AFL 2016

	P	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pct
National Conference
*Arizona Rattlers	16	13	3	0	1068	786	.812
*LA Kiss	16	7	9	0	735	745	.438
Cleveland Gladiators	16	7	9	0	826	934	.438
Portland Steel	16	3	13	0	670	926	.188
American Conference
*Philadelphia Soul	16	13	3	0	983	776	.812
*Orlando Predators	16	12	4	0	893	781	.750
Jacksonville Sharks	16	7	9	0	829	774	.438
Tampa Bay Storm	16	2	14	0	568	868	.125

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Playoffs
	Arena Bowl XXIX
26.08.2016	Philadelphia Soul	56	Arizona Rattlers	42

AFL 2017

	P	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pct
*Philadelphia Soul	14	13	1	0	817	590	.929
*Tampa Bay Storm	14	10	4	0	710	682	.714
*Cleveland Gladiators	14	5	9	0	696	715	.357
*Baltimore Brigade	14	4	10	0	620	749	.286
Washington Valor	14	3	11	0	565	692	.214

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Playoffs
	Arena Bowl XXX
26.08.2017	Philadelphia Soul	44	Tampa Bay Storm	40

AFL 2018

	P	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pct
*Albany Empire	12	8	4	0	646	564	.667
*Philadelphia Soul	12	7	5	0	612	577	.583
*Baltimore Brigade	12	7	5	0	605	562	.583
*Washington Valor	12	2	10	0	482	642	.167

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Playoffs
20.07.2018	Philadelphia Soul	41	Baltimore Brigade	W
21.07.2018	Washington Valor	47	Albany Empire	L
	Arena Bowl XXXI
28.07.2018	Washington Valor	69	Baltimore Brigade	55

AFL 2019

	P	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pct
*Albany Empire	12	10	2	0	620	474	.833
*Washington Valor	12	7	5	0	538	552	.583
*Philadelphia Soul	12	7	5	0	523	530	.583
*Baltimore Brigade	12	7	5	0	500	439	.583
Atlantic City Blackjacks	12	4	8	0	518	550	.333
Columbus Destroyers	12	1	11	0	394	548	.083

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Playoffs
03.08.2019	Albany Empire	62	Baltimore Brigade	21
04.08.2019	Washington Valor	41	Philadelphia Soul	48
	Arena Bowl XXXII
11.08.2019	Philadelphia Soul	27	Albany Empire	45

Report

The period from 2016-2019 were the waning years of the Arena Football League,

About the AFL

The Arena Football League was the original Indoor or Arena American Football League, established in 1986. After the court ruling in 1998 that its patent (awarded in 1989) only referred to the rebound nets either side of the goalposts, everything else was football, and not under copyright, as it was already in the common sphere.

This opened the door to rival Indoor Leagues, and in an attempt to see them off Arena Football League created Arena Football 2, an official Minor League. This was an over-expansion and coupled with the debts from the court case related to the patent, it incurred a legacy debt that left the League in no position to continue after 2019.

About Arena / Indoor Football

Indoor Football, also known as Arena Football was developed in 1986 as an 8v8 form of Indoor American Football. After an initial few seasons where the game was developed with a 4 team league, a full seasons League with eventually over a dozen teams was developed in the 1990 which was considered by the Wall Street Journal to be a fifth major.

The Arena Football League over-expanded in the 2000s with a Minor League, and its importance (and number of teams) waned since it first experienced financial diffulties  in 2009, and it ceased operations after the 2019 season due to the legacy debt incurred.

There is now, however, Indoor Football Leagues all over America, all of which would now be considered Minor League or Semi-Pro (AAA, AA, or even A)

Indoor Football is played on a 50-yard field with two 8-yard endzones, and teams have 5 downs (attempts) to reach the endzone or the ball is turned over. 3 of those downs must be passing plays, making Indoor Football highly explosive and high scoring.

The main difference between Arena Football & Indoor Football is the rebound nets either side of the goalposts in Arena Football, which is the only part of the original patent given to the Arena Football League in 1989, that a subsequent ruling in 1998 ruled was copyright, the rest being Football already in other leagues.

References

Websites

[1] Arena Football League (2016) 2016 Standings [Internet] Available from: https://www.arenafootball.com/sports/a-footbl/spec-rel/standings.html [Accessed 1 April 2017][Broken Link]

[3] Arena Football League (2017) 2017 Standings [Internet] Available from: http://www.afldigital.com/index.cfm?view=standings [Accessed 16 September 2017][Broken Link]

[4] Arena Football League (2017) 2017 Schedule [Internet] Available from: http://www.arenafootball.com/2017-schedule [Accessed 16 September 2017][Broken Link]

[5] Arena Football League (2018) 2018 Standings [Internet] Available from: http://www.afldigital.com/index.cfm?view=standings [Accessed 6 January 2019][Broken Link]

[6] Arena Football League (2018) 2018 Schedule [Internet] Available from: http://www.afldigital.com/index.cfm?view=schedule [Accessed 6 January 2019][Broken Link]

[7] Arena Football League (2018) 2019 Standings [Internet] Available from: http://www.arenafootball.com/2019-standings [Accessed 26 July 2019][Broken Link]

[8] Arena Football League (2018) 2018 Schedule [Internet] Available from: http://www.afldigital.com/index.cfm?view=schedule&season=2019 [Accessed 8 September 2019][Broken Link]

[9]Arena Fan (2019) Arena Bowl History [Internet] Available from: http://www.arenafan.com/history/?page=abowls [Accessed 19 February 2020]

Images

[10] Arena Football League (2019) Arena Football League Reveals New Logo [Internet] Available from: https://snagfilms-a.akamaihd.net/0000015a-a977-d135-adda-fb7fb65f0000/images/c3/b8/20eb27b6418aa78b71d4679d2988/1545950679236_1545950297199_viewliftarticle_16x9images_16x9Images.png [Accessed 17 September 2019]

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Todd Zboyan, Tim Leadingham. Bart Barden & Sam Thompson.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 19 February 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Resereved.