C. Ray Hall

Louisville, KY-The top two officials of the Arena Football League met downtown yesterday with potential investors in a proposed Louisville franchise.

AFL commissioner Dave Baker and deputy commissioner Ed Policy talked to a dozen people. They included Louisville Fire general manager Dave Berryman and Will Wolford, who describes himself as one of the major owners of the Fire, an arenafootball2 team.

Is Louisville closer to having an AFL team than it has ever been?

"Absolutely," said Wolford. "Up until today it was strictly just talk, and today that talk definitely took a more positive step."

In addition to investor interest, many questions remain, including: Could Louisville join the AFL before a downtown arena is finished in 2010? Would a Louisville entry be an expansion team or a current AFL team that would move here?

And, perhaps most important, what would landing a team cost? Wolford said he can't discuss finances publicly, and Berryman said concrete figures aren't available.

Wolford and Berryman said the AFL officials seemed excited about the downtown arena. (The Fire plays at Freedom Hall.)

Next up: The potential investors -- neither Berryman nor Wolford would name them -- will meet and decide whether to pursue a franchise. The 17-team AFL is the top tier of arena football, with teams in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. An AFL quarterback earns upward of $200,000 a year, Berryman said. (Fire players and others in the af2 earn $200 a game, $250 if they win.)

"We certainly learned a lot about the AFL," Wolford said of the two-hour meeting, "and they learned a little more about Louisville -- because, on paper, they're not buying into Louisville being the 16th largest city in the country, because we're the 48th-biggest media market."