Richmond, Va - The Richmond Coliseum has it's newest minor league tennant. The Richmond RoughRiders officially unveiled their logo and uniforms as they get set to begin their inaugural season in the Arena Pro Football league in April.
Following the Speed, Revolution, Bandits and Raiders, the Roughriders are hoping to succeed where the others did not. The Raiders, the most recent indoor team here, lasted six seasons and chose to cease operations because of issues with their league rather than internal troubles.
"Ownership has a lot to do with it" said Roughriders co-owner Greg Fornario. "My partner here and myself, we really are football people. We're very passionate about the game."
It will take more than passion to resurrect the sport here in town. But the Roughriders have tapped into a market that did it's best to support arena football in the past and they are hoping that support will be their foundation as they begin play in April.
"We saw what was here before" Fornario said. "We saw the numbers (of fans) that came in and we just want to build from there."
The Roughriders have already had one tryout and will hold another one later in January. Tickets for their games go on sale February 1st, and their season opener will be on April 8th against the Birmingham Outlaws. Other teams in the APF include Myrtle Beach, Fort Myers, Florida, St. Charles, Missouri, and Savannah, Georgia.
The head coach will be LaRonn Zimmerman who previously coached with the Buffalo Lightning of the Can-Am Indoor league, and played with 8 different indoor teams. The Roughriders have also signed former Raiders players Herb Jones (VUU) and Maurice Thorne (Hopewell).
For more info, log on to http://www.richmondroughriders.com
