Indoor professional football is coming back to Spokane.
The Spokane Shock football team will be back and playing in the Indoor Football League next spring, after several seasons of dormancy. The new owner is a familiar name to fans of the Seattle Seahawks.
Press conferences are often boring, staged events that feature a few reporters and one or two people answering questions.
Friday’s announcement that the Spokane Shock football team is returning to play was not that. Dozens of fans wearing orange Shock jerseys attended, carrying banners and cowbells.
And when new owner Sam Adams was introduced, they reacted again.
They were happy, one, to see their team back. The franchise went dark in 2017. And two, the owner is a guy they know about.
Adams played 14 seasons in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks and played several years with them, including years when they held their summer training camp in Cheney.
Adams says he grew to love Spokane. So, after retirement, when presented with a chance to buy a share of the Spokane Empire team, he jumped in.
“We want to be able to come in and partner with like minded individuals, like minded companies to be able to help build our community. We’re very passionate about our charitable organizations," Adams said. "I’ve worked tirelessly in Seattle, while I played, since I’ve been retired and I’m excited to bring all of that to Spokane.”
He says the Shock will be one of a dozen teams in the Indoor Football League, the league it played in when it was known as the Spokane Empire. He helped to regain the rights to the Shock team name, which it used earlier when it played in the now-defunct Arena Football League.
The Shock season will begin in March. The team will soon begin selling season tickets.