Arena Football Considers Expansion With Teams in Washington, Denver

CHICAGO — The Arena Football League will field six teams in 1989, each playing a 12-game schedule, and might expand to include franchises in Washington and Denver, James Foster, league commissioner announced Friday.

Foster said few on-field changes will be made, but the league is trying to restructure to stop enormous financial losses.

“The concerns are building a better mousetrap . . . and (finding) a better way to run this football league,” he said.

“Sometimes things that look good on paper don’t work so well in reality,” Foster said of the league’s structure as a limited partnership.

Terms of the restructuring will be negotiated over the next 3 weeks.

Arena league teams lost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in 1988, partly because of problems with schedules, broadcast snags with ESPN and a drop in publicity, Foster said.

The Detroit Drive won the arena league championship in 1988.

“There is no question there is a spirit throughout this league that people want this game to continue,” Foster said. “It takes a lot of money to make this get off the ground and fly right.”

The arena league played from April through July in 1988, but the 1989 season will start later to avoid competition with playoffs in other sports, Foster said.

The 1989 entries will be Detroit, Chicago Bruisers, Los Angeles Cobras, New England Steamrollers, New York Knights and Pittsburgh Gladiators.