Arena Football League

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.

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.

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.

Growth of the League

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 extention 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.

Future of the AFL

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. ^*

Commissioners of Arena Football

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

Trivia

The league also has contracts with Nike, Upper Deck and Foot Locker (through their Champs Sports division).

Final 2006 Regular Season Standings

Current as of 2006-05-14 at 1:31 AM EDT

Team	Overall			Division
Team	Wins	Losses	Percentage	Wins	Losses	Percentage
National Conference
Eastern Division
Dallas Desperados-xyz*	13	3	0.812	4	2	0.667
New York Dragons-x	10	6	0.625	2	4	0.333
Philadelphia Soul-x	9	7	0.582	3	3	0.500
Columbus Destroyers	8	8	0.500	3	3	0.500
Southern Division
Orlando Predators-xy	10	6	0.625	6	2	0.750
Austin Wranglers-x	10	6	0.625	5	3	0.625
Georgia Force-x	8	8	0.500	5	3	0.625
Tampa Bay Storm	8	8	0.500	4	4	0.500
Kansas City Brigade	3	13	0.188	0	8	0.000
American Conference
Central Division
Colorado Crush-xyz	11	5	0.688	5	1	0.833
Nashville Kats-x	8	8	0.500	3	3	0.500
Chicago Rush-xC	7	9	0.438	3	3	0.500
Grand Rapids Rampage	5	11	0.312	1	5	0.167
Western Division
San Jose SaberCats-xy	10	6	0.625	5	3	0.625
Arizona Rattlers-x	8	8	0.500	5	3	0.625
Utah Blaze-x	7	9	0.438	4	4	0.500
Las Vegas Gladiators	5	11	0.333	3	5	0.375
Los Angeles Avengers	5	11	0.267	3	5	0.375

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.

Possible Expansion

The following cities have been speculated to be possible locations for future franchises, with varying degrees of likelihood.

External links

Arena Football League | 1987 establishments

Arena Football League | Arena Football League | Arena Football League

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