The American West Football Conference (AWFC) was a professional indoor American footballminor league created in 2018 by Platinum Events & Security, LLC, the owners of the Idaho Horsemen. The league's inaugural season was in 2019.[2]
Players are paid $150 per game before taxes with no other benefits, although the teams help the players find host families during the season.[3] Teams' operating budget is $200,000 per season.[3]
After being unable to join the Indoor Football League or Champions Indoor Football citing league instability, as well as financial and travel issues due to the distance from the rest of the leagues' teams, Chris Reynolds, owner of the Idaho Horsemen announced that his ownership group Platinum Events & Security, LLC, created a new indoor league, the American West Football Conference (AWFC).[6] The league was created to fill the void of a lack of west coast teams and leagues and to decrease travel costs of operating the regional teams.[2][7] The league was announced with four teams: the Horsemen, Reno Express, Tri-Cities Fire, and the Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks. The AWFC later added the Sacramento Spartans, but the team's facilities did not meet league standards and was removed a month before the start of the season.[8]
The first game in league history was the Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks at the Idaho Horsemen on March 23, where the Horsemen won 33–22.[9] The season's first forfeit came on May 4 when the Skyhawks did not travel to play the Reno Express, who instead played a local semiprofessional team in order to fulfill its lease agreement. The following week, the only scheduled game was also postponed citing travel issues with the Tri-Cities Fire visiting Idaho, but was made-up on June 19. Idaho went undefeated and won the championship game 40–20 over Reno.
For the 2020 season, the league announced expansion teams in Yakima, Washington,[10] and the San Francisco Bay Area,[11] although the Bay Area team never launched.[12] In February 2020, the Reno Express was removed from the schedule[13] and the Tri-Cities Fire folded,[14] which led to the Idaho Horsemen and Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks both announce they would play independent schedules.[15][16] The league then announced it would be playing the 2020 season with three teams — Idaho, Wenatchee, and Yakima — while looking for non-league teams to fill in the lost games including the minor outdoor team, Tri-City Rage, filling in for the Fire's six scheduled away games.[17]
On March 13, 2020, the AWFC announced on its website that the 2020 season would be postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, citing the high number of cases reported from Washington, one of two states that had a team in the league.[18] On July 31, 2020, the AWFC announced the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the unavailability of arenas during the pandemic.[19] On September 28, 2020, the league announced a new expansion team in the state of Oregon for the 2021 season[20] called the Oregon High Desert Storm.[21] On November 13, 2020, the Tri-Cities were announced as the league's new franchise named the Tri-City Rush.[22][23]
On November 22, 2022, league champions Tri-City Rush announced they were folding after their home arena in Pasco shut down for the 2023 season[24] and not meeting their financial goals.[25] With only three teams for the 2023 season, the AWFC announced they would play non-league games with four teams from the American Indoor Football Alliance, and the Cali Gold (San Francisco Bay area) from the American Arena League 2.[26] The Idaho Horsemen defeated the Oregon High Desert Storm 42–20 on July 2, 2023, to win the league championship.[27]
On September 21, 2023, the Horsemen were announced as joining the National Arena League for the 2024 season.[28] As the league's flagship franchise, this effectively forced the two remaining teams to suspend or fold. Oregon High Desert eventually found buyers who plan on returning the team to play as the Oregon Lightning in Arena Football One for 2025.[29]
Yakima Canines (Yakima, Washington) – joined for the 2020 season before it was cancelled due to the pandemic, played the 2021 season, and the franchise was revoked prior to the 2022 season due to not meeting league minimum operating requirements. The Canines were replaced by the Washington Elite travel team to fill the rest of the league's home schedule.[24]
SoCal Redtails (City of Industry, California) – originally the San Diego Red Tails; joined for the 2022 season but never played.[30] The independent Cali Gold was scheduled to fill in for one home game against the Oregon High Desert Storm.[31][32]
