Arena Football League
Arena Football League
Sport	Arena football
Founded	1987
No. of teams	17
Country(ies)	United States
Most recent champion(s)	San Jose SaberCats
Official website	Arena Football

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 an average of 12,415 people per game in 2007.[1] The AFL also maintains a minor league called af2.

Formation

"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. The teams played a six-game season, culminating in Arena Bowl I, where Denver defeated Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh.

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; the patent, however, is scheduled to expire in September 2007.

The Rules

• The Field: An indoor padded surface 85 feet wide and 50 yards long with eight-yard endzones. Goal posts are nine-feet wide with a crossbar height of 15 feet (NFL goalposts are 18 1/2 wide with the crossbar at 10 feet). The goalside rebound nets are 30 feet wide by 32 feet high. The bottom of the nets are eight feet above the ground. Sideline barriers are 48 inches high and made of high density foam rubber.
• The Equipment: The official football is the same size and weight as the National Football League ball. Each ball is manufactured by Spalding Sporting Goods.
• The Players and Formations: Eight players on the field; 20-man active roster; four-man inactive roster.
• Substitution:
• play both sides of the ball.
• 2007 season and future: The AFL now allows free substitution, the new rule greatly limits the ironman concept of the game, but some players play both ways by either choice, or to step in due to injury.
• Formation: Four (4) offensive players must line up on the line of scrimmage. Three (3) defensive players must be down linemen (in a three of four-point stance). Only the "Mac Linebacker" may blitz on either side of the center. Alignment is two (2) or more yards off the line of scrimmage. No stunting or twisting. Offensive motion in the backfield: One receiver may go in a forward motion before the snap.
• Timing: Four 15 minute quarters with a 15-minute halftime. The clock stops for out-of-bounds plays or incomplete passes only in the last minute of each half or when the referee deems it necessary for penalties, injuries or timeouts. Each team is allowed three (3) time-outs per half.
• Movement of the Ball and Scoring: Four (4) downs are allowed to advance the ball ten (10) yards for a first down, or to score. Six (6) points for a touchdown. One (1) point for a conversion by place kick after a touchdown, two (2) points for a conversion by drop kick and two (2) points for successful run or pass after a touchdown. Three (3) points for a field goal by placement or four (4) points for a field goal by drop kick. Two (2) points for a safety.
• The Kicking: Kickoffs are from the goal line. Kickers may use a one-inch tee. Punting is illegal. On fourth down, a team may go for a first down, touchdown or field goal. The receiving team may field any kickoff or missed field goal that rebounds off the net. Any kickoff untouched which is out of bounds will be placed at the 20-yard line or the place where it went out of bounds, whichever is more advantageous to the receiving team. If a kickoff goes beyond the end zone and stays in bounds (such as kicking it into the field goal "slack net" or if the ball goes under the net), the ball will come out to the 5-yard line. The same is true if a missed field goal attempt goes beyond the end zone and under the net.
• Passing: Passing rules in Arena Football are the same as outdoor NCAA Football in which receivers must have one foot inbounds. A unique exception involves the rebound nets. A forward pass that rebounds off of the endzone net is a live ball and is in play until it touches the playing surface.
• Overtime Rules: Overtime periods are 15 minutes during the regular season and the playoffs. Each team gets one possession to score. If, after each team has had one possession and one team is ahead, that team wins. If the teams are tied after each has had a possession, the next team to score wins.

Early Years

From its inception, the AFL operated in a state of semi-obscurity; many Americans had heard the term "arena football" but knew little to nothing about the league itself.

From the 1987 season until the late 1990s, the most exposure the league would receive was on ESPN, which would air tape-delayed games, often well after midnight. The league would receive its first taste of wide exposure in 1998, when Arena Bowl XII was televised nationally as part of ABC's Wide World of Sports.

One of the league's early success stories was the Detroit Drive. A primary team for some of the AFL's most highly regarded players, including George LaFrance, Gary and Alvin Rettig, as well as being a second career chance for quarterback Art Schlichter, the Drive regularly played before sold out crowds at Joe Louis Arena, and went to the ArenaBowl every year of their existence (1988-1993). However, the AFL's first dynasty came to an end when their owner, Mike Ilitch (who also owned Little Caesar's Pizza) bought the Detroit Tigers, and sold the team.

Although the Drive left the league, the AFL still has a number of teams today which it considers "dynasties", including the Tampa Bay Storm (the only team that has existed in some form for all twenty seasons), their archrival the Orlando Predators, the San Jose Sabercats of the present decade, and their rivals the Arizona Rattlers. The Albany/Indiana Firebirds, though they only won one championship, could also be considered a dynasty, based on the fact that they achieved the rare feat of remaining in one city for ten years.

In 1993 the league staged its first, and only to date, All-Star game in Des Moines, Iowa, the future home of the Iowa Barnstormers, as a fundraiser for flood victims in the area. The National Conference defeated the American Conference 64-40 in front of a crowd of 7,189.

While the aforementioned teams have enjoyed success, many teams in the history of the league have enjoyed little to no success. There are also a number of franchises which existed in the form of a number of unrelated teams under numerous management groups until they folded (an example is the New York CityHawks whose owners transferred the team from New York to Hartford to become the New England Sea Wolves after two seasons, then after another two seasons were sold and became the Toronto Phantoms, who lasted another two seasons until folding). There are a number of reasons why these teams failed, including lack of financial support from owners, lack of media exposure, to the city's plain disinterest in the team. Today, this isn't seen as much of a problem, as team owners typically own other sports franchises as well, receive adequate media coverage from their home cities, and most teams have a sizeable fan base.

The New Millennium

The year 2000 brought a heightened interest in the AFL. Then-St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner, who was MVP of Super Bowl XXXIV, was first noticed because he played quarterback for the AFL's Iowa Barnstormers. While many sports commentators and fans continued to ridicule the league, Warner's story gave the league positive exposure, and it brought the league a new television deal with TNN, who, unlike ESPN, would televise regular season games live. While it was not financially lucrative, it helped set the stage for what the league would become in the new millennium. Also, the year 2000 brought a spin-off league, the af2, intended to be a developmental league.

Growth of the League

Television

Main article: AFL on NBC

Main article: Arena Football League on ESPN

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 committed to a full playoff schedule ending with the 20th ArenaBowl. NBC and the Arena Football League officially severed ties on June 30, 2006, having failed to reach a new broadcast deal. Las Vegas owner Jim Ferraro stated during a radio interview that the reason why a deal failed is because ESPN refused to show highlights or even mention a product being broadcast on NBC.

For the 2006 season only, the AFL added a national cable deal with OLN (now Versus) for eleven regular-season games and one playoff game.

On December 19, 2006, ESPN announced the purchase of a minority stake in the AFL. This deal includes television rights for the ESPN family of networks. ESPN will televise a minimum of 17 regular season games, most on Monday Nights, and 9 playoff games, including ArenaBowl XXI on ABC. [2] The deal resulted in added exposure on ESPN's SportsCenter.

The AFL also has a regional-cable deal with FSN, where FSN regional affiliates in AFL markets carry local team games.

See also:

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.

Video Games

The first video game based on the AFL was Arena Football for C-64 released in 1988. On May 18, 2000, Kurt Warner's Arena Football Unleashed was released by Midway Games for the Playstation game console. On February 7, 2006 EA Sports released Arena Football for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. EA Sports released another AFL video game, titled , on February 21, 2007, for PlayStation 2.[3]

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.

Teams

National Conference
Division	Team	Arena	City/Area
Eastern	Columbus Destroyers	Nationwide Arena	Columbus, Ohio
	Cleveland	Quicken Loans Arena	Cleveland, Ohio
	Dallas Desperados	American Airlines Center	Dallas, Texas
	New York Dragons	Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum	Uniondale, New York (Long Island)
	Philadelphia Soul	Wachovia Center	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Southern
	Georgia Force	The Arena at Gwinnett Center	Duluth, Georgia
	New Orleans VooDoo	New Orleans Arena	New Orleans, Louisiana
	Orlando Predators	Amway Arena	Orlando, Florida
	Tampa Bay Storm	St. Pete Times Forum	Tampa, Florida
American Conference
Division	Team	Arena	City/Area
Central	Chicago Rush	Allstate Arena	Rosemont, Illinois
	Colorado Crush	Pepsi Center	Denver, Colorado
	Grand Rapids Rampage	Van Andel Arena	Grand Rapids, Michigan
	Kansas City Brigade	Sprint Center	Kansas City, Missouri
Western	Arizona Rattlers	US Airways Center	Phoenix, Arizona
	Los Angeles Avengers	Staples Center	Los Angeles, California
	San Jose SaberCats	HP Pavilion	San Jose, California
	Utah Blaze	EnergySolutions Arena	Salt Lake City, Utah

1987 Season

The Arena Football League played its inaugural season in 1987 with four teams to introduce the sport to the American public. The Chicago Bruisers, Denver Dynamite, Pittsburgh Gladiators and Washington Commandos comprised the 4-team league that ran a schedule from mid-June to August 1st. The AFL drew an impressive average of 11,000 fans per game and TV coverage on ESPN. The four teams Denver (12,098/game), Pittsburgh (11,962), Washington (11,525) and Chicago (8,638) drew fairly well in their respective facilities. Denver played out of the old McNichols Arena, Pittsburgh in the Civic Arena, Washington at the Capital Centre in Landover, MD and Chicago at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, IL.

The AFL kicked off on Friday, June 19, 1987 when the host Pittsburgh Gladiators hosted the Washington Commandos at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh before 12,177 fans.

AFL football officially began at 7:37 pm EDT that night when Washington's Dale Castro kicked the ball into the slack net (the mesh between the field goal posts) resulting in a touchback. The Gladiators took over on their own five-yard line. The very first play from scrimmage saw Pittsburgh quarterback Mike Hohensee hit WR/DB Russell Hairston on a 45-yard touchdown pass; the play would set the tone for the league's wide-open, high-scoring mandate that the game's inventor, James Foster, envisioned. Washington, however, went on to win the game 48-46 in the final minutes.

The head coaches of the four AFL teams in 1987 were former CFL great Ray Jauch (Chicago), current AFL coach Tim Marcum (Denver), Joe Haering (Pittsburgh) and Bob Harrison (Washington).

Some of the notable performers for Chicago in 1987 included QB Mike Hold, FB/LB Billy Stone, WR Reggie "Super Gnat" Smith, DB Durwood Roquemore and future NFL head coach QB Sean Payton, who saw limited action during the season.

The Denver Dynamite would also featured a backup QB that would go onto an NFL head coaching career: Marty Mornhinweg, who backed up Whit Taylor. Also on the Dynamite roster that year was FB/LB Rob DeVita, WR Durrell Taylor and future AFL Hall of Fame WR Gary Mullen.

Continuing the theme of quarterbacks who would go onto future coaching opportunities was Gladiators QB Mike Hohensee, who yielded the starting role with Pittsburgh early in the season to Brendan Folmar. Hohensee would return to the ArenaBowl nineteen years later in July 2006 by capturing ArenaBowl XXas head coach of the Chicago Rush.

Gladiators WR Russell Hairston had a 67 catches in 1987, good for 1,126 yards and 18 touchdowns (in just 6 games) and would go onto win AFL MVP honors. Also notable on the Pittsburgh roster was DB Mike Stoops who went onto to coach the University of Arizona in 2005.

The Washington Commandos featured a high-scoring unit that had WR Dwayne Dixon (68 catches, 11 TDs) and QB Rich Ingold, who led the AFL with 29 TD passes and 1,726 yards.

ArenaBowl I that year featured the Gladiators hosting the Dynamite at Civic Arena; the Pittsburgh fans, however, went home disappointed as the Dynamite walked away with a 45-16 victory, a win that was the first of seven ArenaBowl titles for Denver coach Tim Marcum.

Expansion

The Arena Football League has expanded and contracted many times throughout its history. Every year in the AFL there has been at least one team who did not play the previous season with the same name. The AFL has expanded to 19 franchises for the 2006 season. The league conducted an expansion draft in September 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 expansion Kansas City Brigade franchise. The 2007 season saw the return of arena football to New Orleans. The AFL expanded to the birthplace of professional football as in 2008, Cleveland will receive the region's long awaited team.

Year	# of Teams	Expansion Teams	Folded Teams	Suspended Teams	Returning Teams	Relocated Teams	Name Changes
1987	4	Chicago Bruisers Denver Dynamite Pittsburgh Gladiators Washington Commandos
1988	6	Detroit Drive Los Angeles Cobras New England Steamrollers New York Knights		Denver Dynamite Washington Commandos
1989	5		Los Angeles Cobras New England Steamrollers New York Knights		Denver Dynamite Maryland Commandos
1990	6	Albany Firebirds Dallas Texans	Chicago Bruisers				Washington Commandos (from Maryland)
1991	8	Columbus Thunderbolts New Orleans Night Orlando Predators	Washington Commandos			Pittsburgh => Tampa Bay Storm
1992	12	Arizona Rattlers Charlotte Rage Cincinnati Rockers Sacramento Attack San Antonio Force	Denver Dynamite			Columbus => Cleveland Thunderbolts
1993	10		New Orleans Night San Antonio Force			Sacramento => Miami Hooters
1994	11	Fort Worth Cavalry Las Vegas Sting Milwaukee Mustangs	Cincinnati Rockers Dallas Texans			Detroit => Massachusetts Marauders
1995	13	Connecticut Coyotes Iowa Barnstormers Memphis Pharaohs St. Louis Stampede San Jose SaberCats	Cleveland Thunderbolts Fort Worth Cavalry	Massachusetts Marauders
1996	15	Minnesota Fighting Pike Texas Terror				Las Vegas => Anaheim Piranhas	Florida Bobcats (from Miami Hooters)
1997	14	Nashville Kats New Jersey Red Dogs New York CityHawks	Charlotte Rage Connecticut Coyotes Minnesota Fighting Pike St. Louis Stampede			Memphis => Portland Forest Dragons
1998	14		Anaheim Piranhas			Massachusetts Marauders=>Grand Rapids Rampage (dormant from 1995)	Houston Thunderbears (from Texas Terror)
1999	15	Buffalo Destroyers				New York => New England Sea Wolves
2000	17	Carolina Cobras Los Angeles Avengers				Portland => Oklahoma Wranglers
2001	19	Chicago Rush Detroit Fury				Albany => Indiana Firebirds Iowa => New York Dragons New England => Toronto Phantoms	New Jersey Gladiators (from New Jersey Red Dogs)
2002	16	Dallas Desperados	Florida Bobcats Houston Thunderbears Milwaukee Mustangs Oklahoma Wranglers (all four were contracted)			Nashville => Georgia Force*
2003	16	Colorado Crush		Toronto Phantoms		New Jersey => Las Vegas Gladiators
2004	19	Austin Wranglers New Orleans VooDoo Philadelphia Soul				Buffalo => Columbus Destroyers
2005	17	Nashville Kats	Carolina Cobras Detroit Fury Indiana Firebirds
2006	18	Kansas City Brigade Utah Blaze		New Orleans VooDoo
2007	19				New Orleans VooDoo
2008	17		Austin Wranglers + Nashville Kats			Las Vegas => Cleveland

* = The history of the Kats stayed in Nashville, similar to the agreement made between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens of the NFL.
+ = The Austin Wranglers changed leagues from the AFL to af2.

Championship Games

On June 11,2006 the Chicago Rush defeated the Orlando Predators to win ArenaBowl XX in Las Vegas. It was the second straight year the game was played in Las Vegas. All previous title games were on the home field of the team with the better record.

New Orleans Arena, home of the New Orleans VooDoo, served as the site of ArenaBowl XXI on July 29, 2007. [4] [5] This was the first professional sports championship to be staged in the city since Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005. The San Jose SaberCats earned their third championship in six years by defeating the Columbus Destroyers 55-33. [6]

Commissioners of Arena Football

• C. David Baker - 1996-Current
• Jim Drucker - 1994-1996
• Joe O'Hara - 1992-1994
• Jim Foster - 1987-1992

Possible Expansion

The following cities were publicly speculated by the AFL as possible future expansion sites during the Commissioner's conference call prior to ArenaBowl XX.[7]

• Boston, Massachusetts
• Houston, Texas
• Miami or Sunrise, Florida
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Indianapolis, Indiana

The following markets have potential owners with expansion rights:

• Sacramento or San Francisco, California - The San Francisco 49ers own expansion rights
• Washington, D.C. - Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder owns expansion rights to this market.

See also

• 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
• List of Arena Football League seasons
• List of Arena Football League Venues
• Sports league attendances

External links

• AFL Official Website
• Arena Football League on ArenaFan.com

•  • [ e] Arena Football League seasons
1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007

Arena Football League
American Conference		National Conference
Central Division Chicago Rush Colorado Crush Grand Rapids Rampage Kansas City Brigade Nashville Kats	Western Division Arizona Rattlers Las Vegas Gladiators Los Angeles Avengers San Jose SaberCats Utah Blaze	Eastern Division Columbus Destroyers Dallas Desperados New York Dragons Philadelphia Soul	Southern Division Austin Wranglers Georgia Force New Orleans VooDoo Orlando Predators Tampa Bay Storm

Defunct Teams

Albany Firebirds | Anaheim Piranhas | Buffalo Destroyers | Carolina Cobras | Charlotte Rage | Chicago Bruisers | Chicago Politicians | Cincinnati Rockers | Cleveland Thunderbolts | Columbus Thunderbolts | Connecticut Coyotes | Dallas Texans | Denver Dynamite | Detroit Drive | Detroit Fury | Florida Bobcats | Fort Worth Cavalry | Houston Thunderbears | Indiana Firebirds | Iowa Barnstormers | Las Vegas Sting | Los Angeles Cobras | Maryland Commandos | Massachusetts Marauders | Memphis Pharaohs | Miami Hooters | Miami Vise | Milwaukee Mustangs | Minnesota Fighting Pike | New England Sea Wolves | New England Steamrollers | New Jersey Gladiators | New Jersey Red Dogs | New Orleans Night | New York CityHawks | New York Knights | Oklahoma Wranglers | Pittsburgh Gladiators | Portland Forest Dragons | Rockford Metros | Sacramento Attack | San Antonio Force | St. Louis Stampede | Texas Terror | Toronto Phantoms | Washington Commandos

Related Articles: Arena Football League | af2 | ArenaBowl | AFL Arenas | Arena football | Indoor football | Arena Football video games