Leave it to Philadelphia

Leave it to Philadelphia to finally get a winning team and prefer to debate whether the win finally breaks the 34 year drought of a major franchise win here in the city. It seems on that subject that the majority of fans do not count this championsip as breaking the schnide.

In case, like many in the city, you've missed the news, the Philadelphia Soul won Arena Bowl XXII on Sunday defeating the San Jose Sabercats 59-56 in New Orleans.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the lack of support for the Philadelphia Soul during even this their championship season. While the franchise has a loyal, but somewhat small, fan base, it should have done much better this season. There were far too many empty seats at many games.

Blame for the Soul's problems in winning the heart of the city's hardcore sports fans rests totally, I believe, with the media. Almost half of the Soul's regular season games were not on television. The team has no radio affiliate. The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News relegate coverage of Soul games to a small article buried on an inside page. The sports-talk hosts on 610WIP rarely mention the Soul. In fact, even during Sunday's Arena Bowl while I was driving down the New Jersey turnpike from New York City, it was hard to get an updated score on the game on either WIP or KYW radio.

I have enjoyed the Soul games I've watched over the past five years, especially those this season. I hated the way the team's games were scattered on different days of the week and times and with no particular pattern. I missed several games because of that.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one to be surprised that this was the 22nd Arena Bowl. It's hard to imagine any league being around for 22 years and getting so little national coverage.

Despite all of that, however, I think it's pretty exciting that we finally have a winner in town. Congratulations to Ron Jaworski for finally being associated with a winner.

Soul players, coaches and executives will take part in a "celebratory procession" i.e. parade up Market Street this Thursday at 3 p.m.

The parade will start at 6th and Market Streets and end with a rally at City Hall. Soul co-owner Jon Bon Jovi will participate in the rally. Sometime before next season he promises a free concert for the city.