Aregion that has shown it will not support one minor-league indoor football team now has two minor-league indoor football teams seeking support. That’s a tough sell, and everyone knows it. Both teams plan to begin playing here in 2010. If both are operating in 2012, it will be surprising. “Logic would support that,“ said Steve Burton, CEO and chairman of SportsQuest, the owner of the Indoor Football League team that will play its inaugural season at the Arthur Ashe Center.

In the suddenly crowded indoor football market, the Indoor Football League has a simple message—buy local. The league, which will launch a Richmond team April 3, 2010, touted its Richmond credentials yesterday at a press conference announcing the team will play its inaugural season at the Arthur Ashe Center. That will be the team’s temporary home until the team’s owners move it into the SportsQuest facility in Chesterfield, under construction for the 2011 season.

For anyone who thinks one indoor football team in town is not enough, the Indoor Football League has good news. The IFL plans to have a franchise playing in Richmond by 2011. There is a strong possibility of having the team ready to play in April 2010. The IFL is not to be confused with the American Indoor Football Association, which announced in April it plans to have a franchise in Richmond for the 2010 season. Those games are planned for the Coliseum.

The Indoor Football League plans to have a team in Richmond for the 2011 season, and possibly as early as 2010. SportsQuest has signed a letter of intent to own the team and have it play in Chesterfield County.

Richmond is a business town. From large corporations such as Altria, CarMax and Owens & Minor to mom-and-pop stores and service companies, the area’s business community is diverse and active. But the area’s newest corporate citizen brings something new: pro football. Richmond is now home to the Indoor Football League. In April, the 19-team league moved its headquarters from Odessa, Texas, to new digs in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom, at East Main and 21st streets.