Iowa Barnstormers: New era begins Friday night
Updated 10:16 pm

It's a new game.

The field is the same, the rules are the same, but the game will be a different one when the Iowa Barnstormers open play in the reborn Arena Football League tonight.

The Barnstormers will kick off the AFL season with a 7 p.m. game against the Chicago Rush at Wells Fargo Arena. The game will be televised on the NFL Network.

The Barnstormers played the past two seasons in arenafootball2. When the AFL went bankrupt, a group of af2 owners bought the AFL assets for $6.1 million and recruited some former AFL franchises to form a 15-team league. The new AFL promises to be a step up in competition from the af2.

"It's going to be the best of the best and we'll see who belongs here," Iowa defensive back Khalil Carter said. "The first couple games are going to be a good gauge of who's who."

Just the shrinking number of teams has made more talent available. While there were 43 teams combined in the AFL and af2 in 2008, now there are 15. Instead of roughly 1,000 roster spots, there are 345.

How the Barnstormers and other af2 teams will fit in against resurrected AFL franchises is one of the questions to be answered.

The Rush are ranked No. 1 in a preseason poll, followed by four other teams from the old AFL - Tampa Bay, Dallas, Cleveland and Orlando. Spokane, at No. 6, is the highest-ranked team from the af2.

The Barnstormers were 12-4 in the af2 regular season in 2009 and coach John Gregory has maintained that the af2 talent was close to what it was in the AFL. He begins finding out tonight if he was right.

"I think it's so exciting, it's scary," Gregory said. "I'm excited that we're back in Des Moines at the big-city level. We're competing with the big boys.

"I think there will be very, very few players on the field that are not capable of playing in the NFL. Very few. There will be a lot of players that will be playing on Sundays next year."

In anticipation of the tougher competition, Iowa has bolstered its 23-player roster with 10 newcomers such as Carter, who last played in the Canadian Football League on Montreal's 2008 Grey Cup team.

"We tried to anticipate the dimension that we'll have to compete at," Gregory said. "I think we're prepared to do that. That's one of the things we'll find out right away."

Iowa's signings also included Jesse Schmidt, an all-af2 receiver last season at Quad Cities, and Todd Blythe, the former Iowa State record-breaking receiver. With Errick McCown and Tim Dodge returning, the Barnstormers expect the receivers to be one of the team's strengths.

"There's talent all over the place," Schmidt said of the receivers. "The quarterback will be able to pick and choose. This is without doubt the most talented wide receiver corps that I've played with. We have experience, pure athleticism and pure speed."

The Barnstormers' quarterback position is still up for grabs between returning starter Brian Villanueva and newcomer Ryan Vena, a former offensive player of the year with Wilkes Barre/Scranton in af2.

They'll share duties tonight.

"I'm going to play both for a half," Gregory said. "I think they've been pretty even. They have different strengths. Brian is really good on the short-to-medium passes. Vena throws the deep ball really well."

While the old AFL paid players $1,800 a game and the af2 paid $200, the salary base for the new AFL will be $400.

The Rush have receiver Samie Parker, who played with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2004-07. Former Iowa quarterback Brad Banks is with Orlando and Aaron Garcia, a former Barnstormers quarterback in the AFL, is with Jacksonville.

Milwaukee has quarterback Chris Greisen, who was with the Arizona Cardinals for three seasons and was the AFL player of the year in 2007.

Iowa's franchise has come full circle. It was a marquee AFL franchise from 1995-2000, then was priced out of the league and the moved to New York before returning to Des Moines in the af2.

The shift also represents a risk for the Barnstormers and other teams that were successful in the af2.

"When we made the decision, we said it's time to jump off the cliff together," said Jeff Lamberti, one of the Barnstormers' principal owners. "Expenses will go up, but we think the economic model we have can be successful.

"There is a risk, but we have great fans that we think will support us."

Matt Strawn, another of the Barnstormers' owners, is hoping the new phase for the franchise starts better than the last one. That was in 2008, when the Barnstormers were resurrected and joined the af2 but were drubbed 58-28 in their opener at Louisville.

"Jeff and I were sitting in Freedom Hall and it was 35-0 in the first half," Strawn said. "We were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into."

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EX-HAWKEYE QB TO BROADCAST GAME ON NFL NETWORK

To understand the Iowa Barnstormers' impact on the Arena Football League, just turn on the television tonight.

The NFL Network is broadcasting a weekly AFL game. For the first game of the new league, it chose tonight's Chicago-Iowa matchup.

"It's no accident that the Rush-Barnstormers game takes place in Des Moines," said Paul Burmeister, a former University of Iowa quarterback and now a broadcaster with the NFL Network. "Iowa has a very proud tradition in the league. A lot of success in the league came in Des Moines from what (quarterback) Kurt Warner and (coach) John Gregory did in the late 1990s."

Burmeister is wrapped up in the NFL Network's pre-draft coverage, but he said he's enjoyed learning the nuances of arena football.

"I'm real excited for the opportunity to call an arena game," Burmeister said. "All the people I've talked with are really proud of their time in the arena league."

Broadcasting the games gives the NFL Network some live game coverage during the NFL's offseason. And the association helps establish the new AFL's credibility and gives it a national audience.

"The same production crew that does our NFL games will be doing the arena games," Burmeister said. "That tells you how seriously we view this."

Burmeister got into broadcasting almost by accident. When his playing career ended, he dabbled in broadcasting while attending graduate school at Iowa in hopes of becoming an athletic director. Former Hawkeye Marv Cook encouraged him to pursue broadcasting, and KCRG-TV9 in Cedar Rapids gave him an opportunity in 1998.

So Burmeister started paying his dues, doubling as a cameraman and interviewer. And while he was working full time at Iowa's admissions office, he moonlighted, leaving at 3 a.m. to tape KCRG's morning sports highlights.

"I lucked into my first few opportunities," Burmeister said. "It was a challenge I really enjoyed."

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TODAY'S BARNSTORMERS GAME

WHO: Chicago Rush at Iowa Barnstormers

TIME: 7 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena

TV: NFL Network

RADIO: KBGG-AM (1700)

SCOUTING CHICAGO: The Rush will be quarterbacked by Russ Michna, who formerly played with the Rush and Winnipeg of the Canadian Football League. One of his receivers is Samie Parker, who played with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2004-07.

SCOUTING IOWA: The Barnstormers will alternate quarterbacks, giving Brian Villanueva and Ryan Vena one half apiece. Iowa's newcomers include receivers Todd Blythe and Jesse Schmidt, linemen Pete Traynor, Mike Jones and Mike Lewis, linebacker Larry Kendrick, and defensive back Khalil Carter. Eric Rothwell, Dusty Kain, Jason Ripke, Rodney Filer and Steve Cully are starting the year on the injured list.

PERKS: A street party will take place from 4-6:30 p.m. on Third Street between Wells Fargo Arena and Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The first 5,000 fans at Wells Fargo will also receive rally banners.

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2010 BARNSTORMERS SCHEDULE

APRIL 2: vs. Chicago

APRIL 16: at Milwaukee

APRIL 24: vs. Oklahoma City

APRIL 30: at Orlando

MAY 8: vs. Cleveland

MAY 15: at Chicago

MAY 21: vs. Arizona

JUNE 5: vs. Alabama

JUNE 12: at Bossier-Shreveport

JUNE 19: at Cleveland

JUNE 26: vs. Utah

JULY 2: at Dallas

JULY 10: at Oklahoma City

JULY 16: vs. Spokane

JULY 24: vs. Milwaukee

JULY 31: at Arizona

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2010 BARNSTORMERS ROSTER