Arena Bowl Results 1987-2019

Date	Arena Bowl	Winners		Runners-Up
01.08.1987	I	Denver Dynamite	45	Pittsburgh Gladiators	16
30.07.1988	II	Detroit Drive	24	Chicago Bruisers	13
18.08.1989	III	Detroit Drive	39	Pittsburgh Gladiators	26
11.08.1990	IV	Detroit Drive	51	Dallas Texans	27
17.08.1991	V	Tampa Bay Storm	48	Detroit Drive	42
22.08.1992	VI	Detroit Drive	56	Orlando Predators	38
21.08.1993	VII	Tampa Bay Storm	51	Detroit Drive	31
02.09.1994	VIII	Arizona Rattlers	36	Orlando Predators	31
01.09.1995	IX	Tampa Bay Storm	48	Orlando Predators	35
26.08.1996	X	Tampa Bay Storm	42	Iowa Barnstormers	38
25.08.1997	XI	Arizona Rattlers	55	Iowa Barnstormers	38
23.08.1998	XII	Orlando Predators	62	Tampa Bay Storm	31
21.08.1999	XIII	Albany Firebirds	59	Orlando Predators	48
20.08.2000	XIV	Orlando Predators	41	Nashville Kats	38
19.08.2001	XV	Grand Rapids Rampage	64	Nashville Kats	42
19.08.2002	XVI	San Jose SaberCats	52	Arizona Rattlers	14
22.06.2003	XVII	Tampa Bay Storm	43	Arizona Rattlers	29
27.06.2004	XVIII	San Jose SaberCats	69	Arizona Rattlers	62
12.06.2005	XIX	Colorado Crush	51	Georgia Force	48
11.06.2006	XX	Chicago Rush	69	Orlando Predators	61
29.07.2007	XXI	San Jose SaberCats	55	Columbus Destroyers	33
27.07.2008	XXII	Philadelphia Soul	59	San Jose SaberCats	56
2009		Season Cancelled
20.08.2010	XXIII	Spokane Shock	69	Tampa Bay Storm	57
12.08.2011	XXIV	Jacksonville Sharks	73	Arizona Rattlers	70
10.08.2012	XXV	Arizona Rattlers	72	Philadelphia Soul	54
17.08.2013	XXVI	Arizona Rattlers	48	Philadelphia Soul	39
23.08.2014	XXVII	Arizona Rattlers	72	Cleveland Gladiators	32
29.08.2015	XXVIII	San Jose SaberCats	68	Jacksonville Sharks	47
26.08.2016	XXIX	Philadelphia Soul	56	Arizona Rattlers	42
26.08.2017	XXX	Philadelphia Soul	44	Tampa Bay Storm	40
28.07.2018	XXXI	Washington Valor	69	Baltimore Brigade	55
11.08.2019	XXXII	Albany Empire	45	Philadelphia Soul	27

Report

Arizona Rattlers and Tampa Bay Storm were the most successful Arena Football League team, winning the Arena Bowl a record fives times each. Other multiple winners of the Arena Bowl were San Jose SaberCats (4), Detroit Drive (4), Philadelphia Soul (3) and Orlando Predators (2). Single-time winners of the Bowl were Denver Dynamite (the first in 1987), Albany Empire (the last in 2019), Albany Firebirds, Grand Rapids Rampage, Colorado Crush, Chicago Rush, Jacksonville Sharks, Spokane Shock and Washington Valor.

The Arena Football League was the most successful of the Alternatives to the National Football League since the American Football League of 1960 to 1969. It played 32 seasons since its first official season in 1987, with one season (2009) cancelled. The Final Arena Bowl was played in 2019.

About Arena / Indoor Football

This version of American (or Gridiron) Football has become extremely popular in Mexico.

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

Images

[1] 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]

Sources:

[2] Arena Football League (2016) 2016 Record and Factbook pp. 101-109 / 45.

Websites

[3] 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]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.