Georgia Firebirds, city of Albany finalize arena football pact
Arena football franchise will start playing games at Albany Civic Center in March
By Carlton Fletcher
ALBANY — The Georgia Firebirds are officially tenants of the Albany Civic Center after the Albany City Commission voted unanimously Wednesday morning to approve a two-year contract with the arena football team.
The Firebirds, who will play in the American Indoor Football League, will play their first game as an Albany-based franchise in March, and the owners of the team said they’re ready to hit the ground running.
“It starts right now,” Terence Fowler, an Albany resident who with partner Darrien Teals of Tifton owns the Firebirds, said after the City Commission voted to approve the contract with the team without discussion. The commission had discussed the pair’s proposal at a work meeting Tuesday morning and called the special meeting Wednesday to expedite the approval process.
“The league should have the schedule ready within the next 24 hours,” Fowler continued. “We’re going to hustle so that we can have our season tickets ready for sale by the holidays. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but we’re ready to jump in with both feet. We’ll be at a Gang Task Force meeting this afternoon. Like we told the commission, we’re going to be involved in this community.”
Fowler said the Firebirds would name a head coach “probably in the next week” and start announcing regional player tryout dates in December.
The team will play five home games at the Civic Center.
City Manager Sharon Subadan spoke briefly about the team’s future Wednesday before excusing herself to take a phone call.
“We still have some work to do; we have to finalize the contract,” she said. “But the team can now move forward with its plans.”
Also at the called meeting, the commission voted — again unanimously, with Commissioners Bobby Coleman and Bob Langstaff absent — to approve pay increases for appointed City Clerk Sonja Tolbert and Assistant Clerk Sissy Kelly. In making the recommendation that the employees receive the pay increases, Ward I Commissioner Jon Howard asked that the increases be “retroactive” to the start of the current fiscal year.
Other appointed city officials, including City Attorney Nathan Davis and Municipal Court Judge Willie Weaver, were not included in the pay increase discussions.
The board also announced its intentions to make Subadan’s vacation buy-back program, approved in September, available to all full-time employees.
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