'We're just taking a little bit of a break': Duke City Gladiators going dormant in 2025

RIO RANCHO — This hiatus, Gina Prieskorn-Thomas insists, is only temporary.

On Wednesday, the Duke City Gladiators issued a statement that the franchise would go dormant for the 2025 Indoor Football League season with plans to resume play in 2026. While such an announcement might be interpreted as the death knell for a team that has played in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho since 2015, Prieskorn-Thomas is adamant that is not the case.

“If I was folding, I would say I was folding,” said Prieskorn-Thomas, who has been the sole owner of the Gladiators since 2019 and a partner since 2018. “But no, that’s not what’s going on.

“… It’s an incredible sport, and I love Albuquerque. It’s where I raised my kids, and it’s where my grandkids are being raised …. And I am not a quitter. Everybody knows that.”

Several factors have contributed to the current situation.

The team played its home games at Tingley Coliseum until the COVID-19 pandemic, when it moved to the Rio Rancho Events Center. While the venue itself was more to the IFL’s liking due to more modern amenities, attendance waned in recent years as a result of the transition.

According to Prieskorn-Thomas, crowds averaged between 2,400 to 2,800 people per game in Rio Rancho — down from between 4,000 to 6,000 people at Tingley. Additionally, Prieskorn-Thomas claims that the team retained only five season-ticket holders — out of approximately 350 — in the move.

“It’s not just about selling tickets,” she said. “It’s about the energy that you create and what you’re doing.”

In addition to dwindling attendance, Prieskorn-Thomas said the pandemic in general has proven to be a considerable obstacle, as the franchise struggled to find time to implement new marketing strategies with changes in scheduling.

“We came straight out of COVID and started the season late. So normally, we start in March. We started in May when we came out in 2021. Then the season ran right into the other season,” she said. “So there was never any regroup marketing time. There was never any time to sit down and evaluate our business model. Now it’s a must.”

All told, Prieskorn-Thomas estimates that it costs $1.4 million annually to operate the Gladiators. While she praises the City of Vision for being hospitable hosts, the ideal goal would be to return to Albuquerque for the 2026 season.

There is also the possibility of the Gladiators taking on a new ownership partner.

“We’ve been talking to interested parties since last year,” Prieskorn-Thomas said.

The team finished 3-13 in 2024.

The players on the Gladiators roster will be released and free to play elsewhere during the coming season. However, the team will still maintain rights to those players, assuming it resumes play in 2026.

“They’ll come right back to us, and that’s where our rebuild starts as far as the roster goes,” Prieskorn-Thomas said.

The Gladiators aren’t the only IFL franchise that will be going dormant for the 2025 campaign. The Frisco (Texas) Fighters will also be taking the season off, though a reason was not specified in an announcement on the team’s website.

The IFL will add a franchise from Fishers, Indiana, to bring the league to 15 teams for the upcoming season. The full schedule will be released on Oct. 31.

“Each year brings new challenges and opportunities to strengthen our position as the major league of indoor football. Our 17th season is set to be our best yet as we have some very exciting partnerships and prospects for 2025,” IFL Commissioner Todd Tryon said in a release.

The Gladiators launched in 2015 and reached their greatest heights as a member of the Champions Indoor Football League, where they won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019. The franchise then moved to the IFL, currently the longest-running indoor football league in the United States. The team typically features a collection of players with high-level college (including some former Lobos), and on occasion, NFL experience.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Prieskorn-Thomas said. “We’re just taking a little bit of a break to make sure that the next five years of this organization is headed in the right direction with the right business plan.”