The Utah Warriors were an indoor football team based in

West Valley City, Utah West Valley City is a city in Salt Lake County and a suburb of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 140,230 at the 2020 census, making it the second-largest city in Utah. The city incorporated in 1980 from a large, quic ...

. The Warriors played in the

National Indoor Football League The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, A ...

. The Warriors joined the NIFL in 2003 as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

. The Warriors were the fourth indoor football team to be based in the

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

area, the first being the

Indoor Professional Football League The Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) was the new incarnation of the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL), which started in 1998. Two of its teams (the Madison Mad Dogs and the Green Bay Bombers) left the league and their owner, K ...

members, the

Utah Catzz The Utah Catzz was a team in the United States Professional Indoor Football League ( PIFL) in 1998. The Catzz franchise was owned by Michael & Carla Curran, who also started a farm club for the Catzz, the Salt Lake Lions (semi-pro football team). ...

in 1998, the

Utah Rattlers Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its we ...

, who had an ownership change, and the name changed to the Utah Express, also of the NIFL in 2001. The Warriors played their home games at the

E-Center The Maverik Center, originally known as the E Center, is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose arena located in West Valley City, Utah, United States. Construction on the arena started in 1996 and was completed in time to hold its first event on September ...

in the suburb of

. The Warriors joined the NIFL at the beginning of the

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

season, but disbanded after of the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

season, so the franchise owners could prepare to launch an

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

team, the

Utah Blaze The Utah Blaze was a professional arena football team based in Salt Lake City, Utah and competed in the West Division (AFL), West Division of the Arena Football League. Home games were played at the EnergySolutions Arena. In 2013, the team did ...

, for the 2006 season. The Warriors reached the league championship game during their first season, falling to the

Ohio Valley Greyhounds The Ohio Valley Greyhounds were a professional indoor football team. They began play in 1999 as the Steel Valley Smash, a charter member of the IFL. After the league folded, they moved to the NIFL, became a charter member, and renamed themse ...

45–37.

Franchise history

In 2003, team President Doug Tate made reference to the Warriors' ability to secure the

as their home field, that the team would have a greater chance of staying around unlike the

and Utah Rattlers/Express before them.

Season-by-season

, - , 2003 , , 13 , , 4 , , 0 , , 1st PC Western , , Won Round 1 (

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls () is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into Lincoln County to the south, which continues up t ...

)
Won Semifinals (

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

)
Lost Indoor Bowl III (

Ohio Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinoi ...

) , - , 2004 , , 7 , , 8 , , 0 , , 2nd PC Western , , Won PC Round 1 ( Tri-City)
Lost PC Quarterfinals (

) , - !Totals , , 23 , , 14 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

References

{{Reflist National Indoor Football League teams Sports in Salt Lake City American football teams in Utah West Valley City, Utah 2003 establishments in Utah 2005 disestablishments in Utah American football teams established in 2003 American football teams disestablished in 2005