When the folks at FCFL reimagined the experience of being a football fan, they reimagined EVERYTHING. The setting where the games will be played is no exception, as FCFL teams will all play in the same location (likely Las Vegas), and rather than prioritizing the experience of the thousands of fans at the game, the FCFL will put a focus on the experience of the millions of people watching from home.
The field itself will be a fifty-yard field, resembling those used in other indoor or arena football leagues. At least…it will be fifty yards unless that ends up being one of the elements of the rulebook that the FCFL allows fans to vote on. We may have received a hint about that recently. In his recent article about the decision whether to play 8v8 games or 7v7 games, Shawn Liotta said “For this discussion let’s assume that we are going to be playing on a regulation size indoor football field that is 50 yards long and 28 1/3 yards wide.” That sounds like we may have some say in the matter.
Unlike the NFL (played outdoors) or Arena Football League (played in large arenas), the FCFL games will be played in a smaller indoor studio setting. There will be fans in attendance, but there won’t be a large number of them, and the experience of the remote audience will always be prioritized over those in person.
The studio will provide the FCFL with the ability to continue their practice (from the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles days) of experimenting with new technology and new opportunities to create fan engagement. The FCFL has already mentioned the likely implementation of helmet and drone-operated cameras and will no doubt have a long list of other gadgets to try out.
A key element of the experience will be the opportunity to engage with players. While we haven’t been given a lot of detail yet (beyond the obvious revolution of fan-called plays), it’s easy to imagine remote fans having the ability to text or tweet messages directly into the arena for players to view, control what replays to show on the broadcast, or treat someone in the studio audience to a free drink.
