The 2008 AFL AGM was held in Edmonton on January 26, 2008. All 9 2007 teams were in attendance as well as two hopefull expansion teams. It was a very productive meeting and a great spring board into the 2008 season!! Listed below are some of the hilites of what occurred:
1. Expansion Two presentations. The AFL Council has accepted the Parkland Panthers (Spruce Grove) into the AFL for the 2008 season. The AFL Council has decided not to go ahead with an expansion into the Sylvan Lake area at this time. That brings the AFL up to 10 teams for the 2008 season. Congratulations to the Panthers and welcome to the AFL!
2. Elections Although a non-election year, we filled 2 positions that were vacant for this season. Dave Hanni (Buccaneers) will act as Treasurer for the 2008 season. Doug Robertshaw (Wolfpack) was elected as Director of Media Relations for the 2008 season. 2009 is a full election year and all 5 AFL Executive positions will be voted on for a new 2-year term.
3. Bylaw Amendments 10 amendments were proposed, 9 were adopted, 1 rejected The key changes:
- Team fees increase from $1000.00 to $1250.00
- Any ejection of a player or team official from a game now results in an automatic 1 game suspension....no appeal.
- A 2nd ejection of a player or team official from a game in the same season now results in an automatic 4 game suspension....no appeal.
- In order to be eligible for the playoffs, you must play at least 1 game, for that team, up to & including the 5th week of the regular season (this year...July 12th). Playoff rosters are frozen after week #5. New player may be added to your team after that....but they may not participate in the playoffs.
- The voting process for the AFL Awards & All-Stars was formalized & adopted into the bylaws.
A proposed amendment that would see fines for teams who were late reporting stats was rejected.
Updated 2008 Bylaws: 2008 AFL Bylaws
5. Team Updates Some interesting items:
- Tom Luzzi has stepped down as President of the Gators. Andrew Watson is the new President.
- Cindy Jensen & Verne Kot have left the Thunder. Dan Marsden is the new President.
- Grande Prairie are purchasing a 2nd set of jerseys that will be white with their vegas gold & blue trim.
- Gord Schroeder is no longer President of the Stallions. Yuri Wishloff is the new President.
6. 2008 Schedule Was presented & adopted. 9 game regular season. It is a tentative schedule subject to all teams field booking requests. All team reps have the schedules. The complete 2008 AFL Schedule will be posted on the AFL Website shortly
7. 2008 CMFL National Championship Will be hosted by the AFL in Calgary on September 27 2008. All 3 Calgary teams have agreed to cooperate in hosting this event.
This is a milestone year for the AFL. 2008 will be the 25th season of AFL Football!! To celebrate this achievement we are going to hold a competition for a new AFL Logo!! The rules are simple:
- Logo must incorporate an Alberta theme.
- There should be 2 versions of the logo...one that incorporates the 25th anniversary (1984-2008) for this season and one that doesn't, as the logo will continue to be used as we move forward.
- All entries should be in a .gif, .jpeg, or .bmp format - All entries must be in by February 29th
- AFL Council will select the winning logo
- Winning logo designer will receive a $100.00 gift card from the establishment of their choice.
All entries should be emailed to Jim Lightfoot or Calgary Wolfpack Football. There is no limit to the number of logos you can submit. Entries will be posted here on the AFL website for viewing. Have fun with it and we are looking forward to seeing what everyone can come up with!!
