On April 30, 2021, Keith Russ and Tel Koan, owners of fellow Champions Indoor Football (CIF) teams the Wyoming Mustangs and Billings Outlaws, announced launch of another CIF team to be based in Rapid City with their name, logo, and color scheme.[1] The Marshals name was chosen to reflect the Rapid City area's passion for the Old West, as well as to provide a contrast to their CIF league-mates the Billings Outlaws and Sioux City Bandits.[2]
On October 3, 2023, the Marshals announced their move to the revived Arena Football League and would play there starting in the 2024 season.[3] The Marshals were one of several teams from CIF that merged with the AFL, with owner Wes Johnson conceding that he saw major warning signs with AFL Commissioner Lee Hutton making unattainable promises but had hoped that Hutton would deliver on half of what he promised.[4]
On May 2, 2024, the Marshals indicated that the Arena Football League had not compensated the Marshals for promised expense reimbursements, as a condition of the Marshals and other CIF teams joining the league. Unlike the Iowa Rampage, which folded due to that lack of compensation, the Marshals remained committed to playing the season as long as possible in hopes of a resolution.[5] The team offered new contracts rolling salaries back to CIF levels and granted six players their release when they declined in an effort to keep the team operational.[4]
Immediately prior to the team's May 11 home game against the Billings Outlaws, the Marshals players went on strike, refusing to take the field for the game as fans and the Outlaws had already arrived for the game. Outlaws owner Steve Titus, while expressing solidarity with the Marshals' cause against the league central office, expressed outrage at the strike having happened so suddenly.[6][7] The following week, the Marshals cancelled their newly-scheduled home game with the Southwest Kansas Storm on May 18th; after losing to the previously winless Washington Wolfpack on May 23, the Marshals folded the next day, stating that the labor issues the team faced were "insurmountable" despite the ownership's best efforts to keep the team together.[8][9]
The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, AF2, however, that changed briefly with their expansion into AFL markets such as Atlanta, Denver, and Los Angeles, and AF2 markets such as Fort Myers and Houston. Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, Buffalo Bills running back Fred Jackson, New Orleans Saints quarterback John Fourcade and Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl running back Bam Morris, all played in the NIFL. The league folded in 2008.
The New Orleans VooDoo were a professional arena football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They were members of the Arena Football League from 2004 to 2015.
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 Omaha Beef are a professional indoor football team based in Omaha, Nebraska. The Beef plays their home games at Liberty First Credit Union Arena in nearby Ralston. The Beef competes in the National Arena League (NAL). The Beef has been a member of several leagues, including being a charter member of Champions Indoor Football (CIF).
The Rapid City Flying Aces were a professional indoor American football team in Rapid City, South Dakota. Like their predecessors, the Black Hills Red Dogs, they played their home games at the Don Barnett Arena in Rapid City. As of April 2007, the Flying Aces did not belong to any football league. The team was affiliated with the original Indoor Football League in 2000; with the National Indoor Football League from 2001 to 2004 and in 2006; and with United Indoor Football in 2005. The team considered rejoining United Indoor Football in 2008.
The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams among indoor football leagues. As of the 2024 season, the league consists of 16 teams in two conferences with each team playing 16 games over 19 weeks.
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 Gillette Mustangs was a professional indoor football team based in Gillette, Wyoming, with home games at Wyoming Center at the CAM-PLEX. The team was a member of Champions Indoor Football.
The West Texas Desert Hawks were a professional indoor football team and an inaugural member of the relaunched Arena Football League. The Desert Hawks were based in Odessa, Texas, with home games at the Ector County Coliseum. The team played their first several seasons as the West Texas Warbirds.
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 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 Washington Wolfpack are a professional indoor football team based in Everett in the U.S. state of Washington. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL), beginning play in 2024. They are now members of Arena Football One.
The Oregon Blackbears were a professional indoor football team based in Salem, Oregon. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL), beginning play in 2024. They play at the Oregon State Fairgrounds Pavilion in Salem. The Blackbears have been in a state of uncertainty since a league reorganization early in the 2024 season, having twice been removed from, then restored to the league, as original owner and original league president Travelle Gaines was ousted from the league midseason and never sold the team to an ownership group that had agreed to take over the team's operations and allow it to continue.
The 2024 Arena Football League season is 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 Minnesota Myth were a professional indoor football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Myth played their home games at the Target Center. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL), playing its lone season in 2024.
The Iowa Rampage were a professional arena football team based in Council Bluffs, Iowa. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL).
ArenaBowl XXXIII was the 33rd edition of the ArenaBowl, the championship game for the 2024 Arena Football League season. It took place at the American Dream Center, an ice rink located inside American Dream Meadowlands, a shopping mall and entertainment complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 19, 2024. It is the first since the original league's bankruptcy in 2019 and the reestablishment of the AFL in 2024. The game featured the Albany Firebirds facing off against the Billings Outlaws who had faced each other earlier in the season in Billings winning 36-35. Billings won the Arenabowl 46-41 winning their 1st championship as a franchise and was the forth time an Arena Football Team based in Billings won a championship as a previous version of the team won the 2006 National Indoor Football League in 2006 and won the IFL National Championship in 2009 and 2010. This was the first time an Arena Football team based in Albany lost an Arena Football championship, with them having won 1 Arenabowl in the first AFL, 1 arenabowl in the second AFL, and back to back championships in the National Arena League.
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional indoor American football league founded in 2023 with their first 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.
The Louisiana VooDoo were a professional arena football team based in Lafayette, Louisiana. They were members of the revived Arena Football League whose inaugural season in 2024 was cut short due to financial issues with the league under the league's previous administration and were left out of the remaining season as a result. This VooDoo franchise is named after, but otherwise unrelated to, the New Orleans VooDoo of the original AFL.
Arena Football One is a future professional indoor 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, effectively serving as a reorganization of the 2024 revival of the Arena Football League.
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