Arena football fields not all same

By Kyle Sakamoto
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Arena Football League advertises itself as "The 50-yard Indoor War."

Technically it's not true at some facilities, including the Neal Blaisdell Arena, the home of the Hawaiian Islanders.

An arena football field, as stated on the AFL's web site, should be 50 yards long with 8-yard end zones and a width of 85 feet.

The Blaisdell's playing surface was measured at 40 yards with 6 1/2-yard end zones and the width was a few feet short of the standard.

But the bottom line is the field is legal.

"The field is regulation," Islanders head coach Chad Carlson said. "The league ordered it, the league made it for the arena. It has nothing to do with the Hawaiian Islanders organization as far as yardage goes."

Former head coach Guy Benjamin said smaller fields are common in af2 because teams are in smaller markets and, thus, play in smaller arenas.

"It's all relative," he said. "It's to no one's advantage. If I thought it did I'd try to take advantage of it."

Carlson said an arena on the team's first road trip had end zones that were 10 yards long.

In that game, kicker Jake Huggins could barely reach the end zone nets on his kickoffs from the goal line.

At the Blaisdell, he can easily blast his kickoffs high up the nets, which are 32 feet high, if he avoids hitting the speakers that hang from the ceiling.

"On the road their stadiums are a little bit bigger and some have higher roofs," Huggins said. "In this one you have to keep it down because you have a chance to hit the roof."

The league's stadium situation is similar to baseball fields and hockey rinks, which have playing surfaces that vary from venue to venue.

No matter what the size of the field is, Carlson has a simple message for arena football fans: "Enjoy the game, don't look at the little things, don't sweat the little stuff."