Variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas
Arena football
San Jose SaberCats and Columbus Destroyers in ArenaBowl XXI, the 2007 championship game of the AFL
Nicknames
Arena football, indoor football, football, gridiron football
First played
1980's
Characteristics
Contact
Full
Team members
8 at a time
Type
Indoor pro football
Arena football is a variety of eight-man indoor gridiron football. The game is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises and had a proprietary format until its patent expired in 2007.
Three leagues have played under official arena football rules: the Arena Football League, which played 32 seasons in two separate runs from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2019 and is planned to return for a third time in 2024; arenafootball2, the AFL's erstwhile developmental league, which played 10 seasons from 2000 through 2009; and the China Arena Football League, which began play in 2016 but was not directly affiliated with the now-defunct AFL. The CAFL, which operated on a heavily abbreviated schedule solely in China, was the most recent league in the world playing by arena rules.
Through the late 1990s, the Arena Football League was the only league playing any variant of the sport designed for indoor play. A clarification limiting the scope of its patent allowed for competing indoor football leagues to use the same size field and most other aspects of the game. Arena football is distinguished from the other indoor leagues by its use of large rebound nets attached to the side of each goalpost, which keep any missed field goal or overthrown ball in the field of play and allow the ball to remain live; the rebound nets were the only part of the patent that was upheld until it expired. As a result, some non-AFL indoor leagues that formed after the patent expired like the National Arena League have used rebound nets, while other leagues such as the Indoor Football League and American Indoor Football opt to not use them.
Arenafootball is a variety of eight-man indoor gridiron football. The game is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed...
The ArenaFootball League (AFL) was a professional arenafootball league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games...
to as arenas in North America. There is also the sport of indoor American football (one variant of which is explicitly known as arenafootball), a variant...
The Arena League (The AL or TAL) is a future six-on-six indoor American football league in the United States. The league intends to launch in 2024 with...
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Chicago Regional Finals. The ArenaFootball League also has a long history with Allstate Arena. The Horizon hosted an arenafootball test game in 1987 and the...
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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...
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Pittsburgh Power of the ArenaFootball League (AFL) from 2011 to 2014. Construction was completed on August 1, 2010, and the arena opened in time for the...
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Arena (officially stylized as AMALIE Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Tampa, Florida, that has been used for ice hockey, basketball, arenafootball,...
Minnesota Moose, and the ArenaFootball League's Minnesota Fighting Pike in the past. Target Center is the second-oldest arena in the NBA after Madison...
League play occasional games at the arena. The arena was previously home to the Toronto Phantoms of the ArenaFootball League (AFL) and the Toronto Rock...
Fargo Arena, known in indoor football circles as "The Well". Several teams called the Iowa Barnstormers have played in different indoor football leagues...
The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the ArenaFootball League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its...
the Arena Football League played their home games in the arena from 2004 until the team disbanded in 2008. The VooDoo resumed play at the arena in March...
Desert Diamond Arena (originally Glendale Arena and formerly Jobing.com Arena and Gila River Arena) is an indoor entertainment arena located in Glendale...
Force of the Indoor Football League (IFL), and the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League (AHL). Constructed in 1966, the arena has been home to numerous...
of the International Hockey League, and the Orlando Predators of the ArenaFootball League. It also hosted many other minor league sports teams, as well...
professional arenafootball teams in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They both have competed in the ArenaFootball League (AFL). The Soul made Six ArenaBowl appearances...
Football; the North Carolina State Fairgrounds and Dorton Arena (on the Fairgrounds). The arena also hosted the Carolina Cobras of the ArenaFootball...
Amsterdam Arena (stylised as Amsterdam ArenA) until the 2018–19 football season, when it was officially renamed in honour of Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff...
Monsters are a future Arenafootball team based in Duluth, Minnesota. They were announced as one of the four inaugural teams of The Arena League on April 5...
hosted other professional sports teams including the Utah Blaze of the ArenaFootball League and the Utah Starzz of the Women's National Basketball Association...
Ball Arena (formerly known as Pepsi Center) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Denver, Colorado. It is situated at Speer Boulevard, a main thoroughfare...
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