VERMONT’S ARENA FOOTBALL TEAM RELOCATES TO RAIL CITY
By Ben Kaufmann
County Courier
ST. ALBANS – Football fans in Franklin County will be able to nurse their post-Superbowl hangovers with live professional football this spring. The Vermont Bucks, an Arena Football team which began play in 2017 in Burlington, have announced a move to the Collins Perley Sports & Fitness Center in St. Albans for the upcoming season.
The Bucks, which spent the 2019 season without a home after a reorganizing year in 2018, will play three to four games in St. Albans and two in Southern Vermont on Saturday nights beginning this April. The high-scoring games will take place on turf inside the hockey rink at Collins Perley (CPSC). Vermont has not committed to a league for the 2020 season and is likely to play a mixed-league schedule with other teams in the region. An agreement with CPSC is in place, though the lease is yet to be signed.
“The goal was always to return to play in Vermont, so we continued to search for arenas we could play in,” said Bucks owner Joanna Morse, who took control of the team after the previous owner failed to complete a sale to out-of-state buyers after the 2017 season.
“We are just excited to bring professional arena football back to Vermont and look forward to the opportunities that Collins Perley and St. Albans have to offer us,” added Morse, who has had to navigate the dilemma of the Bucks’ first home at the University of Vermont being under construction for the past year.
Tim Viens (no relation to the Tim Viens who was the Bucks’ first owner) is the director of CPSC and says the move is a big positive for St. Albans.
“It is exciting,” Viens said. “It’s something different to offer the community.”
Morse expects single-game ticket costs to be around $10. The Bucks will sell merchandise, have halftime shows, giveaways and mascot Bucky. CPSC will handle concession sales during home games.
The affordable ticket prices were a huge priority for Morse. During the inaugural Bucks season in 2017, individual game tickets cost were in the $20-range. It didn’t help that the Bucks were routinely winning those home games by 40-50 point margins, offering an impressive product but little excitement. After winning the Can-Am title that year, the Bucks left the league and have sought better competition since.
“That’s one of the biggest things I heard feedback on,” Morse said of the ticket costs. “I wanted to make sure I adjusted that so that those who wanted to attend could.”
Arena league football is big on offense – the Bucks’ games in 2019 averaged around 87 total points. It is eight-on-eight tackle football played at a fast pace. The field is about half the size of an NFL field and rules allow for vertical backfield motion prior to the snap unlike outdoor football.
The Bucks are comprised mostly of former high school and college players. Morse says the team will hold tryouts for its 21-player roster in southern Vermont in October, northern Vermont in November and may hold some out-of-state tryouts. Vermont’s 2019 roster included five players from Franklin County: Hunter Nunes-Wales, Dallas Roberts, Zachary Heyer, Doug Saffo Brendon Hutchins, and Joel Parady. Morse says the inaugural Bucks team in 2017 was almost entirely out-of-state players and the 2019 edition was 100% Vermonters, she hopes to strike close to a 50/50 balance this season.
Head coach Jeff Porter is fan of anything that moves football forward in Vermont. Gearing up for his second season with the Bucks, Porter also coaches the University of Vermont Club Football team in the fall. He began coaching youth football in Colchester in 2000 and has had stints coaching lacrosse and football at Colchester High School since then.
“I am very excited about the move to Collins Perley as I feel it will be a very good fit community-wise and be a very big step in reestablishing the team here in Vermont,” Porter said.
Collins Perley represents a significant size decrease from Gutterson Fieldhouse at UVM in terms both of spectators held and ceiling height, but Morse says those are standard challenges in a growing sport.
“It is a smaller venue than most places that we travel to, but that’s typical of Vermont,” she said.
Some other logistical problems exist, but nothing out of the ordinary for a young team in an upstart sport. A big need with no concrete solution yet is housing; the Bucks will need to host about 10-15 players locally during the season and Morse says she is still exploring options.
CPSC is owned by BFA-St. Albans and is primarily used for their sports. Sharing space with the Bucks may create a few small hurdles, but Viens says issues should be minimal. Though there will be some overlap with BFA’s spring sports during part of the Bucks’ season, there is also a big benefit to the Bobwhite and Comet teams which are used to preparing for the spring season on the concrete floor of the hockey rink.
“They put the turf down,” Viens said. “And the baseball and softball teams get to use it during pre-season. [Morse] was totally on board with that idea.”
A Community Effort
Franklin County has been without professional sports since the Vermont Voltage soccer team dissolved in 2014. Much like the Voltage, who played outdoors at CPSC and were a massive hit in the area in the 2000’s, the Bucks intend to jump right in to the local community.
Morse says the Bucks have begun to work with Friends Of Football In St. Albans and supports the Northern Vermont Youth Football League as well as high school programs.
Board President of St. Albans Football, Chad Spooner, had heard rumblings of a potential Bucks relocation to St. Albans and is optimistic about the potential benefits to young athletes in the area.
“The VT Bucks playing in St. Albans gives the youth football in the area an opportunity to experience the speed of play first hand,” Spooner wrote in an e-mail to The County Courier. “Watching football on TV and watching in person are two very different experiences.”
“Arena football amplifies the cheering from the stands and it will be a good opportunity for the kids to experience both types of games.”
Spooner says he thinks a relationship between the Bucks and the St. Albans Steelers program could be a huge asset to the community.
“It would be great if in the fall the players came down and chatted with the kids about the type of dedication it takes to be a good player, teammate and role model to others. I also hope there is an opportunity for the VT Buck players to have a day where they spend a couple of hours putting on a mini-camp where local youth can learn new drills and techniques to be better themselves.”
The Vermont Bucks have joined the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and Morse will be attending their mixer with Coach Porter on September 19th. The team has built a strong partnership with 14th Star Brewery and intends to announce more about that in the coming weeks.
“There are lots of exciting ways for businesses and organizations to get on board with our team,” said Morse.
The County Courier will have more information throughout the winter as the buildup to the Bucks’ first season in St. Albans continues.
