By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
spage@midlothianexchange.com

The Indoor Football League officially opened the doors of its Richmond headquarters last Wednesday. The league, which sports professional teams mostly in the Midwest and Texas, is hoping to become established on the eastern seaboard. The league offices are in Shockoe Bottom and a team will be in Richmond by 2011. The push for a base in the area is thanks in part to league commissioner Tommy Benizio. The man with the plan is a Midlothian High School graduate with family still in the area and says, for him, bringing the IFL to Virginia, and Richmond in particular, was a no-brainer on a personal and a professional level.

“I had a great experience,” Benizio said. “I enjoyed living in the area and it was deep enough in my heart that it was the first place I wanted to come when I had the option.”

Originally from New York, Benizio transferred to Midlothian High School for his freshman year. A budding hockey career took him to Saskatchewan for two years, but he returned to the area to finish his high school career as a Trojan. He graduated from Midlothian in 1991 and went on to Radford University where he started his team management days running the school’s club hockey team.

After college, he ran the Roanoke Express in the East Coast Hockey league, then moved to Knoxville, Tenn., where he ran another hockey team and met his wife Abby. While in Tennessee, a new opportunity arose that gave Benizio the chance to move from hockey team ownership to football team ownership.

“The opportunity came to buy a football team somewhere in Texas, so we traveled to Texas to pick a city and we settled on Odessa,” Benizio said. “The business of hockey and football are very similar. I had been in the hockey business for several years … so when this football opportunity came up, it took some prayer and thought and … we decided to head to Odessa, Texas.”

The two ran the Odessa Roughnecks for five years beginning in 2003 as part of the Intense Football League. The league, centered in Texas, grew to 10 teams. In 2008, the decision was made to merge the Intense Football League with an indoor football league in the Midwest called the United Indoor Football Association. Benizio, whose Roughnecks were performing well both on the field and off was asked to put his name in the running for commissioner of the new league.

“In order to accept that position, I had to sell my team, so as it became clear that I was going to earn this job, we put our team up for sale and were able to sell it,” Benizio said.

The IFL grew to 19 teams separated into four divisions for the inaugural 2009 season. The regular season runs March through July with playoffs ending the first week of August. Play is similar to that of the Arena Football League with a 50-yard field, a smaller kicking area between the goal posts and 16 players on the field at a time. Scoring is the same as in the NFL with an added rugby element of four points for a drop kick field goal. Play is very close to fans with only four-foot dasher boards surrounding the field and separating the stands from the field of play. Players are typically post-college, professional caliber. They are scouted into the league but there are also open try-outs each season for each team.

“Young men come here that are either drafted by the NFL but weren’t able to make the teams or college players that graduated and were not drafted,” Benizio said. “If they go home and wait for [NFL teams] to call, sitting on the couch getting out of shape, they have no chance. If they come to the IFL, they’re playing in front of scouts, they’re earning statistics and highlight video of their successes, so it gives them a chance to showcase their talent and get back into the NFL.”

According to officials, a team run by Sports Quest will be in place in Richmond by the 2011 season. An official announcement is expected to be made within the next two to three weeks. The team will join two others on the east coast – the Maryland Maniacs in Laurel, MD; and the Rochester Raiders in Rochester, N.Y. But with headquarters in Richmond, the league is sure to be growing in the east.

“Richmond is such a great town for business,” Benizio said. “Richmond and Virginia in general is just a great football community. This is near NFL caliber professional football being played right here in our hometown, so I believe people are really going to embrace the sport … I think when they see our brand of football and the quality that goes behind the production of the games that people are going to be won over, and I hope, come and really enjoy the games.”

Benizio added that having family as nearby as Powhatan was also a driving force behind placing the headquarters locally.

“I really am pleased to be near my family … It’s nice to have the people that love you around. We never had that [in Texas] so this is real exciting for us,” Benizio said.