Indoor football coming back to Enid?

July 29--ENID, Okla. -- Is Enid ready to give professional arena football another try? Oklahoma City businessman Antwone Taulton and Enid Enforcers owner Mark Timberlake think so, and are in the early stages of a plan they hope will see the return of arena football in 2015 to Enid after an absence of more than 10 years. And if things progress as one league executive expects, an official announcement could be forthcoming in the near future.

Taulton said initially he was interested in bringing an arena team to Oklahoma City, but was pointed in the direction of Enid.

"There is so much competition here (in Oklahoma City) and we could not get a deal on an arena," Taulton said. But instead of being discouraged, Taulton was told by the Champions Professional Indoor Football League that Enid may be a good place to look and, specifically, was put in contact with Timberlake, whose Enforcers semi-pro football team has had a successful seven-year run in Enid, including winning a league title in 2012.

With the Enforcers, Taulton would potentially have a team structure in place, not to mention a brand name that people already are familiar with in the area.

"The existing team (the Enforcers) has a number of players that could play," Taulton said. "Plus, they are very active in the community."

Timberlake believes the potential for a successful partnership with Taulton exists and said he believes converting the Enforcers from an outdoor team that plays at Enid High School'sSelby Stadium to an indoor professional team would be a natural progression.

"When we started, we had a plan," Timberlake said. "That first year we had a winning record, then we wanted to win a division. Our semipro team has been nationally ranked five of the last seven years we competed."

He also thinks becoming an indoor team would lend additional credibility to the Enforcers. "Any time you can put the word 'professional' in front of something, a lot of things come into play." Timberlake said the commitment would be even stronger for the players.

Taulton said he already has spoken with the Chisholm Trail Expo Center about using the facility for the prospective team's home games, which could begin in April.

The Chisholm Trail Expo Center Coliseum was the site of the Oklahoma Crude, which played in Enid from 2002-2004, but won only four games as a member of the now-defunct National Indoor Football League.

Taulton said he has yet to meet in-person with the Chisholm Trail Expo Center, whose general manager, Steve Barnes, confirmed he has been in contact with Taulton.

"He (Taulton) seemed very serious about it," Barnes said. "He really liked the building and we have turf and kicker boards (from the days of the Oklahoma Crude) to go with it."

Barnes said the Coliseum has a capacity of around 6,000 for football, but expressed some caution as Enid's last pro football foray with the Oklahoma Crude did not end well with the team going 4-35 over three seasons before leaving town mired in debt.

"Our last experience with indoor football was not so good," Barnes said. "He (Taulton) will have a lot of convincing of board members to do."

Taulton, who has never owned a professional sports franchise, said he recognizes the past experience wasn't the best for Enid. He said he looked into investing in the now-defunct NIFL back in 2000 or 2001 when he was in Houston, but decided it was not a stable investment at the time.

If Taulton -- who attended the University of Central Oklahoma and is the owner of Speedy Interview, which its website describes as an online automated pre-recorded interviewing service designed to screen potential employees -- is successful in bringing an indoor team to Enid in 2015, he said it likely would be in either the Champions Professional Indoor Football League or the Lone Star Football League, both of which were formed in 2012.

He said the franchise fee would be in the range of $15,000-$25,000, far less than the $150,000 he said the NIFL charged.

The LSFL consists of six teams, five in Texas and one in New Mexico, but recently had to ban one of its teams, the Rio Grande Valley Sol, from postseason play as the team missed several payments the league had to cover, and did not maintain workers' compensation insurance.

The CPIFL is based in Lawrence, Kan., and lists nine teams from the 2014 season with teams in Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma (the Tulsa-based Oklahoma Defenders). The Wichita Wild franchise is up for sale.

Ricky Bertz, owner of the CPIFL's Dodge City Law, and chairman of the league's executive committee, said he anticipates an announcement in the next 30 days on Enid's application.

"I am pretty confident that Enid and arena football are going to happen in 2015," Bertz said. "They would be a great footprint for us in the league and it would make for some great rivals."

Bertz said teams in the league are averaging more than 3,000 fans per game, and said several expansion requests for possible teams have been received.

There has been speculation the two leagues will merge for the 2015 season.

Taulton, who admits he doesn't know much yet about the Enid market, saying "I would be dumb to try to do this myself," is optimistic a franchise could succeed.

"We would seek out sponsorship and business support," he said. "We would want to do it the right way."

___

(c)2014 the Enid News & Eagle (Enid, Okla.)

Visit the Enid News & Eagle (Enid, Okla.) at www.enidnews.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services