EVERETT – It’s not clear where or when the Stealth will land, but the Stallions are apparently ready to kick up their heels in 2008.
Nathan Mumm, CEO of Courtyard Media Inc., which owns the Everett Explosion of the International Basketball League, announced Monday the organization will start an indoor football team known as the Snohomish County Stallions next year.
Mumm said the Stallions will join a newly forming league known as the Indoor Gridiron Football League, which will play a November through February schedule.
A Courtyard Media press release said the league will have 10-12 teams playing 7-man football in 2008 and that more information would be announced by the league July 4.
At an Explosion game last month Mumm announced Courtyard Media would launch a team known as the Snohomish County Stealth this year or next.
On Monday Mumm said Courtyard Media is no longer associated with the Stealth.
“I want to make sure people understand that we are not at all part of the Stealth organization that currently exists,” Mumm said in the press release.
“We had planned at one time to work together with this organization but it is now evident that we have both gone in very different directions …”
In a telephone interview Monday, Mumm said the group originally behind the Stealth idea had incorporated and was seeking payment from Courtyard Media for naming rights.
Mumm declined to specify the amount sought by the group, but claimed it exceeded the $30,000 fee required to field a team in the Indoor Gridiron Football League (IGFL).
Mumm said he has not had any recent contact with the Stealth group.
A Web site for a group calling itself the Snohomish County Stealth does not provide contact information, but contains a statement saying more information is forthcoming.
“I have no clue what they’re doing,” Mumm said.
Albert Higgs and Milton Myers, both of whom previously starred for the Everett Hawks, were last month announced as having been signed to play for the Stealth.
Higgs starred at quarterback for the Hawks when the team debuted in the National Indoor Football League in 2005. Myers was a standout wide receiver in 2005 and remained with Everett in 2006, the team’s first season in the higher level arenafootball2 league.
Mumm said the contracts of the pair are in fact with Courtyard Media. The players are unrestricted in terms of playing in another league, but if they play in the IGFL it will be with the Stallions, Mumm said.
Mumm said he had not yet contacted Events Center management about the Stallions playing there, but the facility is one of at least three sites of interest.
Mumm insisted the Stallions are not meant to compete with or supplant the Hawks.
“I think the Hawks can do great and sell out the Everett Events Center,” Mumm said. “And the Stallions can do well and draw great crowds too.”
Reached by telephone late Monday, Everett Hawks owner Sam Adams – a 13-year NFL veteran who signed last month with the Denver Broncos – declined to comment.
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