| 2025 Arena Football One season | |
|---|---|
| League | Arena Football One (2025) |
| Sport | Arena football |
| Duration | March 14 – June 15, 2024 (Regular season) |
| Number of teams | 12 |
| TV partner(s) | TBA |
The 2025 season is the upcoming first season of the new Arena Football One. The regular season will begin on March 14, 2025, and run through June 15, 2025.
All eight of the inaugural teams in Arena Football One had played the 2024 season in the Arena Football League, which had been launched that year as a revival of two leagues bearing the Arena Football League name: the original that operated from 1987 to 2008, and the second—coincidentally also known as Arena Football 1 before acquiring rights to the AFL name prior to its first season—from 2010 to 2019. The 2024 AFL's lone season began with 16 teams, six of which had joined through a pre-launch merger with Champions Indoor Football. Within three weeks, five of the 16 teams had folded. After multiple complaints of promises that were left unfulfilled to teams, to players, and to G6 Sports and Entertainment (the holding company that had been licensing the trademarks and intellectual property to the league), a hasty reorganization ousted founding commissioner Lee Hutton. With direct backing from G6, the remaining teams committed to finishing the 10-week season; three additional teams would fold over the course of the season, leaving eight by the end of the regular season. Jeff Fisher, who had originally joined the league as an advisor to the Nashville Kats, assumed the role of temporary commissioner for the remainder of the season.
Following ArenaBowl XXXIII, the surviving members of the AFL, including champions the Billings Outlaws, began hyping up "Arena Football is back" in various team social sites posing an image on September 4, 2024, saying, "A new era begins today." The next day it was announced that they would be playing in a newly-formed league called Arena Football One, sharing the name with a working title used by the 2010s AFL before its launch. The trademark was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on September 1, 2024, by Outlaws owner Steven Titus dba Arena Football One, LLC, of Gillette, Wyoming. [1] (G6 Sports Group still owns the AFL logo and its intellectual properties, but not the team IP's.)
The new league will be a full separation from G6, as all eight teams leave the AFL and join AF1. In a statement to Arena Insider, G6 executive Chris Chetty noted that after the league had narrowly completed the 2024 season, it had been left with numerous unpaid debts that he, though he would maintain responsibility, had been advised not to immediately pay off, but that the team owners had stipulated the debts be paid as a condition for returning. [2]
On September 6, 2024, AF1 formally announced its launch with a press release and new social media feeds, confirming that the new league would carry over Jeff Fisher as commissioner (now on a permanent basis) and Jerry Kurz, the founding commissioner of the 2010s AFL and a veteran of the original league, as chief executive officer along with the existing front office staff. In the statement, AF1 indicated that additional "expansion teams in emerging markets" would be among the teams to play the 2025 season. [3] Of those teams, the Arizona Bandits, a team that had previously been announced to be joining the AFL in 2025, released its own teaser at the same time as the eight inaugural teams. [4] In an interview with the Billings Gazette, Titus indicated that one of the expansion teams would be based in Mexico, and others would be in cities that had previously hosted arena football teams. [5]
On September 9, 2024, AF1 announced the Stockton Crusaders as their first expansion team joining the eight former AFL teams for the 2025 season. [6] On September 10, AF1 announced another expansion team to be based out of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania [7] and owned by Matt Rowland, a college friend of league president Jared Widman's. [8] On September 12, the Monterrey Kings were announced as the first AF1 team in Mexico. [9] Firebirds owner Mike Kwarta indicated in an interview that the twelfth team, which is scheduled to be formally announced the last week of September, would be Arizona. [10] The league had not ruled out further expansion before the season starts, with the schedule to be finalized by the end of October. [10]
In an interview with the Albany Times-Union , league sources indicated that an expansion draft would be held to allot players to the four new AF1 teams, with the existing teams allowed to protect 15 players. [10] The league will offer a base salary of $400 per game—less than the $1,000 that the AFL had initially promised in 2024 but higher than other indoor leagues, with teams allowed to pay higher salaries at their own discretion— and will not require players to play "ironman" on both offense and defense as they had under previous iterations of the league. [10] The league will follow traditional arena football rules and restrictions otherwise. [10] The season structure will feature two divisions (East and West) of six teams each, assuming no further expansion, all playing a 12-game regular season (up from 10 in 2024) and an eight-team playoff culminating in a yet-unnamed championship to be held at the home arena of the highest-seeded team. [10]
On October 22, the Oregon Lightning, partially owned by the head coach of the 2024 AFL's Oregon Blackbears Chuck Jones, were announced as AF1's newest expansion team. The expansion marks the continuation of arena football in Oregon under a new structure—legally, a continuation of the Oregon High Desert Storm of the American West Football Conference—following the Blackbears' entanglements with Hutton and its unsuccessful efforts to remain in the AFL in 2024. [11] On November 13, the Corpus Christi Tritons were announced to be joining AF1; the Tritons had been part of American Indoor Football for the 2024 season but had been excluded when most of the AIF's teams joined the National Arena League. [12]
On November 15, the Arizona Bandits, previously announced as a 2025 AFL expansion team, were officially announced as members of AF1. [13] That same day, the AF1 announced it would be aligned into three divisions with a twelve-game schedule across a 14-week regular season, with the specific schedule and alignment to be announced on November 19. [14] On November 18, the AF1 divisional alignment was announced, [15] with the Monterrey Kings and Stockton Crusaders electing to postpone their inaugural seasons until 2026. [16]
| 2025 Arena Football One Standings standings | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Division | |||||||||
| Team | W | L | PCT | GB | DIV | PF | PA | DIFF | STK |
| Albany Firebirds | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Nashville Kats | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Orlando Predators | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Wilkes-Barre | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Central Division | |||||||||
| Team | W | L | PCT | GB | DIV | PF | PA | DIFF | STK |
| Corpus Christi Tritons | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Salina Liberty | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Southwest Kansas Storm | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Wichita Regulators | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| West Division | |||||||||
| Team | W | L | PCT | GB | DIV | PF | PA | DIFF | STK |
| Arizona Bandits | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Billings Outlaws | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Oregon Lightning | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| Washington Wolfpack | - | - | – | - | 0-0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| (x)–clinched playoff berth; (y)–clinched division; (e)–eliminated from playoff contention | |||||||||
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 14 | Albany Firebirds | - | - | Orlando Predators | Kia Center | TBA | |
| March 15 | Billings Outlaws | - | - | Oregon Lightning | First Interstate Bank Center | TBA | |
| Nashville Kats | - | - | Wilkes-Barre | Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza | TBA | ||
| Arizona Bandits | - | - | Washington Wolfpack | Angel of the Winds Arena | TBA | ||
| March 16 | Salina Liberty | - | - | Corpus Christi Tritons | American Bank Center | TBA | |
| Wichita Regulators | - | - | Southwest Kansas Storm | United Wireless Arena | TBA | ||
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 21 | Nashville Kats | - | - | Albany Firebirds | MVP Arena | TBA | |
| March 22 | Billings Outlaws | - | - | Arizona Bandits | TBA | TBA | |
| Southwest Kansas Storm | - | - | Wichita Regulators | Park City Arena | TBA | ||
| March 23 | Orlando Predators | - | - | Wilkes-Barre | Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza | TBA | |
| March 20–24 | Oregon Lightning | - | - | Washington Wolfpack | Angel of the Winds Arena | TBA | |
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 28 | Arizona Bandits | - | - | Orlando Predators | Kia Center | TBA | |
| Billings Outlaws | - | - | Corpus Christi Tritons | American Bank Center | TBA | ||
| March 28 or 30 | Salina Liberty | - | - | Southwest Kansas Storm | United Wireless Arena | TBA | |
| March 28–30 | Wilkes Barre | - | - | Nashville Kats | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | TBA | |
| Washington Wolfpack | - | - | Oregon Lightning | First Interstate Bank Center | TBA | ||
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 3 | Corpus Christi Tritons | - | - | Wichita Regulators | Park City Arena | TBA | |
| April 5 | Southwest Kansas Storm | - | - | Salina Liberty | Tony's Pizza Events Center | TBA | |
| April 3, 6 or 7 | Wilkes-Barre | - | - | Washington Wolfpack | Angel of the Winds Arena | TBA | |
| April 4–6 | Albany Firebirds | - | - | Nashville Kats | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | TBA | |
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 11 | Billings Outlaws | - | - | Albany Firebirds | MVP Arena | TBA | |
| April 13 | Oregon Lightning | - | - | Arizona Bandits | TBA | TBA | |
| April 11–13 | Orlando Predators | - | - | Wichita Regulators | Park City Arena | TBA | |
| Corpus Christi Tritons | - | - | Salina Liberty | Tony's Pizza Events Center | TBA | ||
| Washington Wolfpack | - | - | Nashville Kats | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | TBA | ||
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 19 | Wichita Regulators | - | - | Corpus Christi Tritons | American Bank Center | TBA | |
| April 20 | Arizona Bandits | - | - | Billings Outlaws | MetraPark First Interstate Arena | TBA | |
| April 17 or 21 | Oregon Lightning | - | - | Washington Wolfpack | Angel of the Winds Arena | TBA | |
| April 18 or 19 | Nashville Kats | - | - | Orlando Predators | Kia Center | TBA | |
| April 18–20 | Albany Firebirds | - | - | Salina Liberty | Tony's Pizza Events Center | TBA | |
| Southwest Kansas Storm | - | - | Wilkes-Barre | Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza | TBA | ||
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 25 | Arizona Bandits | - | - | Oregon Lightning | First Interstate Bank Center | TBA | |
| Southwest Kansas Storm | - | - | Corpus Christi Tritons | American Bank Center | TBA | ||
| Orlando Predators | - | - | Wilkes-Barre | Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza | TBA | ||
| Washington Wolfpack | - | - | Billings Outlaws | MetraPark First Interstate Arena | TBA | ||
| April 26 | Wichita Regulators | - | - | Salina Liberty | Tony's Pizza Events Center | TBA | |
| April 25–27 | Albany Firebirds | - | - | Nashville Kats | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | TBA | |
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 3 | Oregon Lightning | - | - | Arizona Bandits | TBA | TBA | |
| May 1 or 4 | Albany Firebirds | - | - | Wilkes-Barre | Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza | TBA | |
| May 1 or 3 | Corpus Christi Tritons | - | - | Washington Wolfpack | Angel of the Winds Arena | TBA | |
| Salina Liberty | - | - | Wichita Regulators | Park City Arena | TBA | ||
| May 2–4 | Orlando Predators | - | - | Nashville Kats | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | TBA | |
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 9 | Southwest Kansas Storm | - | - | Albany Firebirds | MVP Arena | TBA | |
| May 10 | Oregon Lightning | - | - | Billings Outlaws | MetraPark First Interstate Arena | TBA | |
| May 9–10 | Washington Wolfpack | - | - | Arizona Bandits | TBA | TBA | |
| Wilkes-Barre | - | - | Orlando Predators | Kia Center | TBA | ||
| Wichita Regulators | - | - | Corpus Christi Tritons | American Bank Center | TBA | ||
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17 | Salina Liberty | - | - | Billings Outlaws | MetraPark First Interstate Arena | TBA | |
| Nashville Kats | - | - | Oregon Lightning | First Interstate Bank Center | TBA | ||
| May 16–18 | Wichita Regulators | - | - | Southwest Kansas Storm | United Wireless Arena | TBA | |
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 23 | Nashville Kats | - | - | Arizona Bandits | TBA | TBA | |
| May 24 | Wilkes-Barre | - | - | Albany Firebirds | MVP Arena | TBA | |
| May 23–25 | Billings Outlaws | - | - | Washington Wolfpack | Angel of the Winds Arena | TBA | |
| Corpus Christi Tritons | - | - | Orlando Predators | Kia Center | TBA | ||
| Oregon Lightning | - | - | Wichita Regulators | Park City Arena | TBA | ||
| Southwest Kansas Storm | - | - | Salina Liberty | Tony's Pizza Events Center | TBA | ||
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 31 | Orlando Predators | - | - | Albany Firebirds | MVP Arena | TBA | |
| Washington Wolfpack | - | - | Billings Outlaws | MetraPark First Interstate Arena | TBA | ||
| June 1 | Corpus Christi Tritons | - | - | Salina Liberty | Tony's Pizza Events Center | TBA | |
| May 30 – June 1 | Arizona Bandits | - | - | Southwest Kansas Storm | United Wireless Arena | TBA | |
| Nashville Kats | - | - | Wilkes-Barre | Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza | TBA | ||
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 7 | Albany Firebirds | - | - | Orlando Predators | Kia Center | TBA | |
| Arizona Bandits | - | - | Billings Outlaws | MetraPark First Interstate Arena | TBA | ||
| June 8 | Salina Liberty | - | - | Oregon Lightning | First Interstate Bank Center | TBA | |
| June 6–8 | Corpus Christi Tritons | - | - | Southwest Kansas Storm | United Wireless Arena | TBA | |
| Wichita Regulators | - | - | Wilkes-Barre | Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza | TBA | ||
| Date | Away team | Result | Home team | Arena | Broadcast | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 14 | Wilkes-Barre | - | - | Albany Firebirds | MVP Arena | TBA | |
| Billings Outlaws | - | - | Oregon Lightning | First Interstate Bank Center | TBA | ||
| Southwest Kansas Storm | - | - | Corpus Christi Tritons | American Bank Center | TBA | ||
| Orlando Predators | - | - | Nashville Kats | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | TBA | ||
| June 13–15 | Washington Wolfpack | - | - | Arizona Bandits | TBA | TBA | |
| Salina Liberty | - | - | Wichita Regulators | Park City Arena | TBA | ||
On November 18, Arena Football One announced, along with the divisional alignments, that the postseason format will feature 6 teams. The three division winners and three teams with the next best records, regardless of division, will make the playoffs. [19]
The Nashville Kats is the name of three separate franchises in the Arena Football League all located in Nashville, Tennessee.
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, and features between six and eight players for each team playing at any given time depending on the league, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises and had a proprietary format until its patent expired in 2007.
The Green Bay Blizzard is a professional indoor football team based in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, founded in 2003. The Blizzard began play in the Indoor Football League in 2010, after having played the previous seven seasons in af2, the now-defunct minor league of the Arena Football League. They play their home games at the Resch Center. The team's logo represents Bruiser, the team mascot.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers were a minor league arena football team that played in the AF2. The team was part of the East Division in the American conference. The Pioneers were an expansion team for the league's 2002 season, and were the runners-up in ArenaCup VIII and ArenaCup X.
American Indoor Football (AIF) is a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America.
The Spokane Shock were a professional indoor American football team based in Spokane, Washington, that played their home games at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The team was initially a member of arenafootball2 (af2), the Shock won division titles in all four seasons and ArenaCups in 2006 and 2009 before they joined the Arena Football League (AFL) in its 2010 relaunch. The team advanced to the playoffs three times after joining the AFL, winning ArenaBowl XXIII in their first season, making them the only arena football franchise to win both the ArenaCup and the ArenaBowl.
Jerry B. Kurz is a founding father of the now-defunct Arena Football League. He was one of the earliest leaders of Arena football, and was part owner of Gridiron Enterprises, original owner of the proprietary, formerly patented, Arena football system.
Champions Indoor Football (CIF) was a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team from the Indoor Football League and two expansion teams.
The Salina Liberty are a professional indoor football team based in Salina, Kansas. They began play in 2016 as members of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) and played in the Arena Football League in 2024. In 2025, they will become inaugural members of the newly-formed Arena Football One. The team plays their home games at the Tony’s Pizza Events Center.
The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. As of the end of the 2024 season, the league consisted of five teams.
The Albany Empire were a professional indoor football team based in Albany, New York. They were members of the National Arena League from 2021 to 2023 and played home games at MVP Arena. They are named after the defunct Arena Football League (AFL) team of the same name that won the last ArenaBowl before the AFL folded.
The Billings Outlaws are a professional indoor football team that began play as a member of Champions Indoor Football for the 2022 season. Based in Billings, Montana, the Outlaws play their home games at MetraPark First Interstate Arena. For 2024, they have been announced as members of the revived Arena Football League. They are the 2024 AFL champions, defeating the Albany Firebirds 46–41 at the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In 2025, they will become inaugural members of the newly-formed Arena Football One.
The Corpus Christi Tritons are a professional indoor football team based in Corpus Christi, Texas. They started as an expansion team in American Indoor Football in 2024 and play their home games at the American Bank Center; as of 2025, they are members of Arena Football One. The team follows in the history of indoor football in the city with the now-defunct Corpus Christi Hammerheads/Fury, who played in several leagues between 2003 and 2016, the Corpus Christi Sharks from the af2 from 2007 to 2009 and the Corpus Christi Rage, who folded halfway through their lone season in the NAL in 2017.
The Albany Firebirds are a professional arena football team and are an inaugural team in Arena Football One. They started as an inaugural member of the ill-fated third iteration of the Arena Football League. The team is based in Albany, New York. Home games are played at the MVP Arena. This is the third time the Firebirds name has been used, first from 1990 to 2004 with the original Albany and Indiana Firebirds from the original AFL, and the Albany Firebirds of the af2 in 2009.
The Oregon Lightning are a professional indoor football team based in Redmond, Oregon. They were founded in 2020 and began playing football as members of the American West Football Conference in 2021, known then as the Oregon High Desert Storm. It is the first team to play in Central Oregon. They are owned by Chuck Jones, former head coach of the Arena Football League's Oregon Blackbears, along with Sara Gumm and Jay Jenkins. They play their home games at the First Interstate Bank Center at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds in Redmond and are now members of Arena Football One.
The Arizona Bandits are a future professional indoor football team based in Tempe, Arizona. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL), but months after that league's collapse, they have joined the new Arena Football One that will begin play in 2025.
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional indoor American football league founded in 2023 with their first, and only, season beginning in 2024. The recent AFL took 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.
Arena Football One is a future professional arena football league based in Nashville, Tennessee, set to play in 2025. The league was founded by the eight teams who had survived the 2024 Arena Football League season. The eight founding teams added multiple expansion teams in advance of the 2025 AF1 Season.
The Stockton Crusaders are a future professional indoor football team based in Stockton, California. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the new Arena Football One, but will begin play in 2026.
The Wilkes-Barre AF1 team are a future professional arena football team based in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. They were founded in 2024 as an expansion team in Arena Football One and are owned by local businessman Matt Rowland. They will play their home games at the Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township, Pennsylvania beginning in the 2025 season.
