New Indoor Football Team Introduces Itself To Kansas City

The Kansas City Command won’t take the field next season, but Kansas City arena football fans will get a new team in a new league.
A spokesman for the Command would say only that the team won’t play next season. The Command played in the Arena Football League.
The unnamed new team will play in the Champions Professional Indoor Football League, a newly created regional league that so far includes teams from Wichita; Tulsa, Okla.; Sedalia, Mo.; and Sioux City, Iowa. Two more teams are expected to be announced soon. The league could play with as many as 10 teams.
“We’re not trying to be a national organization like the AFL,” said Reggie Harris, general manager of the new Kansas City team. “What we’re trying to do is create a league that is more accessible for fans and that has a financial situation that works.”
Harris, who in 2005 was general manager of Command predecessor the Kansas City Brigade, said that average ticket prices for the new team will be about $20 but that fans will be able to see a game for as little as $10 a ticket.
“We want this to be very affordable for families,” Harris said. “You can go see a game for about as much as it would cost to go to a movie.”
The new team will play at Kemper Arena, which with 17,000 seats will be the league’s largest arena. The 12-week season will start in late February; the playoffs will end by July 1.
The Kansas City team is owned by Jeremy Ploeger, who is founder of sports management firm J&M Management, vice chairman of the Jackson County Board of Planning & Zoning Adjustments and a former candidate for the Missouri House of Representatives in the 51st District.
The Brigade went out of business when the AFL reorganized at the end of the 2009 season. The AFL returned in 2010; the Kansas City team — which became the Command — returned for the 2011 season.
The new team already announced several players:

• Carson Coffman will play quarterback. A Kansas State Wildcat from 2006 to 2010, he threw for 3,224 yards and 17 touchdowns, running for 278 yards and 12 touchdowns. Last year, he played for the Utah Blaze in the Arena Football League. He’s the son of Paul Coffman, a three-time Pro Bowl tight end who played for the Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings.
• Diyral Briggs will play linebacker. Briggs has NFL experience playing for the San Francisco 49ers, Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers, where he won a Super Bowl ring. Last season, he played for the Kansas City Command.
• Cornelius “Pig” Brown played for the University of Missouri and was a third-round draft pick for the Kansas City Chiefs. Last season, he played in the Indoor Football League for the River City Rage and the Omaha Beef.
• O.J. Simpson played wide receiver for Missouri Western State University. He spent last season with the Kansas City Command.

• Tommy Chavis will play defensive line. He played college football for the University of Missouri and earned Big 12 Honorable Mention in 2007. He played for the Kansas City Command in 2012; the year before, he led the Indoor Football League with 16.5 sacks in 11 games.