Arena Football League
|
Current Arena Football League logo |
The
Arena Football League (
AFL) was founded in
1987 as an
American football indoor league. The AFL's attendance has increased dramatically over the last few years, rising to over 12,400 people per game in
2005. The AFL also maintains a
minor league called
arenafootball2.
 |
Arena Football League logo |
"Playtest Game"
Eventual
Arena Football League (
AFL) founder
Jim Foster, a former
National Football League and
United States Football League executive, originally had a contract in hand in
1983 to play an exhibition game on the
NBC television network, two decades before the first regular season games appeared on that network. He abandoned the plan, though, when the
USFL was formed and did not return to his newly created sport until
1986. The first AFL game was played, called a "
playtest game", in
Rockford, Illinois at the
MetroCentre between the
Rockford Metros and the
Chicago Politicians.These teams were the first ever arena football teams.
The AFL Begins
The AFL was founded in
1987 as an
American football indoor league. The league's inaugural season featured four teams: the
Chicago Bruisers,
Denver Dynamite,
Pittsburgh Gladiators, and
Washington Commandos.
In
1990, Foster was awarded a
patent for arena football and the equipment unique to it--the only known instance of a game being patented anywhere in the world. This means that other indoor football leagues must play under significantly different rules.
Television
Beginning with the
2003 season, the AFL made a deal with NBC to televise league games, which was renewed for another two years in
2005. In conjunction with this, the league moved the beginning of the season from May to February (the week after the NFL's
Super Bowl) and scheduled most of its games on Sunday instead of Friday or Saturday as it had in the past. In 2006, due to the
XX Winter Olympic Games, the
Stanley Cup playoffs and the
Daytona 500, NBC scaled back from weekly coverage to scattered coverage during the regular season, but is committed to a full playoff schedule ending with the 20th
ArenaBowl. On June 30, 2006 the AFL and NBC could not reach a contract extension and is actively seeking a new national brodcast partner.
The AFL also has a regional-cable deal with
FSN, where FSN regional affiliates in AFL markets carry local team games. In February 2006, the AFL added a national cable deal with
OLN for eleven regular-season games and one playoff game.
Expanding the season
The practice of playing one or two preseason exhibition games by each team prior to the start of the regular season was discontinued when the NBC contract was initiated, and the regular season was extended from 14 games, the length that it had been since
1996, to 16.
Literature
In 2001, Jeff Foley published
War on the Floor: an average guy plays in the Arena Football League and lives to write about it. The book details a journalist's two preseasons (1999 and 2000) as an offensive specialist/writer with the now-defunct
Albany Firebirds. The 5-foot-6 (170 cm), self-described "unathletic writer" played in three preseason games and had one catch for -2 yards.
In
2006, the season began on
January 27, during the week between the NFL's Conference Championship games and the Super Bowl.
The league conducted an expansion
draft in September of 2005 in order to stock the
Utah Blaze. Because of
Hurricane Katrina, the
New Orleans VooDoo announced that they would suspend operations for 2006. Players under contract to the VooDoo were transferred to the
Kansas City Brigade franchise. The 2007 season could see the return of arena football to
New Orleans.
In an effort to further raise the league's profile, the ArenaBowl championship game will be conducted in
Las Vegas for at least two years. This started with
ArenaBowl XIX on
June 12,
2005 and will possibly end with
ArenaBowl XX on
June 11,
2006. A third ArenaBowl (ArenaBowl XXI) could be played in
Las Vegas, but has not been made official by the league.
EA Sports has released a
video game based on the AFL, titled
Arena Football, on
February 7,
2006, for
PlayStation 2 and
Xbox. Another
video game created about Arena football was
Kurt Warner's Arena Football Unleashed. This game was treated with scorn, and many saw it as a rip-off of
NFL Blitz, another game being
published at the time.
There was some speculation over whether NBC will renew its revenue-sharing TV contract with the league after the 2006 season, following NBC's cutback on regular-season coverage. Also, NBC will air the NFL again, starting in the 2006-2007 season.
NBC and the Arena Football League officially severed ties on
June 30,
2006, having failed to reach a new broadcast deal. The AFL plans to seek a new broadcast partner. [
1]
*
C. David Baker - 1996-Current
*
Jim Drucker - 1994-1996
*
Joe O'Hara - 1992-1994
*
Jim Foster - 1987-1992
*The league also has contracts with
Nike,
Upper Deck and
Foot Locker (through their Champs Sports division).
Current as of 2006-05-14 at 1:31 AM EDT*
x = Clinched Playoff Berth
*
y = Clinched Division
*
z = Clinched Conference's Best Record
*
* = Clinched League's Best Record
*
C =
ArenaBowl XX Champion
NOTE: The
New Orleans VooDoo are inactive for the 2006 season due to
Hurricane Katrina.
The following cities have been speculated to be possible locations for future franchises, with varying degrees of likelihood.
*
Boston, Massachusetts*
Cleveland, Ohio*
Detroit, Michigan*
East Rutherford, New Jersey*
Houston, Texas*
Miami, Florida*
Milwaukee, Wisconsin*
Minneapolis, Minnesota*
Oakland, California*
Ottawa, Ontario*
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania*
Portland, Oregon*
Sacramento, California*
San Antonio, Texas*
San Francisco, California*
Seattle, Washington*
St. Louis, Missouri*
St. Paul, Minnesota*
Sunrise, Florida*
Tokyo, Japan*
Toronto, Ontario*
Washington, DC*
Arena football for league rules
*
ArenaBowl for information on the AFL's championship game
*
Defunct Arena Football League teams*
List of leagues of American football*
Sports league attendances*
AFL Official Website
