On Saturday night, I had a chance to take in the home finale of the Dallas Vigilantes‘ first, not exactly successful year in existence. The Vigilantes, if you don’t know — and you probably don’t, since there weren’t many people there, and it was the biggest crowd of the season — is Dallas’ new entry in the Arena Football League, after the much more beloved Desperadoes folded in 2008. After the jump, my report.
Pre-game, the Stratoblasters performed. I had the vague notion that the Stratoblasters were a sort of generic blues band. Their first song proved my instincts correct. But then they started their second song. The back-up singer who didn’t do much during the first number took over. The song she sang was not blues-based in any way. It was a straight-up Christian worship song — all “He lives inside of me” and so on. Toward the end, she instructed the crowd to help her out with an “Everybody!” into the mike. Now, I would have to assume that of the few thousand people in attendance, maybe a handful of people knew the song she was singing. And they were all on stage with her.
Anyway, I thought with a name like the “Vigilantes,” the team would play up some sort of bad-ass image. But no. Next up on the pre-game itinerary: Team Impact, the group of Christian strongmen who tear phonebooks in half and break aluminum baseball bats in two, powered by God’s love, I suppose. They didn’t really preach too much, which is good, because my son would have done pretty much anything they said after one of them broke the bat. Maybe the Vigilantes are going for some sort of bad-ass Christian thing? I don’t know.
Now then, the game: coming in, the Vigilantes were 2-12; the Blaze, 1-13. So, not exactly the best of the best. But that did allow one fan from my section to get into with a Blaze lineman, I think over who sucked the most.
At least on the Vigilantes’ end, it was easy to tell why: they fumbled snaps, they fumbled interceptions, they fumbled my drink order, they fumbled everything. The whole point of Arena Football, as far as I can tell, is someone scores every few minutes. This is difficult when one of the teams can’t even run plays without giving the ball up. That’s pretty much all my analysis, as I checked out after the third fumble. Oh, the Vigilantes lost, 51-41.
But! They get to go out on a high note this weekend against the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings!
The whole production is pretty low rent, from the graphics on the scoreboard to the dance team’s hand-me-down costumes, to the playing field, which has unsightly patches where Desperadoes logos were cut out and removed.
Speaking of the Desperadoes, former quarterback Clint Dolezel was in attendance. Why? For one reason, the Vigilantes, in a naked grab to get more people there, which worked in a very loose sense, decided to retire Dolezel’s No. 13, in a short, seemingly thrown-together ceremony at halftime. A banner with Dolezel’s name and digits now hangs in a very unobtrusive corner of the AAC. But also, team owner Peter Kern — who will never be confused with a dynamic public speaker — announced that Dolezel would be the coach of the team next season. Dolezel approached all of it with a kind of “Eh, what the hell?” look on his face.
Anyway, all of that happened.
4 comments
I miss the Desperados. Jerry Jones priced a beer sport at champagne levels and destroyed them. It sounds like the Vigilantes were what I feared most – a cheap imitation. At least Dolezel is coming back. From what I’ve seen from his playing days, if he gets pissed enough at his team, he’ll just put himself in the game. That would be interesting.
I don’t agree that Jones priced the Desperados at “champagne levels.” I was a season ticket holder and paid $35 for each seat. That’s not per game; that’s $35 for the whole season. That’s $5 a game for pretty decent seats.
I went to a game several weeks ago. Wasn’t impressed and don’t think the team can afford AAC rent next with the smallish crowds they draw.
Perhaps they can move to Frisco and co-exist with the Texas League, MLS and NBADL.
Zac,
I take it you were not very familiar with the previous team in Dallas-the Desperados, or the Arena Football League….You have made false statements that I would like to provide the correct information for:
The July 24th game was advertised as fan appreciation and faith/family night; which explains the Christian added theme.
There are many things you could see that contributed to the bad record, losing starting qb Shane Stafford in the pre season demolishment of Bossier. how about firing the head coach mid season, then the gm..the Vigilantes have the most talented set of players with the worst record, it was a hard start when you have 3 months prior to starting up a new brand and relaunch a league that went defunct in 2008 and folded in 2009.
As for the production being “low rent”…I would not assume anything going on at the AAC to be “low rent”, and certainly not their technology or staff.
Then you claim the dance team had “hand me down” uniforms.. this is puzzling, being that they were custom designed and made for each dancer this year.
Then you move onto the Turf.. reused Desperados field? Again, wrong .. this was not the re stamped Desperado turf. and Turf Squares are made to be removed and painted with differing league and team sponsors.
Not much to say about Peter Kern or his heart-felt announcement to the crowd? I guess some fans may prefer the owners who sit in their private suites and feel superior to their fans…That is definitely not Peter Kern. You also missed a widely known fact about him.. he is credited as the most successful owner of all afl history.. he owned the Tampa Bay Storm AFL team from 1993-2007.
You say the Desperados were “much more beloved”.. what about the Desperados are you referring to? the players? the coaches? the venue? Many of the Vigilantes players and coaching staff, were previous Desperados. The large crowds? that were brought in by tying the Dallas Cowboy sales into the Desperados..free ticket to cowboy fans.etc. I believe their average attendance was 7,500, The night you were in attendance at the Vigilantes game was not much smaller..6,200. Then when you consider the amount of reach the cowboys gave to the Desperados.. I would say that those previous attendance numbers are the best average crowds most could hope for. We are going to try to exceed even those numbers, and now will have the time to properly get the word out.
Now, as for missing a winning record.. I cannot argue that, but that was the reason behind the changes made and announcements from the owner taking responsibility for the disappointments this season and personally working toward bringing home the success Dallas has often been slighted of. Didn’t the cowboys have a year where they only had 1 W… out of a much larger schedule of games..?
How about all the giveaways and prizes for fans dispersed at literally every break throughout the game.. I don’t recall you mentioning anything about that….
Despeardo season tickets were 3 times the price of the Vigilantes, and for 2011…season tickets are as low as $64.00. So with obviously not making money on the high attendance, or winning record.. or increasing ticket prices.. the Vigilantes still came out of pocket and worked hard to take care of their fans and will continue to. We appreciate our die-hard fans.
Hopefully next year we can change your mind and proudly call you a Vigilantes fan.