When the Utah Blaze hosted Arizona a week ago, more than 8,500 fans found a seat in the E Center. But most of them left disappointed when the Blaze fell apart in the second half and a close game became a blowout when the clock mercifully hit 0:00.
One particularly interested observer, however, said it might be too soon for arena football fans in Utah to give up on the team, even with its 1-6 record and frequently ineffective offense.
"I think the key here in Utah is going to be patience," Danny White, the former Utah Blaze coach and current general manager of the Arizona Rattlers, said last Friday after he helped beat up on his old team. "It's too early to turn your back on this team. They're going through a pretty rough time right now, but they're just young and need time to grow."
The fans might be asked to be patient, but Blaze management wasn't.
After the 83-58 loss to Arizona, the entire coaching staff was fired and replaced by new coaches.
Ron James, who served as White's defensive coordinator and was briefly the Blaze head coach just before the AFL folded, was named Tuesday to try and turn things around.
Tonight, the Blaze face Cleveland in their first game with the new coaching staff.
"What we are looking to do is change the climate of the locker room and the production on the field," James said. "Fans are frustrated when you are not winning. We need to give our fans something to cheer about."
Much of the frustration has come from an offense that seems to have decent weapons at receiver, but has been saddled with problems at quarterback.
Michael Affleck, the son of the team's owner, was given the starting job in the season-opener and lost it by halftime to former Ute Brett Elliott — who started the next five games.
But when Elliott was injured early in the game at Spokane, Affleck took the field and struggled holding on to the ball, especially during exchanges with the center. In the last six quarters of play, Affleck has 10 fumbles.
White, who spent a few minutes after the game last week speaking one-on-one with Affleck trying to boost his spirits, said the entire AFL is trying to recover from the economic disaster that caused the league to go dark for nearly two seasons.
"There were a lot of problems that led to the AFL going dark," White said. "The economy was just the last straw. The league had to go down for a while to reorganize and rebuild a model that was more realistic."
In the process, the AFL lost a lot of the fans that made it a fairly successful league — at least from an attendance standpoint — for more than 20 years.
"We had to get costs under control," White said. "Everything had gotten too big and it just couldn't sustain itself."
Now, the Blaze are trying to re-carve the niche they built for three seasons at EnergySolutions Arena.
By moving to the smaller, less-expensive E Center and having a less-pricey roster with few players — something the entire league had to do when it resumed operations this season — the hope is that fans will be patient as the league regains its footing.
The problem, however, is local fans may not only be impatient, they may be skeptical after the team shut down, relocated and re-emerged with a noticeably weakened product.
The new coaching staff, however, hopes they can get things heading in a better direction in a hurry.
"The season is fairly salvageable," James said.
NOTES: The Blaze signed quarterback Mark Thorson to the roster on Thursday. The 6-foot-6, 245-pound Thorson played collegiately at Western Oregon and spent the 2008 season with the Boise Burn of AF2, where he saw action in four games, completing 17-of-31 passes for 165 yards and four touchdowns with one interception. In his three seasons as a starter at Western Oregon, Thorson threw for 6,574 yards and 60 touchdowns.
Blaze on the air
Utah Blaze (1-6) at Cleveland Gladiators (3-5)
Tonight, 5:30 p.m.
At Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland
TV: none Radio: 1280 AM
e-mail: jeborn@desnews.com