The Arena Football League (AFL) can refer to one of three successive professional indoor American football leagues in the United States. The first of these was founded in 1986, and played its first official games in the 1987 season, running for 22 consecutive seasons until going bankrupt following the 2008 season. The second league, consisting largely of teams from the first AFL and arenafootball2, purchased the first league's assets out of bankruptcy and resumed play in 2010 as a continuation of the first AFL; this second AFL ran for ten further seasons, before again going bankrupt following the 2019 season. A third AFL, which is not directly connected to the previous two iterations of the league but claiming their histories and trademarks, intends to launch in 2024.
CFG Bank Arena is a multipurpose arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This venue is located about one block away from the Baltimore Convention Center on the corner of Baltimore Street and Hopkins Place in downtown Baltimore. With a seating capacity of 14,000 for concerts, CFG Bank Arena is owned by the City of Baltimore and managed by the Oak View Group, a global sports and entertainment company.
Capital One Arena is an indoor arena in Washington, D.C. Located in the Chinatown section of the larger Penn Quarter neighborhood, the arena sits atop the Gallery Place rapid transit station of the Washington Metro. The arena was opened on December 2, 1997 as MCI Center but renamed to Verizon Center in 2006 when MCI was acquired by Verizon Communications and changed again to its current name in 2017.
The Washington Commandos were an arena football team based in Fairfax, Virginia. The Commandos were founded in 1987 and were an inaugural member of the Arena Football League (AFL), and were based in Landover, Maryland. After not playing during the 1988 season, the team returned for the 1989 season as the Maryland Commandos. Following the 1989 season, the Commandos moved to Fairfax, Virginia, where they once again became known as the Washington Commandos. The team never achieved much success at either of its locations, winning four games in three seasons, including a winless 1989 season.
Khreem Smith is a former gridiron football offensive lineman. He was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2004. He played college football at Oklahoma State.
Washington, D.C., has major league sports teams, popular college sports teams, and a variety of other team and individual sports. The Washington metropolitan area is also home to several major sports venues including Capital One Arena, RFK Stadium, Commanders Field, Audi Field, and Nationals Park.
Theodore John Leonsis is an American businessman. He is a former senior executive with America Online (AOL), and the founder, chairman, and CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals, Washington Mystics, and Monumental Sports Network.
Reggie Gray is a former American football wide receiver and kickoff returner.
Monumental Sports Network, formerly NBC Sports Washington, is an American regional sports network owned by Ted Leonsis through Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events throughout the Mid-Atlantic, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., as well as sports news and entertainment programming.
CBS Arena Football is a TV program from CBS Sports that broadcast Arena Football League games from 2013 to 2018. As part of a two-year agreement, the CBS Sports Network aired nineteen regular season games and two playoff games. When CBS aired ArenaBowl XXVI, it marked the first time since 2008 that the league's finale aired on network television.
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE) is an American sports and venue management company founded by Ted Leonsis in June 2010. Monumental owns and operates the NHL team Washington Capitals, the NBA team Washington Wizards, the WNBA team Washington Mystics, and the NBA G League team Capital City Go-Go. Other properties owned include Monumental Sports Network, Capital One Arena, EagleBank Arena, and the defunct Arena Football League (AFL) teams Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade. Monumental is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and was valued at $6.16 billion in 2024.
The Washington Valor were a professional arena football team based in Washington, D.C. that played in the Arena Football League (AFL) from 2017 to 2019. The team's home arena was the Capital One Arena. The Valor were owned by Ted Leonsis through Monumental Sports & Entertainment.
The 2017 Arena Football League season was the 30th season in the history of the Arena Football League (AFL). Prior to the start of the season, the league contracted to five teams. Due to this, for the first time since 1991, the league was not divided into conferences or divisions. The 14-game regular season began on April 7, 2017, when the two new teams, the Baltimore Brigade and the Washington Valor, faced off in the Verizon Center, and ended on August 5, 2017, when the Tampa Bay Storm lost against the Philadelphia Soul.
The Albany Empire was a professional arena football team based in Albany, New York, that began play in the Arena Football League (AFL) in 2018. Home games were played at MVP Arena located in downtown Albany.
The 2018 Arena Football League season was the 31st season in the history of the Arena Football League (AFL). Prior to the start of the season, the league contracted from five to four teams with one team folding, one going on hiatus, and one added expansion team. The 12-game regular season began on April 13 and ended on July 7.
ArenaBowl XXXI was the championship game of the 2018 Arena Football League season. The game was broadcast on CBS Sports Network, AFLNow and Twitter. It featured the fourth-seeded Washington Valor and the second-seeded Baltimore Brigade at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore. It was the first ArenaBowl championship for both teams as they were expansion teams in the previous season. Both teams were owned by Ted Leonsis, giving him his second league championship in six weeks following his Washington Capitals team's victory in the NHL's 2018 Stanley Cup Finals. The title sponsor for the game was Bud Light.
The 2018 Washington Valor season was the second season for the franchise in the Arena Football League. The Valor play at the Capital One Arena. The team finished fourth at the end of the regular season. After losing the first game of their semifinal series against the Albany Empire, the Valor won the second game and advanced to ArenaBowl XXXI by virtue of aggregate score. The Valor would go on to win the Arena Bowl by defeating the Baltimore Brigade 69–55.
Benjamin McDowell is an American football coach and former player who was most recently the head coach of the Washington Valor of the Arena Football League (AFL).
Jim Foster, a promotions manager with the National Football League (NFL), conceived the idea of indoor football while watching an indoor association football match at Madison Square Garden in 1981. While at the game, he wrote his idea on a 9x12 envelope from his briefcase with sketches of the field and notes on gameplay. He presented the idea to a few friends at the NFL offices, where he received praise and encouragement for his concept. After solidifying the rules and business plan, supplemented with sketches by a professional artist, Foster presented his idea to various television networks; he reached an agreement with NBC for a "test game".
