The Lightning are the fourth
official Oregon-based team to play major league arena football and are the second to play outside of the
Portland, Oregon, area. They are also the first "major" sports team based in
Deschutes County. The team will have the smallest arena capacity in the league set at 4,000. Their main geographic rivals in AF1 are the
Washington Wolfpack and
Billings Outlaws. Their logo was created using
Artificial Intelligence and finalized as a
two-dimensional logo with the
Oregon state map in the background behind a
sasquatch running with the ball. The "97" on the jersey is to indicate
U.S. Highway 97, which travels directly through Redmond.
Oregon Arena Football History The first team representing the state of
Oregon in the original
Arena Football League were the
Portland Forest Dragons, who played from 1997 to 1999 before relocating to Oklahoma City and being rebranded as the
Oklahoma Wranglers. Oregon would not see the AFL again until 2013 when the
Portland Thunder were established by Clackamas billionaire
Terry Emmert and would take the field a few months later. The Thunder were rebranded as the
Portland Steel in 2016 after the league took control of the franchise from Emmert, then abruptly folded at season's end with no explanation. The second incarnation of the league would fold three years later. Both teams played their home games at the
Moda Center.
American West Football Conference (2021-2024) On October 15, 2018, the
American West Football Conference (AWFC) was founded by Chris Reynolds of Platinum Events & Security, LLC, the owners of the
Idaho Horsemen and added the
Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks,
Reno Express, and
Tri-Cities Fire to create the league. The AWFC postponed the 2020 season due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic and then cancelled the season entirely due to the unavailability of arenas during the pandemic. The AWFC played the 2021 season, adding two teams in the
Oregon High Desert Storm and Tri-City Rush, but the Skyhawks were unable to play any home games due to their home arena, the
Town Toyota Center, being used for as a pandemic relief center and vaccination site. The Storm began play in 2021 at the
First Interstate Bank Center at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds and Expo Center in Redmond. In 2023, the Storm made it to American West Bowl IV to face the
Idaho Horsemen after they defeated the Skyhawks 44–40 in the semi-final. However, they lost the championship to the Horsemen 42–20. Shortly afterward, the team's website and social media pages disappeared as the team and league suspended operations (Idaho joined the
National Arena League, effectively shutting the league down because it owned the AWFC).
Hiatus During the Storm's suspension of operations, the
Oregon Blackbears played in a revival of the
Arena Football League during the
2024 season. That team played four games (three at home at the
Oregon State Fairgrounds Pavilion in
Salem, and one on the road) before being taken off of the schedule for the remainder of the season, being kicked out of that league and eventually folding due to the team's ownership being entangled with a league management company that had been ousted midseason. The league itself would cease operations immediately after the season ended.
Relaunch as the Oregon Lightning On October 22, 2024,
Arena Football One announced the launch of the new Oregon Lightning. Chuck Jones, the former head coach of the now-defunct Blackbears and the Oregon High Desert Storm, part-owns the new team along with Sara Gumm and Jay Jenkins, two local business owners. A header on the Lightning's website identifies the team as "formerly known as the Oregon High Desert Storm". The change of brand was necessitated because of the existence of another AF1 team with the Storm name, the
Southwest Kansas Storm, while the legal revival of the Oregon High Desert Storm allows the team to remain legally distinct from the Blackbears and the previous AFL's legal entanglements. In a recent interview with Shady Sports Network, Jones stated that the Lightning name was chosen in homage to the
Portland Thunder, a team name used for Oregon-based franchises in both the previous Arena Football League and the
World Football League. Former Blackbears president
Patrick Johnson, who had spearheaded the efforts to keep the Blackbears alive, served as a senior advisor to the Lightning until February 2025. Jones retained the Blackbears' coaching staff to serve as assistants for the Lightning. On November 18, 2024, the Lightning joined the league's West Division along with the
Billings Outlaws and
Washington Wolfpack (Potential opponents the
Arizona Bandits went dormant for the season). The team is headquartered at a facility outside Eagle Crest Resort, dubbed "Lightning Ranch," where all the players reside. Jones acknowledged the Lightning had a personnel disadvantage compared to some of AF1's powerhouse franchises, who had the resources to hire former
National Football League talent, but pressed forward with the team as a long-term building project. ==References==