Arena Football League
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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.
History"Playtest Game"Eventual Arena Football League founder Jim Foster, a former National Football League and United States Football League executive, originally had a contract in 1983 to play an exhibition game on the NBC television network. He abandoned the plan, though, when the USFL was formed and did not return to the new sport until 1986. He set up a "playtest" game in Rockford, Illinois at the MetroCentre. He set up two teams, the "Rockford Metros" and the "Chicago Politicians", made up of semi-pro and former college football players to play against each other to see how his game would work. The Metros defeated the Politicians 30-18. The AFL BeginsThe 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, expired on September 30, 2007, opening the door to other indoor football leagues using such rules under Foster's old patent. Early yearsFrom 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. 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 MillenniumThe 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. Rules
Growth of the LeagueAverage attendance for AFL games were around 10,000-11,000 per game in the 1990s, though during the recession connected to the dot-com bubble and the September 11, 2001 attacks average attendance dropped below 10,000 for several years. For the past four seasons, average attendance has been above 12,000, with 12,392 in 2007.[1]. 11 of the current 17 teams had average attendance figures over 13,000 in 2007. TelevisionBeginning 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.
Expanding the seasonThe 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 GamesThe 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 Arena Football: Road to Glory, on February 21, 2007, for PlayStation 2.[3] LiteratureIn 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. Sponsored divisionsIn perhaps one of the most unusual sponsorship deals ever assembled by an American sports league, the AFL renamed all four of its divisions after Mitsubishi Motors as of the 2008 season.[citation needed] TeamsExpansionThe 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 Cleveland Gladiators relocated from Las Vegas in 2008.
Postseason
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
Possible ExpansionThe following cities were publicly speculated by the AFL as possible future expansion sites during the Commissioner's conference call prior to ArenaBowl XX.[7]
The following markets have potential owners with expansion rights:
See also
References and notes
External links
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