The Arena Football League (AFL) is a professional indoor American football league founded in 2023 with their first season beginning in 2024. The current AFL takes its identity, history, some of the rulebook and some team names from, but is not directly connected to, the previous iteration of the Arena Football League founded by Jim Foster in 1986.
On February 1, 2023, G6 Sports Group (a Delaware corporation operating as the American arm of Toronto, Ontario-based hedge fund ForceOne Capital), a new ownership group that had acquired the league's trademarks and social media accounts, announced the league's launch, as a revival of the previous Arena Football League that operated in two incarnations from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2019.[1]
The league launched in April 2024 with 16 teams, six of which were absorbed through a pre-launch merger with the existing Champions Indoor Football. Three weeks into the season, after numerous controversies, unfulfilled commitments and teams suspending operations, the ownership group fired founding commissioner Lee Hutton and reorganized as a ten-team league (shortly thereafter restored to eleven, by the end of the season shrinking to eight), hiring former NFL coach Jeff Fisher as its interim commissioner and bringing back general counsel Jerry Kurz from the previous incarnation of the league.
The original Arena Football League, created in 1981 and founded in 1986 by Jim Foster, had previously existed in two interrelated incarnations between 1987 and 2008, and 2010 to 2019. Only one of the current AFL teams has direct ties to the former AFL: the Albany Firebirds; the Firebirds had previously played as the Albany Empire the previous three seasons in the National Arena League after its ownership group acquired the intellectual properties of the Albany Empire of the AFL (the final champions of that league and itself a successor to two previous AFL and AF2 franchises known as the Firebirds) after the AFL's bankruptcy. Two other existing clubs revive the names of former AFL teams: the Orlando Predators (also coming from the NAL) and the Nashville Kats; several other such revivals were included at the start of the season but were among those contracted in the reorganization.
On February 1, 2023, over a year after Darren Arbet, who had acquired the league's trademarks out of bankruptcy, sold them to an investment group called G6 Sports Investment Group and sub-partner F1 Sports & Entertainment, the new owners confirmed plans to relaunch the Arena Football League.[2] 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 has yet to be determined. In a later interview, Chetty indicated that G6 planned no involvement or spending, with its only role being to collect licensing royalties from Hutton, who was given mostly free rein to build out the league: "everything down the line, turnkey. As an investor this sounds good to me. Hey, it doesn’t sound like I have to operate."[3]
The league returned its logo to the one used from 2003 to 2018. The new iteration of the league announced plans to feature "streaming, betting, technology, (and) virtual reality" elements, per Rossi. In a February 2023 interview with ArenaFan.com, the commissioner mentioned that the league would have a salary cap of $700,000, but the league will allows additional salary spending for "franchise players".[4] Players were promised a $1,000 per-game salary, substantially higher than that of other indoor leagues and in line with the AFL's previous incarnations.[5]
On July 18, 2023, TMZ Sports initially reported, and the league soon confirmed, 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.[6] Several of the cities' arenas indicated they had never been contacted[7][8] or had only limited conversations before being awarded teams,[9][10] with Cincinnati's arenas indicating they had in fact rejected the league's advances.[11][12] Hutton purposely avoided confirming any news reports, stating that he would only release information "on our time," and threatened any news outlets who reported critically on the league with "egg on their faces come April 2024."[8]
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.[13] On August 31, the West Texas Desert Hawks (formerly the Warbirds) were the second team confirmed.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16]
On November 16, 2023, at the AFL relaunch event, Hutton revealed the 16 teams set play in the 2024 season, while he mentioned the league might expand in the future to 24 teams, as the Chicago Rush and Arizona Bandits are expected to join in 2025 along with other possible teams in markets that were part of the league's original market announcement.[17] Hutton also declared that the league game "will be broadcast, streamed and will also be available in VR". 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 disturb the league progress, which caused a move to different locations.[18] Hutton also mentioned he's in preliminary talks about conducting international exhibitions games, and with that in mind they changed the official website from "TheAFL.com" to "ArenaFootballUSA.com", as they plan to globalize the game.[18]
Following the inaugural week of competition in 2024, numerous problems began to emerge with the league's teams. The Philadelphia Soul coach and roster all departed abruptly before their contest (forcing an American Arena League team from Dallas to don the Soul's uniforms for the game) against the Louisiana VooDoo,[19][20] who themselves were forced to move their home schedule from Lake Charles to Lafayette days before the game after the manager of Lake Charles's arena accused the VooDoo of failing to cover rent or insurance expenses.[21] The Oregon Blackbears' home arena in Salem, Oregon was deemed unsafe, forcing a slew of schedule changes.[22] The Iowa Rampage folded after its inaugural contest, accusing Hutton of reneging on promises to cover increased expenses,[23] while the Rapid City Marshals granted six players their release and renegotiated lower salaries for their remaining players after they also did not receive the promised compensation from the league,[24] a tactic the Washington Wolfpack also used. Their final game was on May 4, 2024, on the road at Southwest Kansas, losing 34–18. Rossi disowned any connection to league operations in the wake of the controversy, instead stating that his company had licensed the Arena Football League trademarks to Hutton's company for a fee that Hutton did not pay.[25] Documents related to the Louisiana VooDoo showed that Hutton had indeed operated the league through the business structure of the Minnesota Myth.[26] These problems have prompted calls for Hutton to resign, including from Billings Outlaws owner Steven Titus.[27] Marshals owner Wes Johnson noted that the league structure centered all power in the commissioner, whom the owners had no leverage to fire.[24] On May 9, 2024, it was announced that the Georgia Force had abruptly folded[28] and the Soul had suspended operations for the remainder of the 2024 season with hopes of returning in 2025.[29]
On May 12, 2024, kicker Melissa Strother made an extra point while playing for the Washington Wolfpack, making her the first female player to score a point in the Arena Football League.[30] Strother, who had previously been on the Marshals roster prior to the CIF merger with the AFL, was a 13-year veteran of women's leagues and a former member of the women's national team.[31]
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.[32][33] Hours later, the same Arena Insider reported that sources with the AFL stated that, in a unanimous vote among the remaining owners, Lee Hutton was ousted as league commissioner and that Nashville Kats president (and former NFL and USFL head coach) Jeff Fisher was appointed interim commissioner. The official announcement was made May 14.[34][35] This is despite a league bylaw that was believed to have granted Hutton total immunity from ouster by league owners;[24] 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.[36] Chairman Chris Chetty, who had initially expected to remain in Canada and not to have an active role in league operations, noted that Hutton had breached multiple clauses of his contract with G6 even before the league kicked off, which provided the legal justification for revoking the license on the AFL trademarks.[3]
The change in commissioner did not completely restore stability; Oregon pulled out of a last-minute assignment "due to unforeseen circumstances" on May 24, forcing the temporarily independent Cedar Rapids River Kings to step in the Blackbears' stead;[37] Rapid City, having faced continued labor strife tied to the promises made by the Hutton regime, folded following their May 23 game.[38][39] West Texas reportedly followed suit on June 18,,[40] with the River Kings again stepping in to fill in for the Desert Hawks' final game.[41]
The league would announce the hiring of its new president and chief operating officer Jared Widman on May 28, 2024, along with the announcement that the league was contracting to nine teams, again removing Oregon (who had been briefly removed from the league web site, then restored, the previous day) for the remainder of the season.[42] Oregon announced a return to play in 2025 on social media and have also retained its previous online broker for ticket sales for "any future home games."[43]
On June 4, 2024, the league officially announced the return of original AFL co-founding partner and former commissioner Jerry Kurz, this time as general counsel and senior advisor of player operations. [44] On June 5, 2024, the league announced the addition of former AFL player Gary Compton as director of football operations. [45] On June 8, 2024, the front office staff added Tracey Leinin as President of Football Administration.[46] On June 24, 2024, they then added Laurie Voke as Vice President of Sales.[47] On June 25, 2024, one day later they added former professional player and coach Dr. Jennifer Welter as Chief Marketing Officer.[48]
The ArenaBowl Championship Game has been a staple of the AFL since its inception in 1987. Upon relaunch, this year's first game was planned to be played at a neutral site. ArenaBowl XXXIII will be the first ArenaBowl hosted on a neutral site since ArenaBowl XXVI. Only a handful of ArenaBowls were held at neutral sites such as Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Orlando. This year's site was originally selected as the Target Center, home of the Minnesota Myth, but was dropped when the Myth folded and Myth co-owner Lee Hutton was expelled from his post as league commissioner.
On June 27, 2024, the league announced that the championship game, ArenaBowl XXXIII, was played on July 19, 2024, at the American Dream Meadowlands, a large shopping center and entertainment complex at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey.[49] The Billings Outlaws and the Albany Firebirds faced off in the first ArenaBowl in five years with the Outlaws defeating the Firebirds 46-41.
For the 2024 return, the AFL had initially signed a national television deal with the NFL Network to broadcast over 30 AFL regular season games (games were to have been streamed on NFL+);[52] but this never materalized, as NFL Network dropped plans to carry the games before they were played.[53] 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.[54]
Select AFL games were livestreamed through the Vyre streaming app before the league moved its remaining games to a league-managed YouTube account midway through the regular season.
The 2024 playoffs were carried via CBS Sports Network,[55] with DAZN holding simulcast rights outside the United States.[56]
January 16, 2024, the league 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".[57]
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.[58]
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