The Arena Football Association (AFA) is a professional indoor football league based in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, United States. The league began operation in June 2021 with five teams, known that season as the Lone Star Series. The league was founded by three

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

entrepreneurs and is "built upon the pillars of diversity, equity and inclusion," placing its teams in underserved markets with populations from 200,000 to two million people.

History

2021 season

The league operated during 2021 as the Lone Star Series, after the

West Texas Warbirds The West Texas Warbirds are a professional indoor football team and a member of National Arena League. The Warbirds are based in Odessa, Texas, with home games at the Ector County Coliseum. The team was originally a member of Champions Indoor Fo ...

and

Amarillo Venom The Amarillo Venom were a professional indoor football team based in Amarillo, Texas. They played their home games at the Amarillo Civic Center. The Venom began play in 2004 as the Amarillo Dusters, a charter member of the Intense Football Leagu ...

, formerly of

Champions Indoor Football Champions Indoor Football (CIF) is a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team from ...

(CIF), organized their own league. Five teams competed in the inaugural season: Amarillo Venom, Arlington Longhorns, San Antonio Valor, Texas Jets, and West Texas Warbirds. The Warbirds defeated the Venom in the championship game, 79–60, played on July 24.

2022 season

As of the league's 2022 season, there are six teams: four in Texas, and one each in

and

. The Amarillo Venom had also planned to play, before suspending operations in February 2022. After week one, the North Texas Bulls were kicked from the league after their first home game for not meeting league standards. The league's regular season schedule runs from April through June, with playoffs in July and a championship game scheduled for July 23. North Texas Bulls joined from the

American Arena League The American Arena League (AAL) is a professional indoor football minor league that began playing in 2018. The league was initiated by a merger between Arena Pro Football (APF) and the Can-Am Indoor Football League (Can-Am), although the AAL o ...

but were expelled from the league after only one game. The league plans for the championship game to be played on board the USS ''Lexington'', an

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

that is now a museum ship in

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "'' Body of Christ"'') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patrici ...

. This would not happen, as the AFA cited scheduling conflicts, and decided to hold a postseason "

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

" style matchup instead. The Wichita Force would beat the Magnolia State Spartans 52-6 at the Wichita Ice Center, for the first AFA Cup.

Standings

Teams

Source:

Former teams

(

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall County ...

) — Played the 2021 pandemic-affected season in the Texas-based Lone Star Series and helped form the AFA, but went dormant before the start of the 2022 season after the owners put the team up for sale. * North Texas Bulls (

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

) — Joined from the

but were expelled from the AFA after one game. *

(

Odessa, Texas Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small section of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 114,428 at the 2020 census, mak ...

) — Left for the

National Arena League The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. It consists of teams based on the East Coast of the United States. Teams' typical payroll budget is $600,000 per season, while players are paid $ ...

after the 2022 season.

References

External links

* {{Professional gridiron football leagues in North America Professional sports leagues in the United States Indoor American football leagues in the United States 2021 establishments in Texas Sports leagues established in 2021