Albany Empire
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League/conference affiliations | |||||
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Arena Football League (2018–) | |||||
Team colors | Fiery 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 | ||||
President | John Adams | ||||
Head coach | Rob 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[]
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Notable coaches[]
Head coaches[]
Name | Term | Regular season | Playoffs | Awards | |||
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W | L | Win% | W | L | |||
Rob Keefe | 2018–present | 8 | 4 | .667 | 1 | 1 |
Staff[]
Albany Empire staff | ||||||
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Ownership[7]
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Front office[8]
Coaches[9]
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References[]
- ↑ "THE ARENA FOOTBALL LEAGUE EXPANDS TO ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.". AFL. January 22, 2019. http://www.atlanticcityafl.com/home/.
- ↑ Dougherty, Pete (March 14, 2017). "Times Union Center eyeing return of Arena Football, indoor lacrosse". Times Union. http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Times-Union-Center-eyeing-return-of-Arena-10999070.php.
- ↑ Skodnick, Leif (October 24, 2017). "It's Official: Arena Football League returning to Times Union Center". Times Union. http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/It-s-Official-Arena-Football-League-returning-to-12301704.php.
- ↑ "Albany AFL Names Rob Keefe as Head Coach". arenafan.com. November 7, 2017. http://www.arenafan.com/news/?page=pressrel&article=13717. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ↑ Skodnick, Leif (November 9, 2017). "Fans can vote for Albany AFL team name". timesunion.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20171111200821/http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Fans-can-vote-for-Arena-team-name-12345379.php. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
- ↑ Singelais, Mark (April 15, 2018). "Empire open with defeat". timesunion.com. https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Empire-open-with-defeat-12835240.php. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
- ↑ "Albany Empire Ownership". Albany Empire. http://www.thealbanyempire.com/team/ownership/.
- ↑ "Albany Empire Front Office". Albany Empire. http://www.thealbanyempire.com/team/front-office/.
- ↑ "Albany Empire Coaching Staff". Albany Empire. http://www.thealbanyempire.com/team/coaches/.
External links[]
Template:Albany AFL team
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Template:New York Sports