the Fire defeated the Raleigh–Durham Skyhawks 28–7, and clinched a spot in the first WLAF playoffs as the winners of the North American West division with a 5–5 record. In the WLAF semifinals, Birmingham lost for the second time in the season to Barcelona 10–3 at Legion Field to finish their inaugural season with a final record of 5–6. In the buildup to their playoff game in the months that followed, the Fire started their effort to host World Bowl '92 at Legion Field. In the formal request for the event, team ownership indicated they were willing to undertake a $12 million renovation of the facility that would increase the seating capacity from 72,000 to 80,000, add luxury skyboxes and a giant TV scoreboard. Ultimately the league awarded the game to Montreal in December 1991. Michael Huyghue resigned as general manager on June 20 to take a position in the WLAF front office. 1992 season In December 1991, Rick Nichols was hired from the Houston Oilers to serve as general manager of the Fire. In February 1992, the league held its second annual draft and Birmingham made 29 selection during its two days. In addition to those players drafted, an additional six players were allocated to the Fire from NFL teams that retained their overall rights. By March, the team was again in training camp, but this season had an official preseason game to play against the London Monarchs. In this game, the Fire lost 14–13, and in a first in professional sports the loss could be utilized as a potential tiebreaker in order to determine playoff eligibility. The Fire opened the season for the second consecutive year with a loss in their opening game by the score of 20-6 at Sacramento. They then rebounded by going undefeated over the four games that followed. After a 17–10 victory in their home opener against San Antonio, Birmingham earned their first all-time win in Europe with a 17–7 win at Frankfurt. The next week, Birmingham tied London 17–17 at Wembley Stadium. The draw was both the first in the history of the World League, and remained as the only one until Berlin and Hamburg battled to a 17–17 tie as part of NFL Europe in 2006. The Fire returned from Europe and defeated Sacramento 28–14 in a rematch of their week one matchup. In week six, Birmingham lost 17–10 on the road