Pro indoor football comes to Beamsville

The Niagara Spartans will have their first official news conference on Thursday in Beamsville to introduce the new professional indoor football team to the Hamilton/Niagara area.

The Spartans are owned by “born and raised” Hamiltonian Phil Costantini, who also owns the Steel City Patriots, Hamilton’s entry in the semi-pro Northern Football Conference.

They play home games at Mohawk Sports Park.

“The Patriots were named to pay tribute to the old Stoney Creek Patriots senior team,” Costantini says. “And the legacy of the Spartans came from the semi-pro team which played in Niagara in the late ’80s and ’90s.”

The Spartans will play in the brand-new Can-Am Indoor Football League, which includes eight teams.

Seven of those are in the U.S.: Lockport, Buffalo and Rochester will play with Niagara in the western division, while Glens Falls, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut are in the east.

Costantini expects there could be “a lot” of Hamilton players on the roster, but also cautions that, as opposed to his NFC team, the indoor squad will have 22 players with another eight signed to the practice roster.

Players will receive a per diem, and there is a $25,000 budget for player salaries, with a separate budget covering coaches’ salaries.

Constantini says he had discussions with Hamilton’s First-Ontario Centre, Stoney Creek’s Gateway Ice Centre and St. Catharines’ Meridian Centre as a home before settling upon the Fleming Centre, near Beamsville District Secondary School.

The Spartans’ season begins in March with their first four games on the road, and proceeds through April and May, leading toward the first league championship on June 17. “The outdoor (NFC) season starts in May, so there will be some overlap,” Constantini says of his two teams.