season the New Jersey franchise was moved to Las Vegas, the Toronto team was folded and the Crush--Baker had recruited Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and Stan Kroenke, owner of the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets, to buy a team--joined the league as an expansion club. Despite a 2-14 record in its inaugural season, the Crush sold out all eight home games, averaging 17,434 at the Pepsi Center.

However, while the TV deal with NBC is creative (the network pays no rights fees to broadcast the games, and the two parties split the TV advertising revenue down the middle after production and league expenses are paid), the ratings haven't been as high as either side had hoped. For the regular season the average rating was 1.1, down from1.6 for games over the first four weeks. "That's a modest start in terms of ratings," Baker says, "but we hope to do the opposite of what the XFL did and increase them over time."

As the Arena League moves into major-market mode--only the Grand Rapids franchise, which had average home attendance of 9,675 in 2003, remains as a link to the league's small-city heritage--the offshoot AFL2 is filling the gap, with 28 mostly lesser-market teams. "There are 148 minor league hockey teams in the U.S.," Baker says, "and we think someday there could be more than 100 Arena2 teams." Baker's also thinking global: Last September the AFL conducted a Pacific Rim tryout camp in Australia, and he envisions franchises in Europe, Mexico and Asia. "We have an opportunity,"