William Niro to be inducted into Arena Football League Hall of Fame
William Niro, name partner with the Chicago law firm of Niro, Haller & Niro, will be inducted into the Arena Football League Hall of Fame as part of its 2012 class.
Niro represented founder and game inventor Jim Foster in formation of the Arena Football League in 1987. He founded Gridiron Enterprises, which established the team-owned AFL with Foster, now-Commissioner Jerry B. Kurz, and Mike Highley in 1990. Niro also managed the business, legal and financial affairs of the League from 1989-1992.
In addition, he organized and co-managed (with Foster and Kurz) AFL preview games in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Barcelona and eight other cities in Spain between the years of 1989-1996.
“It was the game in Barcelona in 1990 when I realized that the idea of Arena Football would be a success,” Niro said. “There were 17,000 fans in attendance and by their enthusiasm and engagement, we could tell the fans liked the product on the field.”
From then on, the founders took the organization one step at a time, never even imagining the League would be celebrating its Silver Anniversary one day.
“I never thought that far in advance. We basically took it one day at a time, trying our best to keep the fans engaged in the game so that we were confident there would be a next year at the end of each season,” Niro said.
The founders’ hard work and dedication to the game each year has surely been recognized, as the League celebrated its Silver Anniversary at AVITAE ArenaBowl in New Orleans.
It will take more hard work and dedication to reach another 25 years, but Niro is confident the League is back on track.
“Since the League’s inception, we have definitely re-established the organization and are back to how it used to be in the late 90s,” said Niro.
For 20 years, 1990-2010, Niro served on AFL Board of Directors and still dedicates his time and effort to the organization that he built.
“I’ve put together the goal frames, I’ve helped with game operations, wrote all the checks, took care of insurance, filed lawsuits, got a patent on the gaming system, filed all the trademarks,” Niro said. “I was involved in every aspect besides the football operations and rules of the game; I left that to the ‘football guys’.”
Because of his immense dedication and contributions for Arena Football, the League will induct Niro into the Hall of Fame the first week of the 2013 season.
“It was a little surreal to be honest because I had been sitting in the stands for many games and many years in different locations throughout the US, Europe and Canada. I was like ‘Wow, I really am part of the foundation of this enterprise and of this game’.”