EXCITEMENT BUILDS TOWARD A NEW EMPIRE
ALBANY, N.Y. » Once upon a time, Albany was referred to as the “Green Bay” of the Arena Football League. A small market but with a fervent fan base in a league with teams in NFL cities. To make another analogy, the Albany Firebirds were like the Brooklyn Dodgers, always on the doorstep, finally breaking through with an Arena Bowl title in 1999, only to be ripped out of the heart of downtown and moved to Indianapolis a couple of seasons later.
Yet, a new incarnation has arrived. The Albany Empire. A team ready to build something special for a fan base thirsty for professional sports at the Times Union Center, ever since the American Hockey League Albany Devils bolted down I-88 to Binghamton last April. Fittingly, wearing orange and blue no less.
To hear them tell it, to say the players and coaches are excited to be here would be a vast understatement.
“I think it’s going to be the ultimate home field advantage. I think that’s what Albany going to bring to the table,” head coach Rob Keefe said of Albany’s passionate fans and arena. “I think that’s what the capital city, Capital Region, is really going to bring to the table here at the TU Cen-
ter. I think it’s going to be a knowledgeable fan base. I think people are going to be loud on defense. I think people are going to be quiet on offense. I think it’s going to be crazy intense loud when we score touchdowns. Any time we get a turnover, I think everybody’s going to get off their seat”
Keefe knows a thing or two about loud venues, having coached in “The Jungle” with the old Orlando Predators, listed as the rowdiest arena when the league celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012.
“This is first class. The city has been first class,” coach Keefe said of the community. “When you’re in other cities that have a lot of other professional sports, sometimes you can be pushed to the wayside. For us, the reason why I think guys have bought in is because they know that they’re representing a city and we are on a pedestal of professional sports here in the Capital Region. This is our home and this is the capital city/region’s team now. It’s been first class all the way from the ownership, down to the media, down to the fan base and we want to represent that and we want to give you first class entertainment.”