ATTENTION: Spring/Summer League Administrators and Team Owners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media - contact Dave Burch at AFA National Office
(877)624-4485 or (941)388-3510
(e-mail) amerfoot@aol.com (or) usafoot@aol.com
(website) www.americanfootballassn.com

The American Football Association is expected to announce the details of its membership Game Plan 2006 just after the first of the year. While most of the membership benefits will remain the same the big change will be in the fact that the AFA will drop its Associate membership category in favor of a general membership program which will allow for all member teams to qualify for the American Football News weekly power-rating. During the 2005 semi-pro football season the AFA¹s power rating service was limited to those teams whose leagues participated in the national associations 100% team membership rule. Meaning if less than 100% of a league’s teams joined the AFA in 2005 none of the league's teams qualified for the ratings.

Although the AFA thought the 100% membership rule would help league commissioners convince their teams of the importance of being part of a 25 year old national association dedicated to the advancement of semi-pro football across the country - the plan fell short of getting all commissioners to help push AFA benefits to their membership. As a result, several very good football teams were eliminated from participating in the AFA¹s popular power rating service during the 2005 season(s).

Game Plan 2006 will provide for the “power-rating” of each Member team during the coming season. The 2006 national power-rating system will also provide for individual teams to classify themselves as AAA-AA-A thus eliminating the requirement of rating entire leagues in one category or another. In the past, several leagues that were rated as AA during the season actually had a team or two that should have been rated along with the top AAA teams. Consequently, many AAA rated leagues have some teams that are new, inexperienced and/or continually in the bottom half of their league standings - and may want to be classified nationally in a category with other teams of the same talent status.

Since 1999 the AFA has monitored and tabulated, for its power-rating database, the results of 20,738 semi-pro football games played in the United States. During the 2005 season alone the AFA tracked the game scores of 59 different leagues and accumulated game results from 721 teams playing in 3,830 games. Now that’s a lot of semi-pro football by anyone¹s standards!

The AFA’s Game Plan 2006 is sure to attract additional individual team memberships. Semi-Pro football organizations across the country are encouraged to check the expiration dates on their liability insurance policy so they don’t get caught going into the season with a policy that expires soon. AFA member teams may want to take advantage of the national association’s low rate liability insurance program for member teams by checking our American Football News website at www.AmericanFootballNews.org (click on insurance) and/or our AFA Insurance Agency (Sadler Insurance) at www.SadlerSports.com/afa/.

Spring/Summer teams preparing for the coming season may also want to take advantage of the AFA’s program to purchase Wilson NFL (‘blem’) Game Balls at the special discount price offered to AFA member teams. Wilson Sporting Goods, in an effort to assist the AFA in our fund raising efforts, has established a special discount price to semi-pro football teams for their popular NFL ‘blems’ - if ordered through the AFA national association. These NFL game balls are not factory rejects. Most blems have only slight cosmetic irregularities and cost only $35 per ball (plus shipping) when ordered in 6 packs from the AFA. Want to try a few NFL ‘blems’ to see for yourself the quality of the blem balls? Order a two pack for $37.50 each (plus $2 each for shipping and handling). Interested in placing an order for these AFA sponsored Wilson NFL blem balls? Or, want an order form sent to you? Send an e-mail request to the AFA at USAfoot@aol.com and we’ll send you a colorful PDF file order form by return mail.

Spring/Summer league teams can now request a copy of the AFA’s 2006 Membership Application by sending an e-mail to AFAmember.com. Please list your name, team name, the league your team plays in, team mailing address, phone number and of course what e-mail address you would like the AFA membership application (PDF file) sent to. AFA team membership fees for the 2006 season are $100 each and are tax deductible to the extent of IRS regulations. The AFA is a national 501(c) (3) non-profit tax exempt organization dedicated to the advancement and preservation of Semi-Pro Football (adult amateur) in the United States.

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