Indoor football to FSN Pittsburgh

Are you ready for some (indoor) football?

Fox Sports Pittsburgh thinks you are. The cable net has signed a one-year contract with the American Indoor Football Association to telecast the remainder of the league’s 2008 season, including the playoffs and championship game.

Besides being seen in the Pittsburgh area, the channel is available on Direct TV and Dish Network.

The 16-team league, based in Baltimore, in 2007 signed a $2.5 million, three-year deal with a Florida distributor to syndicate 14 games around the country. That syndication deal came to an abrupt end last month when the distributor announced it was financially unable to uphold the agreement.

“This is an important step for the league,” AIFA co-founder John Morris said in a prepared statement. “Credibility will not be an issue in this relationship. Fox Sports has an outstanding reputation with solid distribution. That is a real plus for us.”

The first game — a rebroadcast of a March 8 tilt between the Baltimore Mariners and the Reading Express — aired Monday night over Fox Sports Pittsburgh.

A schedule of upcoming telecasts will be released later.

The two-year-old AIFA was launched after the previous American Indoor Football League ceased operations. Other teams in the tri-state area include the Erie (formerly the Pittsburgh) RiverRats, the Canton Legends and the Huntington, W.Va., Heroes.

The league also previously included the Johnstown Riverhawks; the team is not playing in the AIFA this year.