Matt Johnson
As the United Football League finds its footing and becomes the first potentially successful league for pro football in the spring in decades, the rebooted Arena Football League could be on the verge of imploding once again.
Originally founded in 1986, the first run of the Arena Football League slowly built itself up into a success story. It paved the way for Kurt Warner to find his way back to the NFL, leading to a Hall of Fame career. However, the AFL quickly started to decline in the late 2000s.
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By 2009, the AFL needed to cancel its season and it later filed for bankruptcy. However, it was relaunched with new owners the following year only to contract by 2015 and file for bankruptcy for the second time in November 2019.
The most recent iteration of the Arena Football League was launched in 2023, with 16 markets to host teams for the league’s return in 2024. However, the early results for the AFL’s 2024 season have now resulted in more teams pulling out than there were highlights on the field.
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Gabriela Carroll of The Philadelphia Enquirer reported over the weekend that the Philadelphia Soul have made the decision to pull the plug on their 2024 season, leaving the door open for a possible return in 2025. This came not long after Philadelphia had to field replacement players from a different football league because the Soul players weren’t able to make the trip to Louisiana for the season opener.
Philadelphia isn’t the first AFL team to pull out of the league. Before the season kicked off, the Iowa Rampage Folded and the Georgia Force also ceased operations this spring. Meanwhile, per Randy Johnson of the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Myth will not play their scheduled game in Albany because they couldn’t make the trip to New York to face the Albany Firebirds.
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The Arena Football League previously had a deal in place for its games to be streamed on NFL Network, which NFL.com announced in March, but that plan was nixed two months later.
With the AFL also facing claims of unpaid bills and multiple teams unable to travel for road games, it appears the third iteration of the league is on the brink of collapsing. Only time will tell if the third strike is what ends the AFL for good.
