Arena Football League Will Fold, AF2 Will Survive

by Jon Azpiri | August 4, 2009 at 09:35 am

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The Arena Football League is close to being no more, according to AFL officials. The league, which didn't play last season due to the economic crisis, has said that it will not return at all.

The news broke after Tampa Bay Storm president Jim Borghesi wrote the following message on his Facebook page Sunday:

The AFL will be having a press conference to announce that the league will not be returning.

Arena football was invented by league founder Jim Foster in 1986. Although never a high-profile sport, the Arena Football League lasted for 21 seasons and managed to develop fans who couldn't afford NFL games.

The death of the AFL doesn't mean the end of Arena Football, however. The AF2, also known as AFL2, is alive and kicking. The 25-team league has served as a minor league to the AFL, is still managing to hang on.

The Times-Union quotes S. Garen Szablewski, GM of af2’s Albany Firebirds, as saying the AFL’s likely demise “doesn’t have any impact” on af2.

“The af2 would have the opportunity to play independently of the AFL,” Szablewski told the newspaper. “It could actually end up being a positive ... players could be available to come down and play at this level.”

Here is a list of Arena Football League teams:

Chicago Rush
Colorado Crush
Grand Rapids Rampage
Kansas City Brigade
Arizona Rattlers
San Jose SaberCats
Utah Blaze
Cleveland Gladiators
Columbus Destroyers
New York Dragons
Philadelphia Soul
Dallas Desperados
Georgia Force
Orlando Predators
Tampa Bay Storm