I found out I was wrong about the pricing structure for season tickets in 2011.

As it turns out, it’s for nine regular-season games. Not eight regular-season and one playoff game like I originally thought.

The Arena Football League is going to experiment with a format where each of the 19 teams play each other once in 2011. This means each team will play 18 games: 9 home and 9 away. This also means that any expansion for 2011 is already finished.

According to the Orlando Sentinel in their report on Predators season tickets, average season ticket prices will go down 5% in 2011. Certainly the value is increasing, with the introduction of club services at Amway Center. I know I’d shell out $80/game for a loge box seat if I had that kind of pocket change floating around. (If they’re even 50% the value of the loge boxes at UCF Arena, where I sit at the free-admission UCF basketball exhibition games.)

But according to the story, in addition the Arena Football League has big dreams for future expansion. They see the league potentially expanding to up to 40 teams. Personally I see this as their earlier vision to restore a second division, a new af2-style league.

Maybe Huntsville won’t be without a team for long.

Even bigger news is their idea to plant a 4-team division in Europe. NFL Europa, the NFL’s experiment to play American football overseas, was not an overall success but did have its individual success stories. It was fairly big in Germany, and still growing when the NFL pulled the plug, with a per-game average of 20,000 fans in their last year, 2007. The Frankfurt Galaxy broke 30,000 per game in the final year.

The AFL hopes to run an exhibition game in Europe, and is looking at the Predators as one of the teams.

The Arena Football League is in season award mode, and began today by announcing its All-AFL teams (Adobe Reader required).

Defensive backs Rayshawn Kizer and Kenny McEntire were named to the All-AFL First Team, while kicker Carlos Martinez made the Second Team.

The greatest team in af2 history, the Spokane Shock, faced the greatest team in AFL history, the Tampa Bay Storm, at Arena Bowl XXIII last night.

The af2 won.

Spokane beat Tampa Bay, 69-57, to take their first Arena Bowl title and third championship overall.

Tampa Bay scored first and had a 7-6 lead going into the second quarter, when Spokane finished off a three-TD run. The Storm re-took a 28-27 lead with :15 to go in the first half, but the Shock answered back with :10 to go, then scored another two TDs to start the second half and take the lead for good.

Spokane played keep-away until the last 9 minutes, when they scored 2 TD to take an insurmountable 28-point lead with 1:24 left in the game. Tampa Bay scored two more TDs, but ran out of time.

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The AFL is continuing its rebuilding in 2011. They already have concrete plans to add three more old-guard teams–the San Jose Sabrecats, Kansas City Brigade and Philadelphia Soul (sans Jon Bon Jovi, he’s “too busy touring” to own a team)–and one expansion team, the Pittsburgh Power.

Interestingly enough, the Tampa Bay Storm were the Pittsburgh Gladiators before moving to Tampa in 1991.

There are also rumors of the return of the Colorado Crush and New Orleans VooDoo. The league currently has 19 teams confirmed for 2011, including the 15 that played this year. That would match the largest the old AFL ever got. But it’s also possible that some current teams may fold in the interim.

But folding is not likely for the Orlando Predators, who averaged 11,204 fans for the season. That’s about 1,000 fans fewer per game than 2008, but not bad considering the year off. The new Amway Center, combined with the playoff run this year, should provide a bit of a bounce in 2011.

The Florida Tuskers today announced the addition of placekicker Carlos Martinez to the roster.

The article refers to him as “formerly” of the Orlando Predators, but it is unknown if he will continue his arena football career next year, so I wouldn’t go that far yet.

But still, the addition of Martinez is a very wise one. Last year the Tuskers’ primary weakness was PKs. Matt Bryant was coming off a leg injury, which was the whole reason he was cut from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first place.

With Martinez, the Tuskers have a long and accurate leg for field goals. When I saw the Preds in action this year, I saw Martinez in practice easily hitting 50+ yarders, and this with the narrower target in the indoor game. It bodes well for translation to the outdoor game, especially with the Tuskers playing on artificial turf this year.

In-game, Martinez finished 2010 with a league-high 13 field goals, and a long of 55 yards. He also made 91% of his PAT attempts, a total of 104.

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In his column today, Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi gave a warning about practicing during the heat of the afternoon with the unusually hot summer. He used Tuskers head coach Jay Gruden as an example of a coach dealing with the heat, showing how the Tuskers practice in the morning before the worst of the afternoon heat arrives.

With an appeal to his suspension forthcoming, Bobby Sippio did take the field for the Orlando Predators last night.

He scored 6 touchdowns (4 pass, 2 rush), including the final one with 8.7 seconds to go, sealing a 73-69 victory and leaving the Jacksonville Sharks at home to ponder what went wrong.

He must’ve read where I said his absence wouldn’t matter.

It was a true back-and-forth affair. The largest lead Jacksonville ever had was 7, on the opening touchdown. An early blocked FG was the beginning of their undoing as the two teams pretty much exchanged scores the rest of the way, with only the Preds scoring consecutively, leading by as much as 10 at one point.

T.T. Toliver also completed a TD pass, and James Lynch rushed for the other two. Carlos Martinez scored the only field goal, and converted on all ten of his PAT attempts., Whereas Paul Edinger (Sharks kicker) missed three of his eight PATs (one block, two no good).

The Preds will face the winner of the Tulsa/Tampa Bay game tonight. In the National Conference, the Spokane Shock beat the Arizona Rattlers, 57-49 to advance to their final.

The Orlando Predators took revenge on the Tampa Bay Storm in Tampa, beating them last night, 75-60.

The win puts the Preds at 8-8 to finish the regular season, and gives them a statement win heading into the playoffs.

WR T.T. Toliver caught an amazing six touchdowns, and the Preds scored on every single offensive opportunity. On top of that, T.T. Toliver earned a spot on Saturday night/Sunday morning’s ESPN SportsCenter Top Plays list with the second Preds touchdown. For that catch, he leapt over the sideline board in the end zone, completing the TD pass before going over.

The Predators win ruins Tampa Bay’s playoff plans by giving Jacksonville the South Division. This means the Storm must go to Tulsa, the Southwest Division champions, while the Predators go to Jacksonville next weekend.

The Orlando Predators clinched the last AFL playoff spot in a 49-21 victory over the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz this past Saturday night.

The victory meant the Predators could close Amway Arena the way it was always meant to.

QB Nick Hill threw 15-of-22 for 217 yards. Robert Quiroga caught for 115 yards and 4 touchdowns.

A loss the previous weekend in Milwaukee dashed any remaining hopes that the Preds might earn a home Arena Bowl, which were already infinitesimal at that point but still mathematically possible.

The old arena is now ready to go quietly into that good night. There’s still a few concerts and one last Disney On Ice tour, but its sports history is all written, with contributions from the Predators, Magic, Lightning, Solar Bears, Seals, Jackals, Titans and so many others.

Although plans are not yet set in stone, the way appears clear for Amway Arena to be torn down and replaced with a new high-tech enclave. Personally I think there are better things to do with the land, like a soccer-specific stadium.

As for the Predators, they have one last regular-season game left Saturday night at Tampa Bay, before heading off to the playoffs. They will be back in 2011 at the new Amway Center. There’s already proposed 2011 season ticket pricing on the website. The floor plan isn’t accurate, but the point is that they don’t plan to change ticket prices.

The Orlando Predators pulled a reverse of Week 7, dominating the first half and hanging on in the second half to beat the Alabama Vipers, 45-34.

The game began inauspiciously as WR Josh Bush fumbled the opening kickoff at the Preds 22, leading to a quick TD throw by Vipers QB Tim Hicks to WR CJ Johnson. After swapping TDs, the Predators commenced a 17-0 run from 2 minutes left in the first to half-way through the third, with a halftime score of 31-14. WRs Robert Quiroga, Bobby Sippio and T.T. Toliver each had a receiving TD.

The first-half was punctuated with 13:02 to go. After Vipers kicker Brian Jackson put a field goal attempt in the net, Bush picked it up right at the back line of the end zone and ran it all the way in for a touchdown to make it 28-14. At 58 yards, it was the first max-yardage play in Predators history. The Preds’ first half scoring ended with a 32-yard field goal by Carlos Martinez.

The second half was more difficult, but started when Brian Jackson missed the PAT following a Tim Hicks touchdown pass to Vipers WR Michael Johnson. A second TD pass to Robert Quiroga made it 38-20 Predators.

The onslaught for the Predators came in the fourth quarter, which started when Kenny McEntire pulled in his  second interception, returning it to the Preds 6. However, the next pass by Nick Hill was intercepted and returned 25 yards for a touchdown. The PAT made it 38-27 Predators.

The Predators managed a quick answer, with a 28-yard Nick Hill pass to Bobby Sippio and PAT making it 45-27. A pass by Hicks to Brandon Hall would make it 45-34, and the Vipers elected to attempt an onside kick. This almost proved disastrous, as a holding penalty by the Vipers permitted the Preds to take it at the Alabama 9-yard line. But a goalline fumble on a QB keeper by Nick Hill resulted in a touchback, giving the Vipers the ball with 5:17 to go.

The Vipers marched down the field, but bogged down deep in Preds territory. They made it to the Preds 1-yard line at the 1-minute warning, but that is as far as it would go. The next play, Hicks went to a knee before attempting his pass, a 3-yard sack. Then a 5-yard delay of game pushed the Vipers to the 9-yard line on 4th down. The next pass only went 5 yards, a fatal turnover that gave the Preds the game.

Nick Hill finished 19-for-28 with 206 yards and 5 touchdowns, 1 INT. Robert Quiroga had 79 yards on 7 receptions.

In the middle of the final Vipers drive, Kenny McEntyre suffered a stinger in his neck, and was removed from the game. He appeared to be alright in the postgame, but his status for next week at Milwaukee is unknown.

The Orlando Fantasy women’s indoor football team has yet to play a game, and they are already looking for their third head coach.

A link on the Fantasy website today stated that Kenny McEntire had been fired by the LFL as head coach of the Fantasy, but the link was broken, providing no further information. That was 13 hours ago. The link is still on the LFL main website, with no direction where it should go.

I caught up with McEntyre following the Predators’ 45-34 victory over the Alabama Vipers. According to him, his departure was initiated by him; he was not fired. He left for personal reasons, and intimated that he was not quite ready to be on the sidelines yet. He left on good terms, and continues to advise the team.

Their first head coach, former Preds quarterback Ben Bennett, quit because he didn’t like the season format of only playing one game in the entire league each week.

Although the story is considerably different now, still, going through coaches like toilet paper before the first season is not a good way to make a first impression.