The 2024 Arena Football League season was the first season in the new version of the Arena Football League (AFL), and the 33rd season of play in the history of the Arena Football League brand.
The 2024 season began April 27 with six games. The league was overshadowed by numerous problems and controversies (Especially during the first few weeks of the season.) Among them include the closures of multiple franchises, numerous cancellations of games, and the abrupt departure of the Philadelphia Soul players and staff, and the lack of payments handed out to most teams, resulting in questions about the league's future. The original commissioner of the league, Lee Hutton, was ultimately removed from his post following week 3 and was replaced with Nashville Kats chief advisor Jeff Fisher as interim commissioner in a unanimous vote among the remaining team owners. Eight of the 16 teams that started the 2024 season survived to the end of the regular season, with the Billings Outlaws winning ArenaBowl XXXIII over the de facto defending champion Albany Firebirds on July 19; the 8 surviving teams formed Arena Football One.
Background
A year after its second shutdown, the Arena Football League trademarks and logo were bought out by Darren Arbet in 2020. Arbet is a former San Jose SaberCats head coach and was the head coach of the Indoor Football League's Bay Area Panthers. The trademark remained inactive until 2022, when a new website was set up.[1] The website was first noticed on December 12, 2022.[2] Two days later, a tweet from the league account was posted under a post from Tim Capper about the death of John Gregory (head coach of the Iowa Barnstormers), reading "Our thoughts and prayers have gone out to John's family." This tweet was later deleted, along with all the other tweets the Arena Football League Twitter account had up to that point. The new management assumed control of the Instagram account on around December 27 and deleted all posts on around January 6, and then took control of the Facebook account on January 16. On January 16, 2023, after a month of the first tweet, the Twitter account posted a picture of the league’s 2003-18 logo, with the caption #NewProfilePic.[3]
On February 1, 2023, the Arena Football League confirmed the rumors and announced its plans to return in 2024, over a year after the rights to the league were purchased by an investment group called F1 Sports & Entertainment.[4] The relaunched league, led by chairman Chris Chetty, president Anthony Rossi, president of operations Shan Singh, and commissioner Lee A. Hutton III, will feature 16 teams playing a 10-game season over the course of the summer months, followed by a postseason format that was later revealed on June 12, 2024. The league returned its logo to the one used from 2003 to 2018. The new iteration of the league will feature "streaming, betting, technology, (and) virtual reality" elements, per Rossi.
In a February 2023 interview with ArenaFan.com, the commissioner revealed that there had been discussions with potential ownership groups in New Orleans to relaunch the New Orleans VooDoo.[5] In an April interview, he revealed that they were looking to put teams in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Jacksonville, while they also received offers to put a team in Mexico City.[6]
Teams
Pre-launch
On July 18, 2023, TMZ Sports initially reported that the AFL had selected the following cities that would be receiving new teams: Austin, Texas; Boise, Idaho; Bakersfield, California; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; St. Paul, Minnesota; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Cincinnati, Ohio; Orlando, Florida; Salem, Oregon; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; St. Louis, Missouri; Tallahassee, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Everett, Washington; and Odessa, Texas. [7] The league made the statement official on their Twitter page. Managers of Cincinnati's main indoor arena, the Heritage Bank Center, refuted the report, stating they had rejected the AFL's advances,[8] while the two college/university-owned arenas in the city both said they had not been approached and also would not be open to hosting the league.[9] Representatives with Lake Charles stated that their conversations with the league were still in preliminary phases (having advanced only to the point of informing the league what days their arena was available), and that although they were open to hosting the league, "it’s closer to not being true than being true at this time."[10] The city of Salem was also unaware of the AFL having discussions for placing a team in the city, but were open to hearing more about their plans.[11] In Everett, the manager of the city's only major arena, Angel of the Winds Arena, stated that he was only contacted by a potential ownership group several days after the announcement of teams. When reached for comment, Hutton stated he would only reveal information "on our time."[12] The league eventually secured an agreement with Angel of the Winds Arena in late September; the owners of the Everett franchise, led by the owner of the local semi-pro Everett Royals, noted that he had acquired the franchise after contacting the league after the announcement of cities in hopes of getting Royals players onto the squad, only to find that the league had not yet lined up an owner for the city's team at the time.[13]
On the same day as the TMZ report, the Orlando Predators and West Texas Warbirds (Odessa), who were both playing in the National Arena League, stated they were joining the new AFL, although the Warbirds later removed their Facebook post within the first week.[14][15] (The Warbirds later announced that they would be instead branding as the "Desert Hawks" for the 2024 season.[16]) In a statement to Philadelphia media, Hutton stated that the Philadelphia Soul was also expected to be revived, with Soul co-owner Ron Jaworski returning, if not as an owner then as a consultant.[17] Jaworski denied Hutton's claims.[18]
Among cities considered but ultimately not included, Atlantic City's financial terms were considered unrealistic,[17]Bossier City, Louisiana had too many schedule conflicts for 2024 but expressed interest in 2025,[19] while the Albany Empire—returning champions from the last AFL season in 2019—expressed interest in returning, but was initially unable to accept because of the excessive cost of worker's compensation in the state.[20] (The worker's compensation issue was later resolved, and the league announced a new iteration of the Albany Firebirds would join in 2024.) Neither Buffalo, nor Rochester, New York were considered, despite some interest from Bob Bartosiewicz, who previously owned the Rochester Raiders.[21]
In late 2023, three supposed expansion teams were announced as the "California Grizzlies", "Minnesota Myth", and "St. Louis Rampage". The teams were announced on their respective Instagram and X accounts.[22][23] However, league commissioner Hutton released a statement regarding the addition of these new team names. He stated on his X account, "Any information that concerns the Arena Football League must be endorsed by me or our CEO otherwise it is not reliable. AFL team name announcements will be coming soon for all locations. It is an exciting time as we make our mark to be bigger and better."[24] The Rampage later admitted to being a hoax supported by fans of the St. Louis Battlehawks.[25]Defector Media traced the California Grizzlies to Tim Carbajal, who operates a semi-pro spring football team in the area. Carbajal confirmed the Grizzlies' existence—and confirmed that he, under an alias, had contacted Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield inquiring about using the facility—but otherwise stated he was not at liberty to discuss further details due to Hutton's gag order.[26] The Myth were later revealed as Hutton's own franchise, nominally owned by his wife Diana,[27] who is partner in the Hutton law firm with him.[28] Observers in Boise noticed that the owner of Idaho Central Arena had renewed the domain name for the Boise Burn, a former af2 franchise, weeks before the announcement, and that the AFL was not bringing on the Idaho Horsemen, who play in nearby Nampa.[29] The proposed Tallahassee team was to be the Capital City Cyclones, as announced by a business associate of Cyclones owner Alton Walker,[30] but the Cyclones instead reverted to its previous name as the Tampa Bay Tornadoes and joined the International Football Alliance.[31]
On August 29, 2023, the league officially announced that the Billings Outlaws, formerly of Champions Indoor Football, would be the inaugural members of the new version of the league.[32] On August 31, the West Texas Desert Hawks (formerly the Warbirds) were the second team confirmed.[33] The Orlando Predators were the third team announced on September 25; with the announcement of the Predators, the league announced its intent to instead have 20 teams in its 2024 season, as it planned on absorbing three additional teams from Champions Indoor Football.[34] On October 5, 2023, Hutton appeared with the owners of three remaining CIF teams—the ICT Regulators of the Wichita metropolitan area, Salina Liberty and Southwest Kansas Storm in Dodge City— and CIF commissioner Mike McCoy as they announced the remainder of that league was merging into the AFL, with McCoy being named AFL deputy commissioner three weeks later.[35]
On October 2, 2023, it was announced that the Albany Firebirds name will be brought back and to play in the AFL for 2024. On October 6, 2023, it was officially announced that the Orlando Predators, Billings Outlaws, Southwest Kansas Storm, Salina Liberty, Wichita Regulators, and an Everett AFL team were announced. On October 25, 2023, the Oregon Blackbears were officially announced as the league's newest team. The league claimed that Kayvon Thibodeaux was the majority owner of the Blackbears, but Thibodeaux later denied this, stating that "the league used my name for publicity."[36] The league announced revivals of the Nashville Kats, Philadelphia Soul and Chicago Rush on November 1.
On November 16, 2023, in the AFL relaunch event, Hutton revealed the 16 teams who will play in the 2024 season, while he mentioned the league might expand in the future to 24 teams. He also referred to the original list of cities and revealed that other "leagues and individuals" (none specified) were trying to cancel teams contracts with the arenas and participated in "anti-competitive practices" to try to disturb the league's progress, which caused a move to different locations.[37]
Mid-season changes
On May 2, 2024, the Iowa Rampage announced it had folded after one game, citing multiple broken promises from league management to cover increased expenses.[38] The Georgia Force abruptly folded a few days later[39] and on May 9, the Soul suspended operations for the remainder of the 2024 season with hopes of returning in 2025.[40]
On May 13, 2024, in an email from owner Diana Hutton, the Minnesota Myth became the fourth team to suspend operations, blaming it on an inability to raise necessary sponsorships because of "negative publicity" and accusing the owners of "sabotage" in order to force her husband Lee Hutton to resign as commissioner; Hutton confirmed the team's closure publicly a day later.[41][42]
In a press release, the Outlaws indicated that the league would contract to 10 teams for the remainder of the season: Washington, Billings, Rapid City, Southwest Kansas, Salina, West Texas, Wichita, Albany, Nashville, and Orlando, with the league remaining open to continue scheduling games with Oregon and "other teams not mentioned."[43] The Blackbears announced an agreement to continue in the league for the rest of the 2024 season on May 17.[44] The Cedar Rapids River Kings, recently severed from American Indoor Football due to owner misconduct, were added to the schedule as a non-league member for Week 5.[45] Rapid City folded on May 24, due to continued turmoil within the organization.[46] Oregon was again removed from the league on May 28, as incoming president Jared Widman announced that the league would be moving forward with only nine teams.[47]
Multiple sources indicated the West Texas Desert Hawks had ended their season June 18, four days before their last scheduled game and nine days after they had quietly fired their head coach.[48] Salina acknowledged the maneuver and scheduled the River Kings as their opponent for the planned matchup against West Texas.[49] The league confirmed that the Desert Hawks had withdrawn from their final game "for reasons that we will not disclose" on June 20 but that the team had not folded.[50] Desert Hawks owner Zack Bugg folded the team officially on June 21, citing arena concessions money disputes,[51] lingering issues tied to Hutton's promises, and the alleged embezzlement of the money Bugg had fronted to NFL Network to televise a game that the network never televised.[52][53]
The AFL announced the updated playoff schedule for the 2024 season on June 12, 2024. There will be six teams that make the playoffs and they will start on July 6, 2024, with two first-round games. In the semifinal round, July 13, 2024, the lowest-seeded winner of the first-round matchups will play the top seed, while the runner-up hosts the highest-seeded. All games for the first two rounds will be hosted by the higher seed. ArenaBowl XXXIII will be hosted at a neutral site, later revealed to be the American Dream Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Friday, July 19, 2024.[54]
**-Planned Team did not play at home arena during season, Georgia was later turned into a traveling team until it folded
Players
Players reported to training camp April 4, 2024. Each team carried 35-men rosters into training camp, while final roster cuts will take place on April 20, 2024, with regular season rosters set at 25 players.[58] Originally, the league used ironman rules, where most players must play both offense and defense, as originally used by the Arena Football League from 1987 to 2007, but cancelled the rule after week 4 and allowed free substitution.[59]
On January 16, 2024, the AFL announced a partnership with American 7s Football League (A7FL) for player development, as players can transfer between leagues, with the A7FL functioning as its de facto minor league. As part of the partnership, both leagues will collectively align on marketing efforts that "will elevate the visibility of leagues athletes".[60]
In November 2023, the league announced a multi-year partnership with USA Football naming the AFL as an "official national team development & scouting partner", with the AFL helping USA Football recruiting players who want to represent the United States in international competition.[61]
Standings
On June 12, 2024, alongside the postseason announcement, the Arena Football League also outlined the seeding procedures for this season:[54]
Winning percentage
Head-to-head record
Head-to-head points scored
Average Points Scored per game played
The final standings for the 2024 season are as follows:
The Dallas Falcons of the American Arena League (AAL2) filled in for the Philadelphia Soul bearing the team jerseys, as Soul head coach Patrick Pimmel and almost the entire Soul roster abruptly resigned prior to leaving for Louisiana.[63]
Postponed to June 15 due to severe weather in the Wichita vicinity.
Because of multiple problems before this week, some schedule changes took place, including the awards of bye weeks to the Louisiana VooDoo and the Rapid City Marshals.[64]
Week 3
Date
Away team
Result
Home team
Arena
Broadcast
Notes
May 11
Billings Outlaws
2
0
Rapid City Marshals
Summit Arena at the Monument
The Marshals abruptly called a flash strike against the league office immediately prior to the start of this game, refusing to play and forcing their arena to issue refunds to ticket holders who had already arrived to see the contest.[65][66]
Orlando Predators
2
0
Louisiana VooDoo
Blackham Coliseum
The VooDoo suspended operations before this game. The Predators were awarded a forfeit win later in the season.
The Oregon Blackbears cancelled their Week 3 matchup against Salina when it appeared they would have been a short-notice replacement for the West Texas Desert Hawks due to a court injunction against the latter, but the injunction was lifted and the Desert Hawks were allowed to play. Salina instead filled the place of the Philadelphia Soul in their scheduled game against Nashville.
West Texas Desert Hawks
34
21
Washington Wolfpack
Angel of the Winds Arena
This game marked history for the Arena Football League as Washington Wolfpack kicker Melissa Strother completed her first extra point in the season, making her the first female player to score a point in the league.[67]
Originally scheduled for May 9 at Target Center but was moved to May 13 at MVP Arena due to a Minnesota Timberwolves playoff contest. The game was ultimately cancelled when the Myth could "not make the trip."
The Southwest Kansas Storm were originally scheduled to play the Billings Outlaws this week; on May 21, the Oregon Blackbears were assigned as the away team for the match, but Oregon declined the assignment "due to unforeseen circumstances" on May 23. The Storm instead hosted the Cedar Rapids River Kings, an independent team that had severed from American Indoor Football two weeks prior; the Storm won that game, 68–12.[45]
Following the suspension of operations of the West Texas Desert Hawks, the Cedar Rapids River Kings once again stepped in to fill in as Salina Liberty's opponent this week. As the River Kings game is non-league, West Texas is considered to have forfeited their game (and thus technically completed their season) and Salina was awarded the original game 2–0. Likewise, the league's YouTube channel will not carry the game, which will instead be streamed by Eagle Communications.[69] Salina defeated Cedar Rapids 85–18.
Week 10
Date
Away team
Result
Home team
Arena
Broadcast
June 29
Wichita Regulators
48
21
Washington Wolfpack
Angel of the Winds Arena
YouTube
On June 26, the league decided to cancel the majority of games this week and declare the remaining six teams in the playoffs. Only the Regulators-Wolfpack game remained as scheduled, as both teams were already eliminated from the playoffs by that point.
To allow for easier travel for all involved teams, Nashville was scheduled to play Orlando and Southwest Kansas was scheduled to play Salina in the first round.
BIL – Hunter Swoboda 1-yard run (Bailey Giffen kick), 6:08. Outlaws 33–19. Drive: 3 plays, 6 yards, 2:41.
ALB – Jake Molonich 1-yard run (Darius Prince pass from Jake Medlock, Darius Prince pass from Jake Medlock), 1:38. Outlaws 33–29. Drive: 7 plays, 48 yards, 4:49.
Fourth quarter
BIL – Duane Brown 9-yard pass from Isaac Harker (kick failed), 14:55. Outlaws 39–29. Drive: 3 plays, 17 yards, 1:43.
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League finances
In a February 2023 interview with ArenaFan.com, Hutton mentioned that the league would have a salary cap of $700,000, but the league will allow additional salary spending for "franchise players".[6] According to Force quarterback Justin Arth, players were promised a $1,000 per-game salary.[72] While most teams were responsible to pay the full amount, teams that were brought in through the Champions Indoor Football merger were promised a 75% subsidy from the league to cover the increased salaries ($750 per player, per week), a subsidy that was never delivered.[73]
In week 3, Washington and Rapid City both renegotiated their player contracts to a "competitive indoor football salary".[74][75][76]
The higher salaries also reflected the expectation that most players other than quarterbacks would have been required to play both offense and defense, reimplementing the one-platoon system that the original AFL had used from its 1987 launch until 2007. As part of the reorganization, free substitution was restored prior to the Week 4 contests.[77]
Business partnerships
On July 18, 2023, the AFL announced a partnership with HUMBL, as the "Official Technology Platform of the AFL", through the 2028 season.[78] On February 28, 2024, the league signed "Official Partnership" deal with BSN Sports for official uniform and equipment.[79]
Media
On the AFL relaunch event Hutton declared that the league’s games "will be broadcast, streamed and will also be available in VR".[37] In March the NFL announced that NFL Network will carry 30 games of the 2024 AFL season (games will also be streamed on NFL+).[80] No games have yet aired on the network, which thus far has removed all future schedulings of AFL contests as of week 2.[81] with a spokesman for the Albany Firebirds stating that the network had been "scared off by some of the smaller teams."[82] Oregon Blackbears president Patrick Johnson, who had opposed the television deal and expressed relief that it had been cancelled, described the agreement as predatory, in that NFL Network would keep a $430,000 annual brokered programming fee and would not allow the league to sell any advertising during the games, instead collecting all the advertising revenue for themselves on top of the fee. NFL Network stated that the production company that would have produced the games never received any payment for them, and thus the network would not be carrying any games for the 2024 season.[83] West Texas owner Zack Bugg stated that, contrary to NFL Network's accusation, he had personally paid the money to have one of the games televised and suspected Hutton may have embezzled the money.[84]
The league announced on March 29 that much of the league's schedule will be carried on Gray Television owned-and-operated stations in each team's home market and in regional syndication.[85] After NFL Network cancelled the agreement with the league, most of the planned games that were schedule to be broadcast on the network were moved to VYRE streaming services, while other games were streamed via Arenafootball.live and the Albany Firebirds resorted to using their own team YouTube channel to stream its games. The Nashville Kats and Oregon Blackbears did not have any home games televised due to infrastructure issues at their home arenas for the first several weeks, with their games carried solely on radio via WPRT-FM and KYKN, respectively. Nashville would eventually begin carrying games on YouTube.
In January 2024 the league launched an official podcast for the 2024 season available on YouTube,[87] Spotify,[88] and other platforms.
Controversy
The return of the AFL was marked with multiple controversies throughout the first few weeks, with unpaid bills, players getting kicked out of hotels, replacement teams and players refusing to come out of the home locker room until they were paid.[89][90] Those issues, stemming from misconduct by the league commissioner Lee Hutton III, caused five teams to suspend operations and cancelling the broadcast agreement with the NFL Network.[91][92][93][94]
After cancelling a May 9 home game, the Minnesota Myth folded on May 13, with owner Diana Hutton accusing the league of attempting to sabotage the team in order to force her husband to resign, which he refused to do.[95] Because league central operations were run through the Myth business entity,[96] this caused a crisis with the remainder of the league; in a reported emergency meeting of the remaining teams on May 14, the league's owners, in cooperation with the holding company that holds the AFL's intellectual properties, voted to appoint Nashville Kats president Jeff Fisher as interim commissioner to salvage the remainder of the season.[97][98] This is despite a league bylaw that was believed to have granted Hutton total immunity from ouster by league owners;[75] the ouster was made with the full cooperation of G6 Sports Group (owners of the trademarks and connected to the original F1 group that had founded the revival), who had suggested Fisher for the position.[99]
Signees to outdoor professional leagues
The following players signed with NFL, UFL or CFL teams following their involvement with Arena Football League in 2024:
^International Football Alliance (section: Our Teams). "Tampa Tornadoes: Located in Tampa Bay, led by Alton Walker and investment group. Multiple years of professional guidance in the arena and outdoors." Retrieved May 17, 2024.
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