2024 Arena Football League Season

The 2024 Arena Football League season will be the 33rd in the history of the Arena Football League (AFL) and the first season as the rebooted version of the league, after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy at the end of the 2019 season.

Background

A year after its second shutdown, the Arena Football League trademarks and logo were bought out by Darren Arbet in 2020. Arbet is a former San Jose SaberCats head coach and was the head coach of the Indoor Football League's Bay Area Panthers. The trademark remained inactive until 2022, when a new website was set up. The website was first noticed on December 12, 2022. Two days later, a tweet from the league account was posted under a post from Tim Capper about the death of John Gregory (head coach of the Iowa Barnstormers), reading "Our thoughts and prayers have gone out to John's family." This tweet was later deleted, along with all the other tweets the Arena Football League Twitter account had up to that point. The new management assumed control of the Instagram account on around December 27 and deleted all posts on around January 6, and then took control of the Facebook account on January 16. On January 16, 2023, after a month of the first tweet, the Twitter account posted a picture of the leagues 2003-18 logo, with the caption #NewProfilePic.

On February 1, 2023, the Arena Football League confirmed the rumors and announced its plans to return in 2024, over a year after the rights to the league were purchased by an investment group called F1 Sports & Entertainment. 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. The league returned its logo to the one used from 2003 to 2018. The new iteration of the league will feature "streaming, betting, technology, (and) virtual reality" elements, per Rossi.

In a February 2023 interview with ArenaFan.com, the commissioner revealed that there have been discussions with potential ownership groups in New Orleans to relaunch the New Orleans VooDoo. In an April interview, he revealed that they are looking to put teams in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Jacksonville, while they also received offers to put a team in Mexico City. Hutton also mentioned that the league would have a salary cap of $700,000, but the league will allow additional salary spending for "franchise players".

Teams

On July 18, 2023, TMZ Sports initially reported 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. The league made the statement official on their Twitter page. Managers of Cincinnati's main indoor arena, the Heritage Bank Center, refuted the report, stating they had rejected the AFL's advances, while the two college/university-owned arenas in the city both said they had not been approached and also would not be open to hosting the league. Representatives with Lake Charles stated that their conversations with the league were still in preliminary phases (having advanced only to the point of informing the league what days their arena was available), and that although they were open to hosting the league, "it’s closer to not being true than being true at this time." The city of Salem was also unaware of the AFL having discussions for placing a team in the city, but were open to hearing more about their plans. In Everett, the manager of the city's only major arena, Angel of the Winds Arena, stated that he was only contacted by a potential ownership group several days after the announcement of teams. When reached for comment, Hutton stated he would only reveal information "on our time." The league eventually secured an agreement with Angel of the Winds Arena in late September; the owners of the Everett franchise, led by the owner of the local semi-pro Everett Royals, noted that he had acquired the franchise after contacting the league after the announcement of cities in hopes of getting Royals players onto the squad, only to find that the league had not yet lined up an owner for the city's team at the time.

On the same day as the TMZ report, the Orlando Predators and West Texas Warbirds (Odessa), who were both playing in the National Arena League, stated they were joining the new AFL, although the Warbirds later removed their Facebook post within the first week. (The Warbirds later announced that they would be instead branding as the "Desert Hawks" for the 2024 season.) In a statement to Philadelphia media, Hutton stated that the Philadelphia Soul was also expected to be revived, with Soul co-owner Ron Jaworski returning, if not as an owner then as a consultant.

Among cities that were considered but ultimately were not included, Atlantic City's financial terms were considered unrealistic, Bossier City, Louisiana had too many schedule conflicts for 2024 but expressed interest in 2025, while the Albany Empire expressed interest in returning, but was unable to accept because of the excessive cost of worker's compensation in the state. (The worker's compensation issue was later resolved, and the league announced an Albany Firebirds franchise would join in 2024.) Neither Buffalo nor Rochester, New York were considered, despite some interest from Bob Bartosiewicz, who previously owned the Rochester Raiders.

In late 2023, three supposed expansion teams were announced as the "California Grizzlies", "Minnesota Myth" and "St. Louis Rampage". The teams were announced on their respective Instagram and X accounts. However, league commissioner Hutton released a statement regarding addition of these new team names. He states on his X account: "Any information that concerns the Arena Football League must be endorsed by me or our CEO otherwise it is not reliable. AFL team name announcements will be coming soon for all locations. It is an exciting time as we make our mark to be bigger and better." The Rampage later admitted to being a hoax supported by fans of the St. Louis Battlehawks. Defector Media traced the California Grizzlies to Tim Carbajal, who operates a semi-pro spring football team in the area. Carbajal confirmed the Grizzlies' existence—and confirmed that he, under an alias, had contacted Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield inquiring about using the facility—but otherwise stated he was not at liberty to discuss further details due to Hutton's gag order.

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.

On October 2, 2023, it was announced that the Albany Firebirds name will be brought back and to play in the AFL for 2024. On October 6, 2023, it was officially announced that the Orlando Predators, Billings Outlaws, Southwest Kansas Storm, Salina Liberty, Wichita Regulators, and an Everett AFL team were announced. On October 25, 2023, the Oregon Blackbears were officially announced as the league's newest team. The league announced revivals of the Nashville Kats, Philadelphia Soul and Chicago Rush on November 1.

On November 16, 2023 in the AFL relaunch event, Hutton reveled the 16 teams who will play in the 2024 season, while he mentioned the league might expand in the future to 24 teams. He also referred to the original list of cities and revealed that other "leagues and individuals" (none specified) were trying cancel teams contracts with the arenas and participated in "anti-competitive practices" to try to disturb the league progress, which caused a move to a different locations.

Announced locations for the upcoming 2024 AFL Season

Players

Partnerships

American 7s Football League (A7FL)

January 16, 2024, the league announced a partnership with American 7s Football League (A7FL) for player development, as players can transfer between leagues, with the A7FL functioning as its ''de facto'' minor league. As part of the partnership, both leagues will collectively align on marketing efforts that "will elevate the visibility of leagues athletes".

Season structure

Regular season

The league will be split into two conferences (American & National) and four, four-team divisions (East, Central, South, and West) and will consist of a 10-week schedule, with games played on Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. The 2024 season will start on April 27, 2024, right after the end of the 2024 NFL Draft with a game between the Orlando Predators and the Albany Firebirds. The league also plan a Spanish broadcast game in Cinco de Mayo between the Philadelphia Soul and the Minnesota Myth and a 518th Infantry Regiment benefit game on week 4 at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville.

Teams will play eight of the ten games within their own conference, which is six games within their own division, or three each of home & road, plus two games outside their division but within their conference, besides two interconference games, all one home & road game each.

Postseason

Top three teams (12 teams total) with the best records within the division will make the playoffs, and the division leaders will get first-round byes. The first round consists of the division runner-up hosting the third seed. The divisional round consists of the top seed hosting the winner from the first round. The divisional round winners advance to the conference championships, where the winners will then compete in ArenaBowl XXXIII.
 
Playoff games will be played in neutral sites, which will host teams in the 2025 season, Division championships will be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV and ArenaBowl XXXIII will be played in Target Center in Minneapolis.

Standings

Season schedule

Regular season

Postseason

Attendance

Announced attendance figures for each home game. In the weekly columns, dashes (—) indicate away games, while bold font indicates the highest attendance of each team.

Awards

Media

On the AFL relaunch event Hutton declared that the league’s games "will be broadcast, streamed and will also be available in VR".

See also

* 2024 American Indoor Football season
* 2024 Indoor Football League season
* 2024 National Arena League season
* 2024 The Arena League season

References

{{Arena Football League

Arena Football League seasons
Arena Football League season