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Tulsa kicker’s It's in the books as a record-breaking 63-yard field goal, but it was actually about 13 yards shorter.
attempt at record
doesn’t measure up
The Blaisdell Arena football field
is much shorter than the
af2 regulation 50 yardsBy Nick Abramo
nabramo@starbulletin.comWith 4:23 left in the first quarter Saturday night, Tulsa Talons kicker Tony Dodson let one rip from his own end zone, and the ball sailed through the uprights at the other end.
Official arenafootball2 dimensions call for a 50-yard field with 8-yard end zones, but the Blaisdell Arena field, the home of the Hawaiian Islanders, is much shorter than that.
According to unofficial measurements taken hours after the game and again yesterday afternoon, the field is actually 40 yards long with 6 1/2-yard end zones. So the kick, unofficially, was really about a 50-yarder.
When the stadium announcer and the statisticians called it 63, they were assuming each yard on the field was actually a yard. As it turns out, every five hash marks equal four yards instead of five.
Hawaiian Islanders director Carl Vincenti had heard the field was a little shorter, but he didn't know exactly how much.
"The league ordered the field for us to fit in our arena, and the field has been approved by the league," he told the Star-Bulletin.
Vincenti didn't hesitate to put some positive spin on the problem.
"It's our dilemma," he said. "It's the only way we could play. And the Blaisdell is the only available option right now. We were told by the people at the Stan Sheriff Center that UH events take priority, and that there was no way we could secure the dates to play our season there.
"Our only hope is to continue to fill the seats to capacity, because if the fans stay committed, our owners will build a new arena. They've said they would."
Until then, it's the Blaisdell for the Islanders, which Vincenti called "outdated."
"It's not conducive to doing business in Hawaii in 2002," he added.
No one from the af2 office in Chicago was available for comment yesterday afternoon. It's not known what action the league will take, if any, concerning the impending questions of official yardage, league leaders and record-breaking performances for past and future games.
The Blaisdell field's width measured 82 feet, 10 inches, just a bit shorter than the regulation 85 feet.
Even with the newly revealed dimensions, Dodson's field goal was still a top-notch feat. The kick zoomed high over the cross bar --which is 15 feet off the ground (compared with 10 feet in the NFL) --and made it through the nine-foot-wide crossbars (18 1/2 in the NFL).
Dodson had very little running room from the end-zone boards, making the kick even more spectacular in the Talons' 70-42 victory.
Jim Tarle of Jacksonville held the previous af2 record for field goals with a 58-yarder.
The Star-Bulletin's Jerry Campany contributed to this report.
Hawaiian Islanders