Las Vegas Posse

The Las Vegas Posse were a Canadian Football League team that played the 1994 season as part of the CFL's short-lived American expansion. The Posse were one of the least successful CFL teams, both on the field and off.

Brief Franchise History

On The Field

The Posse had notable football talent such as QB Anthony Calvillo, KR Tamarick Vanover, RB Jon Volpe, LB Greg Battle and K Carlos Huerta. The franchise also had an experienced coaching staff with Head Coach, Ron Meyer who had previous coaching experiences with UNLV and in the NFL, and also had future Winnipeg Blue Bombers coach Jeff Reinebold as one of their Assistant Coaches. Carlos Huerta won the Jackie Parker Trophy as the Most Outstanding Rookie of the West Division that year.

The Las Vegas Posse started with a pair of wins over the Sacramento Gold Miners and Saskatchewan Roughriders, but things quickly went downhill from there. Players started to openly complain about the apathetic nature of their coaches and teammates and how they no longer cared about the on-field fortunes of the team.

The Posse finished the season with a 5-13 record and ended up finishing last in the West Division and next-to-last in the CFL.

Off The Field

When the Posse started the 1994 season it was clear from the start that CFL football would not last in Las Vegas. The team played at Sam Boyd Stadium on the eastern edge of Las Vegas, far from the central area of the city. The Posse practiced in a smaller-than-regulation field (only 70 yards long) in a casino parking lot, where a sign read "Field of ImPOSSEable Dreams." In fact, the end zones at Sam Boyd Stadium themselves were only 15 yards long, instead of the usual 20 yards. The stadium was uncovered and offered no protection from Las Vegas' infamous summer heat. Local interest in the team was virtually nonexistent.

The most memorable moment for the franchise occurred on July 8, 1994, when the team played the Sacramento Gold Miners in the first ever CFL involving two American based teams. The Posse ended up defeating the Gold Miners by a score of 32-26 at Sacramento's Hornet Stadium.

There were also several infamous moments. At the team's first home game against Saskatchewan the singer of the national anthems, Dennis K.C. Parks, had only a vague knowledge of the Canadian anthem and so improvised something that made "O Canada" sound somewhat like "O Christmas Tree". Two weeks later he was brought to a game in Hamilton, Ontario where he sang it properly. On another occasion Posse head coach Ron Meyer asked the "Showgirls" to loiter behind the bench of the B.C. Lions in an attempt to distract the opposition. The scheme did not work and Las Vegas lost the game 39-16.

The Posse never really had strong attendance levels, but when attendance started to decrease management unsuccessfully tried to sell tickets by employing tactics such as:
* Reducing ticket prices to US$9 for each seat. The few who bought season tickets for about US$750 (in more expensive categories) were given extra tickets to make up for the price difference.
* Advertising their scantily-clad cheerleaders, the "Showgirls", and by staging half-time bikini contests.

The Posse's penultimate home game against the Blue Bombers drew only 2,350 people -- the lowest recorded attendance in CFL history. In fact 800 of those in attendance were fans who made the trip from Winnipeg. The Posse's last home game scheduled against the Edmonton Eskimos was moved to Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton due to the dreadful attendance at Sam Boyd Stadium. The Posse's average attendance was a dismal 8,953.

In The End

A group tried to buy and relocate the franchise to Jackson, Mississippi, but the deal fell through. The Posse were then quietly folded and a dispersal draft was held for its players in 1995.

After the dispersal draft another group from Miami tried to purchase the remains of the Posse and move the team to Miami. The deal was that the franchise would return for the 1996 season as the "Manatees." In order to introduce the Miami fans to the CFL game, a pre-season game was played at the Orange Bowl between the Baltimore Stallions and the Birmingham Barracudas in 1995 (Baltimore won the game by a score of 37-0). With most of the American based teams disbanding following the 1995 season, the deal fell apart.

Players and Builders of note

Retired

* Ron Meyer
* Jon Volpe
* Greg Battle
* Shonte Peoples
* Carlos Huerta
* Tamarick Vanover

till Playing in the CFL

* Anthony Calvillo

ee also

* Las Vegas Posse all time results and roster
* Comparison of Canadian and American football
* 1994 CFL season

External links

* [http://www.oursportscentral.com/cflinamerica/lasvegas.php Las Vegas Posse team profile]
* [http://www.geocities.com/cfl_historical/LasVegas-CFL.htm Las Vegas Posse Historical]