keep the Venom playing its home games in the arena for five years.

"We're going to be here for a very long time," he said.

The new team surprised Greeley sports fan Bret Van Ness, 35. He said he had watched arena football on television, but didn't know about the National Indoor Football League, the league that will include Colorado.

"I knew there were different leagues," he said at Jackson's All- American Sports Grill, 2100 35th Ave in Greeley. "I don't know if I knew about that league."

Parks said that reaction is common.

"A lot of people get confused when they hear indoor football," he said. "This is a very different game from Arena Football."

Parks said the game is more like outdoor football squeezed into a space the size of a hockey rink than the pass-happy action associated with Arena Football.

Parks' Tri-State Indoor Professional Sports Inc. owns two other NIFL teams.

The Colorado Venom is the third professional sports team to call the center home. The Central Hockey League's Colorado Eagles and National Woman's Basketball League's Colorado Chill also share the venue.

The team will play seven home games as part of the 25-team league. The league is in its fourth year of operation.

Parks said northern Colorado is an ideal market.

"The NIFL budget and business plan is based on using second and third-tier markets," he said. "The best way to see why people are interested in coming in here is to sit in the arena and look around. There's lots of development right now."

Parks said he hopes to sell out the 5,211 capacity events center for all seven home games.

"We fully expect that this is the kind of market where you can get to capacity," he said.

Doug Carey, 59, of Greeley said he likes NFL and college football, but he is skeptical about indoor football.

"I don't like it," he said. "I think arena football is over-the-top football."

Still, he said he may check out an NIFL.

"I might go just because of the convenience of it and just to see."

Venom general manager Troy Murphy worked for the Cincinnati Swarm of the AF2 - the Arena Football League's minor league - before coming to Colorado. He said the NIFL game differs from the more well-known league in important ways.

"The schemes are different," he said. "It brings a lot more options offensively."

Unlike in the Arena Football League, teams run the ball nearly as much as they pass it.

Despite the differences, the NIFL retains the high-scoring action associated with Arena Football.

"There are a lot of similarities," Murphy said. "Defensive games score in the 40s, offensive games score in the 60s."

Van Ness said he enjoys the excitement of Arena Football and thinks the NIFL sounds more exciting.

"I do like the running game in football," he said. "If they run more, it will be better."

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