The 2024 season was overshadowed by numerous problems and controversies, including the discontinuation of the Iowa Rampage franchise, numerous cancellations of Louisiana VooDoo games, and the abrupt departure of the Philadelphia Soul players and staff, resulting in questions about the future of the league, multiple teams that were owned by the league along with the Iowa Rampage folded or deactivated with plans to play in the 2025 season with league-owned teams often being reported to have not received payments for their games. The original commissioner of the league Lee Hutton was also removed following week 3 and was replaced with Nashville Kats owner Jeff Fisher as interim commissioner in a unanimous vote among team owners.
Background
A year after its second shutdown, the Arena Football League trademarks and logo were bought out by Darren Arbet in 2020. Arbet is a former San Jose SaberCats head coach and was the head coach of the Indoor Football League's Bay Area Panthers. The trademark remained inactive until 2022, when a new website was set up.[1] The website was first noticed on December 12, 2022.[2] Two days later, a tweet from the league account was posted under a post from Tim Capper about the death of John Gregory (head coach of the Iowa Barnstormers), reading "Our thoughts and prayers have gone out to John's family." This tweet was later deleted, along with all the other tweets the Arena Football League Twitter account had up to that point. The new management assumed control of the Instagram account on around December 27 and deleted all posts on around January 6, and then took control of the Facebook account on January 16. On January 16, 2023, after a month of the first tweet, the Twitter account posted a picture of the league’s 2003-18 logo, with the caption #NewProfilePic.[3]
On February 1, 2023, the Arena Football League confirmed the rumors and announced its plans to return in 2024, over a year after the rights to the league were purchased by an investment group called F1 Sports & Entertainment.[4] 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. The league returned its logo to the one used from 2003 to 2018. The new iteration of the league will feature "streaming, betting, technology, (and) virtual reality" elements, per Rossi.
In a February 2023 interview with ArenaFan.com, the commissioner revealed that there had been discussions with potential ownership groups in New Orleans to relaunch the New Orleans VooDoo.[5] In an April interview, he revealed that they were looking to put teams in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Jacksonville, while they also received offers to put a team in Mexico City.[6]
Teams
On July 18, 2023, TMZ Sports initially reported 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. [7] The league made the statement official on their Twitter page. Managers of Cincinnati's main indoor arena, the Heritage Bank Center, refuted the report, stating they had rejected the AFL's advances,[8] while the two college/university-owned arenas in the city both said they had not been approached and also would not be open to hosting the league.[9] Representatives with Lake Charles stated that their conversations with the league were still in preliminary phases (having advanced only to the point of informing the league what days their arena was available), and that although they were open to hosting the league, "it’s closer to not being true than being true at this time."[10] The city of Salem was also unaware of the AFL having discussions for placing a team in the city, but were open to hearing more about their plans.[11] In Everett, the manager of the city's only major arena, Angel of the Winds Arena, stated that he was only contacted by a potential ownership group several days after the announcement of teams. When reached for comment, Hutton stated he would only reveal information "on our time."[12] The league eventually secured an agreement with Angel of the Winds Arena in late September; the owners of the Everett franchise, led by the owner of the local semi-pro Everett Royals, noted that he had acquired the franchise after contacting the league after the announcement of cities in hopes of getting Royals players onto the squad, only to find that the league had not yet lined up an owner for the city's team at the time.[13]
On the same day as the TMZ report, the Orlando Predators and West Texas Warbirds (Odessa), who were both playing in the National Arena League, stated they were joining the new AFL, although the Warbirds later removed their Facebook post within the first week.[14][15] (The Warbirds later announced that they would be instead branding as the "Desert Hawks" for the 2024 season.[16]) In a statement to Philadelphia media, Hutton stated that the Philadelphia Soul was also expected to be revived, with Soul co-owner Ron Jaworski returning, if not as an owner then as a consultant.[17] Jaworski denied Hutton's claims.[18]
Among cities considered but ultimately not included, Atlantic City's financial terms were considered unrealistic,[17]Bossier City, Louisiana had too many schedule conflicts for 2024 but expressed interest in 2025,[19] while the Albany Empire—returning champions from the last AFL season in 2019—expressed interest in returning, but was initially unable to accept because of the excessive cost of worker's compensation in the state.[20] (The worker's compensation issue was later resolved, and the league announced an Albany Firebirds franchise would join in 2024.) Neither Buffalo, nor Rochester, New York were considered, despite some interest from Bob Bartosiewicz, who previously owned the Rochester Raiders.[21]
In late 2023, three supposed expansion teams were announced as the "California Grizzlies", "Minnesota Myth", and "St. Louis Rampage". The teams were announced on their respective Instagram and X accounts.[22][23] However, league commissioner Hutton released a statement regarding the addition of these new team names. He stated on his X account, "Any information that concerns the Arena Football League must be endorsed by me or our CEO otherwise it is not reliable. AFL team name announcements will be coming soon for all locations. It is an exciting time as we make our mark to be bigger and better."[24] The Rampage later admitted to being a hoax supported by fans of the St. Louis Battlehawks.[25]Defector Media traced the California Grizzlies to Tim Carbajal, who operates a semi-pro spring football team in the area. Carbajal confirmed the Grizzlies' existence—and confirmed that he, under an alias, had contacted Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield inquiring about using the facility—but otherwise stated he was not at liberty to discuss further details due to Hutton's gag order.[26] The Myth were later revealed as Hutton's own franchise, nominally owned by his wife Diana,[27] who is partner in the Hutton law firm with him.[28] Observers in Boise noticed that the owner of Idaho Central Arena had renewed the domain name for the Boise Burn, a former af2 franchise, weeks before the announcement, and that the AFL was not bringing on the Idaho Horsemen, who play in nearby Nampa.[29] The proposed Tallahassee team was to be the Capital City Cyclones, as announced by a business associate of Cyclones owner Alton Walker,[30] but the Cyclones instead reverted to its previous name as the Tampa Tornadoes and joined the International Football Alliance.[31]
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.[32] On August 31, the West Texas Desert Hawks (formerly the Warbirds) were the second team confirmed.[33] 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.[34] 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.[35]
On October 2, 2023, it was announced that the Albany Firebirds name will be brought back and to play in the AFL for 2024. On October 6, 2023, it was officially announced that the Orlando Predators, Billings Outlaws, Southwest Kansas Storm, Salina Liberty, Wichita Regulators, and an Everett AFL team were announced. On October 25, 2023, the Oregon Blackbears were officially announced as the league's newest team. The league announced revivals of the Nashville Kats, Philadelphia Soul and Chicago Rush on November 1.
On November 16, 2023, in the AFL relaunch event, Hutton revealed the 16 teams who will play in the 2024 season, while he mentioned the league might expand in the future to 24 teams. 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 to disturb the league's progress, which caused a move to a different location.[36]
On May 2, 2024, the Iowa Rampage announced it had folded after one game, citing multiple broken promises from league management to cover increased expenses.[37] The Georgia Force abruptly folded a few days later[38] and on May 9, the Soul suspended operations for the remainder of the 2024 season with hopes of returning in 2025.[39] Washington and Rapid City both renegotiated their player contracts to compensate for money the league promised but never paid.[40][41] After cancelling a May 9 home game, the Minnesota Myth folded on May 13, with owner Diana Hutton accusing the league of attempting to sabotage the team in order to force her husband to resign, which he refused to do.[42] In a reported emergency meeting of the remaining teams on May 14, the league's owners, in cooperation with the holding company that holds the AFL's intellectual properties, voted to appoint Nashville Kats president Jeff Fisher as interim commissioner to salvage the remainder of the season.[43][44]
In a press release announcing Fisher's hiring, the Outlaws indicated that the league would contract to 10 teams for the remainder of the season: Washington, Billings, Rapid City, Southwest Kansas, Salina, West Texas, Wichita, Albany, Nashville, and Orlando, with the league remaining open to continue scheduling games with Oregon and "other teams not mentioned."[45] The league subsequently scheduled a game for Oregon[46] when Rapid City pulled out of its week 4 contest.[47] The Blackbears announced an agreement to continue in the league for the rest of the 2024 season on May 17.[48]
Locations of teams after the Jeff Fisher restructuring of the 2024 AFL season: East West
Players
Players reported to training camp April 4, 2024. Each team carried 35-men rosters into training camp, while final roster cuts will take place on April 20, 2024, with regular season rosters set at 25 players.[51]
On January 16, 2024, the AFL 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".[52]
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.[53]
†- Team folded, deactivated, or were removed from the league during season
Season schedule
Regular season
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Numerous schedule changes throughout the season. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2024)
1 Though billed as the Soul, the team that played the VooDoo on April 27 was in fact the Dallas Falcons of the American Arena League (AAL2), as Soul head coach Patrick Pimmel and almost the entire Soul roster abruptly resigned prior to leaving for Louisiana.[55]
Week 2
Because of multiple problems before this week, some schedule changes took place, including the awards of bye weeks to the Louisiana VooDoo and the Rapid City Marshals.[56] The match this week between the Salina Liberty and the Wichita Regulators was postponed without an announced replacement date due to severe weather in the area.
The Firebirds-Myth contest was originally scheduled for May 9 at Target Center but was moved to May 13 at MVP Arena due to a Minnesota Timberwolves playoff contest and was ultimately cancelled when the Myth could "not make the trip."
The Oregon Blackbears had canceled their Week 3 matchup against Salina when it appeared they would have been a short-notice replacement for the West Texas Desert Hawks due to a court injunction against the latter, but the injunction was lifted and the Desert Hawks were allowed to play. Salina instead filled the place of the Philadelphia Soul in their scheduled game against Nashville.
The Marshals abruptly called a flash strike against the league office immediately prior to the start of their home game against the Outlaws, refusing to play and forcing their arena to issue reruns to ticket holders who had already arrived to see the contest.[58][59]
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Records, milestones, and notable statistics
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.[60]
Attendance
Announced attendance figures for each home game. In the weekly columns, dashes (—) indicate away games, while bold font indicates the highest attendance of each team. N/A in italics means a game's attendance is not publicly known, while PPD means a game was postponed, while CAN means that a game scheduled to play was canceled.
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League finances
In a February 2023 interview with ArenaFan.com, Hutton mentioned that the league would have a salary cap of $700,000, but the league will allow additional salary spending for "franchise players".[6] While most teams were responsible to pay the full amount, teams that were brought in through the Champions Indoor Football merger were promised a 75% subsidy from the league to cover the increased salaries ($750 per player, per week), a subsidy that was never delivered.[62]
Business partnerships
On July 18, 2023 the AFL announced a partnership with HUMBL, as the "Official Technology Platform of the AFL", through the 2028 season.[63] On February 28, 2024 the league signed "Official Partnership" deal with BSN Sports for official uniform and equipment.[64]
Media
On the AFL relaunch event Hutton declared that the league’s games "will be broadcast, streamed and will also be available in VR".[36] In March the NFL announced that NFL Network will carry 30 games of the 2024 AFL season (games will also be streamed on NFL+).[65] No games have yet aired on the network, which thus far has removed all future schedulings of AFL contests as of week 2.[66] with a spokesman for the Albany Firebirds stating that the network had been "scared off by some of the smaller teams."[67] Oregon Blackbears president Patrick Johnson, who had opposed the television deal and expressed relief that it had been cancelled, described the agreement as predatory, in that NFL Network would keep a $430,000 annual brokered programming fee and would not allow the league to sell any advertising during the games, instead collecting all the advertising revenue for themselves on top of the fee. NFL Network stated that the production company that would have produced the games never received any payment for them, and thus the network would not be carrying any games for the 2024 season.[68]
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.[69] After NFL Network cancelled the agreement with the league, most of the planned games that were schedule to be broadcast on the network were moved to VYRE streaming services, while other games were streamed via Arenafootball.live and YouTube.
In January, 2024 the league launched an official podcast for the 2024 season available on YouTube,[70] Spotify,[71] and other platforms.
Controversy
The return of the AFL was marked with multiple controversies throughout the first few weeks, with unpaid bills, players getting kicked out of hotels, replacement teams and players refusing to come out of the home locker room until they were paid.[72][73] Those issues, steaming from misconduct by the league commissioner Lee Hutton III, caused five teams to suspend operations and cancelling the broadcast agreement with the NFL Network.[74][75][76][77]
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.[78][79] 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.[80][81] This is despite a league bylaw that was believed to have granted Hutton total immunity from ouster by league owners;[41] 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.[82]
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in North America after the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the National Football League (NFL) until the AFL closed in 2019.
The Indiana Firebirds were a team in the Arena Football League. The team was based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Home games were played at the Conseco Fieldhouse, also the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association.
The Philadelphia Soul can refer to one of two successive professional arena football teams in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They both have competed in the Arena Football League (AFL). The Soul made Six ArenaBowl appearances, winning their first appearance and losing their next two appearances. The Soul won in their fourth appearance, against the Rattlers in 2016, winning 56–42. They also won in their fifth appearance in 2017 against the Tampa Bay Storm, winning 44–40 before losing in their sixth appearance in 2019 to the Albany Empire 45-27.
The Nashville Kats is the name of three separate franchises in the Arena Football League all located in Nashville, Tennessee. The original incarnation of the Kats launched in 1997 and were coached by Pat Sperduto, who coached that team to two ArenaBowl appearances prior to their move to Atlanta in 2002, then becoming the original Georgia Force. The second incarnation of the Kats joined the league as an expansion team in 2005, also coached by Sperduto, lasted two seasons before folding in 2007. The third incarnation of the team is set to play in 2024 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. The first two teams played at what is now the Bridgestone Arena.
The Louisiana VooDoo were a professional arena football team based in Lafayette, Louisiana. They are members of the Arena Football League and play only one of their scheduled home games at Blackham Coliseum in Lafayette starting in 2024 before folding for good.
Arena football is a variety of eight-man indoor gridiron football. The game is played indoors 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, 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.
Jeffrey Michael Fisher is an American football coach and former cornerback and return specialist. He served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 22 seasons, primarily with the Houston / Tennessee Oilers / Titans franchise. Fisher coached the Oilers / Titans from 1994 to 2010 and the St. Louis / Los Angeles Rams from 2012 to 2016. He is currently the interim commissioner of the Arena Football League.
The Portland Steel were a professional arena football team based in Portland, Oregon and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team started as the Portland Thunder, joining the AFL in 2014 as an expansion team along with the Los Angeles Kiss. The team played their home games at the Moda Center. They were known as the Thunder until the franchise went under league ownership in 2016 and became the Steel.
The Las Vegas Outlaws were a professional Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Las Vegas, Nevada. They played in the AFL's National Conference West Division in 2015. The franchise was recently owned by Vince Neil, lead singer for Mötley Crüe and former minority owner of the Jacksonville Sharks. On September 11, 2014, it was announced that Aaron Garcia was to be the team's first head coach.
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 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 Albany Empire was 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 Rapid City Marshals are a professional indoor football team based in Rapid City, South Dakota. The Marshals play their home games at the Summit Arena at The Monument. They began as an expansion team in Champions Indoor Football in 2022 and played in that league until 2023. They became members of the revived Arena Football League and began play in 2024.
The Albany Firebirds are a professional arena football team as an inaugural team in the 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 Arena Football League, 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.
The Oregon Blackbears are 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 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), beginning play in 2024. They have suspended operations for the rest of the 2024 season, then later folded.
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).
The Arizona Bandits are a future professional indoor football team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL), but will begin play in 2025.
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, 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.
↑ International Football Alliance (section: Our Teams). "Tampa Tornadoes: Located in Tampa Bay, led by Alton Walker and investment group. Multiple years of professional guidance in the arena and outdoors." Retrieved May 17, 2024.
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