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. Only one of the current AFL teams has direct ties to the former AFL: the
Albany Firebirds; the Firebirds had previously played as the
Albany Empire the previous three seasons in the
National Arena League after its ownership group acquired the intellectual properties of the
Albany Empire of the AFL (the final champions of that league and itself a successor to two previous AFL and
AF2 franchises known as the Firebirds) after the AFL's bankruptcy. Two other existing clubs
revive the names of former AFL teams: the
Orlando Predators (also coming from the NAL) and the
Nashville Kats; several other such revivals were included at the start of the season but were among those contracted in the reorganization.
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." 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 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. 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. 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. 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; 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. In more twists of fate in the ongoing turmoil surrounding former ownership in the "new" AFL,
Arena Insider reported that former commissioner Lee Hutton and former president Travelle Gaines tried to apply for the trademark of the AFL shield logo which was rejected by the
United States Patent and Trademark Office citing "likelihood of confusion". "Trademark Act Section 2(d) bars registration of an applied-for mark that is so similar to a registered mark that it is likely consumers would be confused, mistaken, or deceived as to the commercial source of the goods and/or services of the parties," stated in a letter from the USPTO rendering Hutton's and Gaines' claims to ownership of the AFL logo to be invalid. The trademark and all other trademarks from the AFL and af2 solely belong to G6 Sports Group.
Additions to front office and first season completion The league would announce the hiring of its new president and chief operating officer Jared Widman on May 28, 2024, along with the announcement that the league was contracting to nine teams, again removing Oregon (who had been briefly removed from the league web site, then restored, the previous day) for the remainder of the season. Oregon announced a return to play in 2025 on social media and have also retained its previous online broker for ticket sales for "any future home games." Oregon was ultimately unable to return due to entanglements with former league president Travelle Gaines, who had owned the majority stake in the Blackbears and never sold it. On June 4, 2024, the league officially announced the return of original
AFL co-founding partner and former commissioner
Jerry Kurz, this time as general counsel and senior advisor of player operations. On June 5, 2024, the league announced the addition of former AFL player Gary Compton as director of football operations. On June 8, 2024, the front office staff added Tracey Leinin as President of Football Administration. On June 24, 2024, they then added Laurie Voke as Vice President of Sales. On June 25, 2024, one day later they added former professional player and coach Dr.
Jennifer Welter as Chief Marketing Officer. The 2024 season finished July 19, 2024 with
ArenaBowl XXXIII on a converted ice rink at the
American Dream Meadowlands shopping center in
East Rutherford, New Jersey, with the Outlaws defeating the Firebirds 46–41. ==Reorganization==