The Vermont Bucks were an indoor football team based in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. They started as a charter member of the professional

Can-Am Indoor Football 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 ...

(Can-Am), playing home games at

Gutterson Fieldhouse Gutterson Fieldhouse (nicknamed "The Gut") is a 4,035-seat hockey arena in Burlington, Vermont. It is home to the Vermont Catamounts men's and women's ice hockey teams. It is the largest indoor arena in the state of Vermont. It is adjacent t ...

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, no ...

in the 2017 season. The Can-Am then announced it was merging into 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 on ...

with the Bucks one of the inaugural members for the 2018 season. By January 31, 2018, the original Vermont Bucks folded after an ownership change. Another ownership group then acquired the brand and launched a semi-professional team in 2019, but did not have a home arena. They joined the

Southern Steam The Southern Steam are a professional indoor football team and currently a member of Elite Indoor Football (EIF) since 2017. The Steam joined X-League Indoor Football in 2013, as the Pennsylvania Steam based in Reading, Pennsylvania. Midway th ...

's Elite Indoor Football for the 2020 season with home games at Collins-Perley Sports Complex in St. Albans, Vermont, but did not play due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

History

The Bucks were announced as an expansion team on July 8, 2016, as part of the 2017 season in

American Indoor Football American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

(AIF). However, the league then folded on July 18, 2016. Bucks owner

Tim Viens Timothy Neil Viens (born October 10, 1976) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 46 Toyota Tundra for his own team, G2G Racing. He has als ...

, a businessman, former Camping World Truck Series auto racer and placekicker at

Glenville State College Glenville State University (GSU) is a public college in Glenville, West Virginia. History Glenville State University was founded in 1872 as a branch of West Virginia Normal School. It became known as Glenville State Normal School. It served th ...

, began negotiations with the Arena Developmental League and the proposed Supreme Indoor Football (both of which are based in the southeastern United States) about joining for the 2017 season. In August 2016, the

was created and listed the Bucks as one of its inaugural teams; the CAN-AM League features teams centered mostly in the northeastern U.S. The Bucks won all but one game in the Can-Am league, their lone loss coming to the Boston Blaze, a

traveling team Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

that Tim Viens also owned. Both the Bucks and the Blaze then were scheduled to meet in the Eastern Division championship, however, Viens then announced the Bucks would play the non-league semi-professional Central Penn Chargers for the division title. The Bucks would defeat the Chargers 46–6 to meet the undefeated Rochester Kings in the Can-Am championship. The Bucks then beat the undefeated Kings in Rochester by a score of 61–41. Viens announced via Facebook in April 2017 that the team was in negotiations with another league for the 2018 season; he announced that Arena Pro Football and the Can-Am would merge for 2018 to create the

(AAL). After the 2017 season, Viens launched another team in the AAL called the

Atlanta Havoc Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. He then sold the Bucks to an ownership group composed of Thomas Sturgis and Kyle Jennings of Exeter, New Hampshire, and Ron Lotti of Boston. However, in January 2018, the new ownership notified the AAL they would not participate in the 2018 season. In June 2018, an organization called Vermont Bucks Professional Arena Football, LLC began attempts at fundraising and a return for a semi-professional team in 2019. They were announced as team in the developmental New England Arena League (NEAL), a league that plays all its games in one location near Boston, for the 2019 season. After one season, the Bucks announced they were joining Elite Indoor Football (EIF), another semi-professional league, for 2020 with three or four homes games at Collins-Perley Sports Complex in St. Albans, Vermont. The Bucks did not play any EIF games during the

in 2020 and the Bucks continued to be listed as EIF members on the league website , but the team appears to be inactive and has since been removed from the league site.

References

External links

Vermont Bucks Football website
{{AIF American Arena League American football teams in Vermont Sports in Burlington, Vermont American football teams established in 2016 American football teams disestablished in 2017 American football teams established in 2019 2016 establishments in Vermont 2017 disestablishments in Vermont 2019 establishments in Vermont