Tri City Indoor Football Team Abruptly Ceases Operations
Less than three weeks after an announcement was made about a new deal to use HAPO Center at TRAC for their games, the Tri-City Rush have now announced they are ceasing operations.
The New 2023 season deal was announced on November 4th
In late October, there had been some discussions between Clubhouse Sports, who signed a two-year lease for the large arena at the HAPO Center at TRAC, and the American West Football Conference Tri-City Rush about the use of the facility.
Then November 4th, came the announcement that a deal had been reached to allow the Rush to use the arena for their home games in 2023.
The Rush, who are the defending AWFC Champions, appeared to have stabilized the home-field situation. According to the team from their news release, via Facebook:
"Rage Sports LLC, owners of The Tri-City Rush Professional Indoor Football Organization announced Friday 11/4/22 that an agreement had been reached between the HAPO Center and Clubhouse Sports Academy to allow the Rush to play their 2023 Home Season at the Hapo Center Arena."
However, 18 days later, on November 22nd., owner-operator and coach Brandon Tate announced via Facebook the team would be closing operations effective immediately. The statement read in part:
"But financially we have not been able to reach our goals to continue and I can no longer support the team financially."
The team had won league championships in both years of its existence. The Rush was considered one of the more stable franchises in the AWFC, which at one point over the last year had 8 or 9 teams.
There is no mention on their site about the Rush closing down, but the site now lists only three teams as members, prior to the Rush announcement there were four.
While the seating at the HAPO Center at TRAC was limited to only one sideline (to accommodate the playing field) the grandstands were full to mostly full for Rush home games. League attendance figures are not listed on the site, but the Rush was considered to have the largest crowds of any of the teams in the league and appeared to have a decent number of local sponsorship--based on the banners in the arena.
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