Soul lose finale to Pittsburgh, finish season 6-12

The Soul's 2011 season came to a close Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center, where the Pittsburgh Power rolled to a 61-48 Arena Football League victory.

The loss left the Soul with a 6-12 record.

Pittsburgh, which was eliminated from playoff contention last week in Cleveland, also played its season finale and finished 9-9. The AFL postseason, which begins next weekend, will include the four division champions and two wild cards from each conference that finish with the next-best records.

The Soul trailed the Power by 27-21 at intermission after leading by 14-7 at the end of one quarter. With 6 minutes, 41 seconds remaining in the second period, the Soul had a 21-13 advantage, but the Power overtook them during the last three-plus minutes.

With 11:05 to go in the game, Pittsburgh was up by 40-35 after taking a 40-28 lead into the fourth quarter. The Power led, 47-35, with three minutes to go in the game, and they sealed the victory with a pair of scores in the final 2:25.

"I loved the way the guys battled, and it's an honor to be their coach," Soul coach Mike Hohensee said. "I understand that not all of us are going to be back together, but the ones who are back next year, we're going to come back as a better football team. I plan on being back if they'll have me."

For the Soul, the season marked a less-than-successful return to the AFL after they won the ArenaBowl in their last season, 2008. In '09, the league shut down to reorganize its economic structure. And when 15 teams returned for the 2010 season, the Soul were not among them.

In the Soul's comeback season, attendance fell off drastically. Including an announced crowd of 16,429 for the Pittsburgh game that was by far the Soul's largest of the season, the team averaged less than 9,000 spectators a night. In contrast, the Soul drew more than 16,000 fans a game when they won their only championship.

The average attendance in the team's other years of existence were 15,842 in 2007; 15,464 in '06; 16,121 in '05; and 16,582 in '04.

With the new fiscal policies that limit the salaries of most AFL players to $400 a game, the Soul have a chance to rebuild without having to go on a spending spree. But every other team in the league has the same opportunity.

"We won't be profitable this year, but we didn't lose much [money]," Soul co-majority owner Craig Spencer said. "With our sponsorships, we were 20 percent over budget. It's our tickets that let us down.

"We didn't play well. We got back and were rebuilding. We truly expected to come out and win this year, and anything less was a disappointment. We're going to get a lot better in the off-season, and next year, we're going to go for it again."