The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league founded in 2023 with their first, and only, 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.
On February 1, 2023, G6 Sports Group (a Delaware corporation operating as the American arm of Toronto, Ontario-based hedge fund ForceOne Capital), a new ownership group that had acquired the league's trademarks and social media accounts, announced the league's launch, as a revival of the previous Arena Football League that operated in two incarnations from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2019.
The league launched in April 2024 with 16 teams, six of which were absorbed through a pre-launch merger with the existing Champions Indoor Football. Three weeks into the season, after numerous controversies, unfulfilled commitments and teams suspending operations, the ownership group fired founding commissioner Lee Hutton and reorganized as a ten-team league (shortly thereafter restored to eleven, by the end of the season shrinking to eight), hiring former NFL coach Jeff Fisher as its interim commissioner and bringing back general counsel Jerry Kurz from the previous incarnation of the league.
On September 6, 2024, all eight teams, along with Fisher and Kurz, announced their joint departure from the AFL to establish a new league, Arena Football One, separate from the legal entanglements that ensnared the AFL.AF1 Press Release, AFL X page, September 6, 2024
History Background
The original Arena Football League, created in 1981 and founded in 1986 by Jim Foster, had previously existed in two interrelated incarnations between 1987 and 2008, and 2010 to 2019. Three 2024 clubs revived the names of former AFL teams: the Albany Firebirds, the Orlando Predators, and the Nashville Kats; several other such revivals were included at the start of the season but were among those contracted in the reorganization. One franchise, the Albany Firebirds, had direct ties to the previous incarnation of the league; the Albany Empire, champions of the 2019 AFL season, transferred more or less intact to the National Arena League under the Albany Empire name. Though the NAL Empire imploded during the ownership of Antonio Brown in 2023, Mike Kwarta, the owner of the team in 2022, reacquired its assets and also acquired the 2024 AFL franchise. The Predators were also from the NAL, though in that case, there was no direct transfer of intellectual property, as the NAL version of the Predators had waited until the AFL version's trademarks had expired.
Pre-launch On February 1, 2023, over a year after Darren Arbet, who had acquired the league's trademarks out of bankruptcy, sold them to an investment group called G6 Sports Investment Group and sub-partner F1 Sports & Entertainment, the new owners confirmed plans to relaunch the Arena Football League. 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. In a later interview, Chetty indicated that G6 planned no involvement or spending, with its only role being to collect licensing royalties from Hutton, who was given mostly free rein to build out the league: "everything down the line, turnkey. As an investor this sounds good to me. Hey, it doesn’t sound like I have to operate."
The league returned its logo to the one used from 2003 to 2018. The new iteration of the league announced plans to feature "streaming, betting, technology, (and) virtual reality" elements, per Rossi. In a February 2023 interview with ArenaFan.com, the commissioner mentioned that the league would have a salary cap of $700,000, but the league will allows additional salary spending for "franchise players". Players were promised a $1,000 per-game salary, substantially higher than that of other indoor leagues and in line with the AFL's previous incarnations.
On July 18, 2023, TMZ Sports initially reported, and the league soon confirmed, 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. Several of the cities' arenas indicated they had never been contacted or had only limited conversations before being awarded teams, with Cincinnati's arenas indicating they had in fact rejected the league's advances. Hutton purposely avoided confirming any news reports, stating that he would only release information "on our time," and threatened any news outlets who reported critically on the league with "egg on their faces come April 2024."
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. On August 31, the West Texas Desert Hawks (formerly the Warbirds) were the second team confirmed. 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. 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.Press conference posted by the ICT Regulators
On November 16, 2023, at the AFL relaunch event, Hutton revealed the 16 teams set play in the 2024 season, while he mentioned the league might expand in the future to 24 teams, as the Chicago Rush and Arizona Bandits are expected to join in 2025 along with other possible teams in markets that were part of the league's original market announcement. Hutton also declared that the league game "will be broadcast, streamed and will also be available in VR". 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 disturb the league progress, which caused a move to different locations. Hutton also mentioned he was in preliminary talks about conducting international exhibition games, and with that in mind they changed the official website from "TheAFL.com" to "ArenaFootballUSA.com", as they plan to globalize the game.
Inaugural season
Following the inaugural week of competition in 2024, numerous problems began to emerge with the league's teams. The Philadelphia Soul coach and roster all departed abruptly before their contest (forcing an American Arena League team from Dallas to don the Soul's uniforms for the game) against the Louisiana VooDoo, who themselves were forced to move their home schedule from Lake Charles to Lafayette days before the game after the manager of Lake Charles's arena accused the VooDoo of failing to cover rent or insurance expenses. The Oregon Blackbears' home arena in Salem, Oregon was deemed unsafe, forcing a slew of schedule changes. The Iowa Rampage folded after its inaugural contest, accusing Hutton of reneging on promises to cover increased expenses, while the Rapid City Marshals granted six players their release and renegotiated lower salaries for their remaining players after they also did not receive the promised compensation from the league, a tactic the Washington Wolfpack also used. Their final game was on May 4, 2024, on the road at Southwest Kansas, losing 34–18. Rossi disowned any connection to league operations in the wake of the controversy, instead stating that his company had licensed the Arena Football League trademarks to Hutton's company for a fee that Hutton did not pay. Documents related to the Louisiana VooDoo showed that Hutton had indeed operated the league through the business structure of the Minnesota Myth. These problems have prompted calls for Hutton to resign, including from Billings Outlaws owner Steven Titus. Marshals owner Wes Johnson noted that the league structure centered all power in the commissioner, whom the owners had no leverage to fire. On May 9, 2024, it was announced that the Georgia Force had abruptly foldedArth, Justin (May 9, 2024). The Georgia Force has officially folded and @OfficialAFL has yet to pay me or my teammates salaries for the first two games we played in. I personally have spent money to make sure my teammates can eat. And have run out of money that affects me going to another team out of state. Statement via X. Retrieved May 10, 2024. and the Soul had suspended operations for the remainder of the 2024 season with hopes of returning in 2025.
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. Strother, who had previously been on the Marshals roster prior to the CIF merger with the AFL, was a 13-year veteran of women's leagues and a former member of the women's national team.
Turmoil and change in leadership 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. 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. This is despite a league bylaw that was believed to have granted Hutton total immunity from ouster by league owners; 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. Chairman Chris Chetty, who had initially expected to remain in Canada and not to have an active role in league operations, noted that Hutton had breached multiple clauses of his contract with G6 even before the league kicked off, which provided the legal justification for revoking the license on the AFL trademarks.
The change in commissioner did not completely restore stability; Oregon pulled out of a last-minute assignment "due to unforeseen circumstances" on May 24, forcing the temporarily independent Cedar Rapids River Kings to step in the Blackbears' stead; Rapid City, having faced continued labor strife tied to the promises made by the Hutton regime, folded following their May 23 game. West Texas reportedly followed suit on June 18, with the River Kings again stepping in to fill in for the Desert Hawks' final game.It's official....the AFL has secured another opponent for Saturday, June 22nd. The Cedar Rapids Riverkings out of professional American Indoor Football are coming to town... Retrieved June 19, 2024.