American Football Database
Advertisement
Albany Empire
AmericanFootball current event.svg Current season
Established 2018
Play in Times Union Center
in Albany, New York
TheAlbanyEmpire.com
League/conference affiliations
Arena Football League (2018–)
Team colorsFiery reddish orange, dark navy blue, grey
              
Personnel
Owner(s)Trifecta Sports and Entertainment[1]
Main owners:
George Randolph Hearst III
Dan Nolan
Ed Swyer
Partner owners (with Philadelphia Soul):
Ron Jaworski
Craig Spencer
Pete Ciarrocchi
Cosmo DeNicola
Martin E. Judge
Dick Vermeil
Marques Colston
Jahri Evans
Nicholas Giuffre
Philip Jaurigue
Stewart Anmuth
Gil Peter
Hal Brunson
PresidentJohn Adams
Head coachRob Keefe
Team history
*Albany Empire (2018–)
Championships
League championships (0)
Conference championships (0)
Division championships (0)
Playoff appearances (1)
* 2018
Home arena(s)
* Times Union Center (2018–)

The Albany Empire is a professional arena football team based in Albany, New York, that began play in the Arena Football League (AFL) in 2018. Home games are played at Times Union Center.

The Empire is Albany's third arena football team and second AFL team; they succeed the original Albany Firebirds who began AFL play in 1990 and enjoyed great success (most notably winning ArenaBowl XIII) before moving to Indianapolis following the 2000 season, and later the Albany Conquest who played in the af2 from 2002 until that league folded after the 2009 season (and were known as the Firebirds for that last season).

History[]

After the American Hockey League's Albany Devils relocated to Binghamton, the Times Union Center was left without a full-time tenant. On March 14, 2017, Center general manager Bob Belber confirmed that it was in early discussions to bring an AFL team back to Albany.[2]

On October 24, the new Albany team was officially announced as a member of the AFL for the 2018 season. The local ownership group (led by George Randolph Hearst III) has partnered with that of their AFL leaguemates the Philadelphia Soul (which includes Ron Jaworski, Dick Vermeil, Marques Colston and Jahri Evans among others) to run both teams' business operations while keeping their football operations separate.[3] (This marks the second time that the AFL has announced two teams with common ownership and management but separate football operations, as the Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade are both owned and operated by D.C.-area businessman Ted Leonsis but are competitors on the field and separately coached.) On November 7, Rob Keefe was named the Albany team's head coach.[4] On November 9, the Albany team announced that the four team name finalists were the Empire, Fire, Machine and Phoenix.[5] Voting ended on November 15 and the winning name was announced on January 23, 2018, as the Albany Empire.

The team played its first game on April 14, 2018, losing at home to the Philadelphia Soul 56-35 before a sellout crowd of 13,648.[6]

Players[]

Current roster[]

Template:Albany Empire roster

Individual awards[]

Offensive Lineman of the Year
Season Player Position
2018 Hayworth Hicks OL

Defensive Lineman of the Year
Season Player Position
2018 Joe Sykes DL

Most Valuable Player
Season Player Position
2018 Tommy Grady QB

Offensive Player of the Year
Season Player Position
2018 Tommy Grady QB

Defensive Player of the Year
Season Player Position
2018 Terence Moore LB

Rookie of the Year
Season Player Position
2018 Malachi Jones WR

Notable coaches[]

Head coaches[]

Name Term Regular season Playoffs Awards
W L Win% W L
Rob Keefe 2018–present 8 4 .667 1 1

Staff[]

Albany Empire staff
Ownership[7]
  • Albany ownership group – George Randolph Hearst III
  • Albany ownership group – Daniel Nolan
  • Albany ownership group – Ed Swyer
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Craig A. Spencer
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Ron Jaworski
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Pete Ciarrocchi
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Cosmo DeNicola
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Martin E. Judge
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Marques Colston
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Dick Vermeil
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Nicholas Giuffre
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Jahri Evans
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Philip Jaurigue
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Stewart Anmuth
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Gil Peters
  • Philadelphia ownership group – Hal Brunson
  Front office[8]
  • Chief operating officer – George Manias
  • Chief ticketing officer – David Beck
  • Vice president of finance – Carly Griffin

Coaches[9]

  • Head coach – Rob Keefe
  • Assistant head coach/general manager – Les Moss
  • Director of player personnel/line coach – Dave Ewart
  • Director of player operations – Brandon Goldstein
As of 2019 season

References[]

External links[]

Template:Albany AFL team

Template:New York Sports

Advertisement