Chalk Another One Up For The Women
Garling Promoted to Executive Director of the AFL

Kathy Johnson

New York, NY - 10.25.01 - Mary Ellen Garling is the first female to lead a male professional sports league.

Garling has been the executive director of arenafootball2 (af2) for the past two years and has now been promoted to executive vice president of league development for the Arena Football League and arenafootball2.

Jay Marcus, current AFL Assistant General Counsel, will serve as interim executive director while a search is done for a permanent replacement.

Mary Ellen will oversee domestic and international league development of the AFL, as well as the regional growth of the AFL's developmental league, the af2.

She has spent five seasons developing the sport of Arena Football, which has expanded from 15 teams in its inaugural season to more than 30 this upcoming year.

"The experiences I enjoyed, building af2 into one of the most successful launches in sports history makes this opportunity to help thrust Arena

Football even further toward becoming the next major league that much more exciting and rewarding," Garling said.

"Af2 has achieved its goal," she continued, "of promoting the brand of Arena Football, as well as proving to be a developmental league for players, coaches, and officials. That is the best part of af2 - giving people opportunities at all levels."

AFL Commissioner David Baker said, "Mary Ellen is a rising star in the business of professional sports. In her new position, she is going to be even more valuable in developing the fastest growing sport in the world for the AFL, af2, and internationally.

'Additionally, she will have the responsibility of overseeing our launch of Arena Heroes, the AFL youth football and values program inside community gymnasiums that will be launched after next season," Baker also notes.

"Mary Ellen's leadership will be missed, but she created a blueprint that other new leagues are now following and adapting," said Carl Scheer, chairman of the af2 Board of Directors. "I look forward to the challenge of continuing the success we have experienced in the last two years."

The AFL culminated its 15th season this past August, competing with a record 19 teams, including new franchises in Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Long Island, NY, and Toronto, Canada. 

A record was established when more than 2.5 million fans watched Arena Football games in both the AFL and arenafootball2.

The AFL is the second-longest running pro football league in U.S. in history, behind only the NFL.

On Feb. 8, 1999, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced that the NFL agreed to purchase an exclusive option to acquire an equity interest of 49.9 percent in the AFL, subject to the approval of NFL owners. Currently, nine NFL owners have been approved for teams.

Garling is a Cleveland native, who joined the league in 1996, following seven years in corporate management and law, including a stint with the FBI.

A 1991 graduate of Bowling Green University, Mary Ellen was named by The Sports Business Journal as one of the top 25 women to watch for in sports,

A record 1.3 million fans attended games in 2001. Now there’s a notch to put in Garling's belt.

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