Monumental undertaking with Brigade

A long road for Baltimore to field indoor football team

To understand the difficulty of taking the Baltimore Brigade from abstraction to reality in a matter of months, from an idea in a Washington boardroom to an expansion Arena Football League team playing its home opener Sunday, consider the field not taken.

In mid-November, when the Ted Leonsis-owned Monumental Sports & Entertainment announced the birth of the AFL franchise, it had no name, no coach, no roster. It had a home at Royal Farms Arena, but no field.

So as the coaching staff was appointed and the roster was filled over the winter months, officials sought out something they could play on. In October, the league had folded the Portland Steel franchise; befitting a Brigade team stocked with transplants from shuttered AFL teams, including coach Omarr Smith, the field was shipped east in January for inspection.

There were problems. It was an older field, having spent time underfoot two league franchises. In Portland alone, the midfield logo already had been replaced once, as the Thunder became the rebranded Steel. It did not seem to have been cared for well. There were bumps on the turf, perhaps from storage at suboptimal temperatures.

Just how bad was it? Jeff Bowler, vice president of business operations for MSE, said it is not even suitable to donate. In late Home opener STORM @ BRIGADE Sunday, 1 p.m.