Five-Step Process to Salvaging the Arena Football League 

The Arena Football League has gone from being positioned as immediately the top indoor or arena football league, to a mess that most believe can not be salvaged. Most fans in the indoor football space are already dreaming of the day when the Indoor Football League absorbs teams like the Billings Outlaws, Nashville Kats, West Texas Desert Hawks, Orlando Predators, Salina Liberty, and Albany Firebirds. Not. So. Fast. The AFL isn’t dead yet, and it may not be headed there either. 

Let’s not forget that in year one of the Indoor Football League when it was formed by the merger of two leagues, they launched with 14 of the 17 teams that had been in those two leagues, as well as 3 teams from the CIFL, and 2 expansion teams in 2009. By 2011, 13 of those teams were gone, whether they had folded or gone to other leagues didn’t matter. 

The National Arena League launched in 2017 with eight teams. By 2018 five of those teams or nearly two-thirds of the league had already dropped out. The NAL is now in its seventh season and has had a total of 23 different teams play in the league at some point, but as of right now only four remain. 

American Indoor Football League returned in 2024 under new ownership, but it was originally launched in 2006. The original version of the league lasted less than a full season when several big-time figures within the league decided to take the teams and form a new league rather than continue to function under the AIF ownership group. By 2007 the AIF no longer existed. 

Where there is a will there is a way. There is a path to not only salvaging this league, but thriving, and they already accomplished the hardest part: The coup that resulted in the removal of Lee Hutton, and Travelle Gaines. Now with new leadership in place, the league can focus on a future, a future that is much brighter now than it was just 3 weeks ago. So the question is what is next on the agenda to fixing the Arena Football League and moving forward? Here are my five steps.

Step One: Remove Any Team That Is Not Financially Secure

It’s always darkest just before the dawn comes to mind here, as it is never a positive thing when franchises need to be removed, or put on hiatus. It’s difficult to stomach for owners, players, coaches, and possibly even most importantly the people who make the sport work; fans and sponsors. However the question has to be asked if these teams are doing more damage to themselves, and their markets by not just moving forward with a plan to head into 2025. 

If an ownership group has any doubts that they can finish the season at this point, it should be agreed upon to put those teams on hiatus until the 2025 season when the league can rethink its business plan, and restructure in a way that can support promises it once made to franchise owners. This step COULD BE complete already, but there are questions about some franchises and their ability to compete in a new-look AFL that does not currently offer any salary aid to the smaller market owners as initially promised. This has created an incredibly large salary deficit between some teams and could create some ugly blowouts as things continue this year. 

Many of these owners are dipping into money they never intended to in order to make things work for the remainder of the 2024 season harming themselves personally or their other businesses that help fund the team. A trend has emerged where some of these teams are carrying more weight than others to even play their games as scheduled. This is adding extra strain on owners who may otherwise have had a more viable chance at success if not asked to do these things. 

Make no mistake, I do not fault anyone for trying to keep their team functioning and trying to weather a storm they did not create, even if they did decide to move into what amounted to tornado alley for 2024. If ten teams is where the league feels it is in a good place, then that is a good starting point. Odd numbers create scheduling difficulties, and 10 teams can create a very competitive 4-6 team playoff bracket depending on how the league chooses to structure it. 

Step Two: Centralize or Clearly Define Where Games Will Be Streamed, and Make Attendance and Viewership Numbers Public

Right now it is almost like a wild goose chase to find out where the games will be streamed, who will play who, and where they will play. I understand a lot of this comes from the new leadership just taking over, but it feels like from the outside looking in, there still isn’t anything set in stone. This needs to change. Fans need to know when, where, and how to watch/attend games for this league, and its teams to thrive and grow. I would lean into the Arenafootball.Live.com website for streaming purposes. 

Making sure these things are scheduled and concrete well in advance will in itself prevent a lot of criticism, and make the league feel a lot more professional already. Professionalism and visibility are important when trying to build a national image and bring in sponsors. It should also help aid viewership and attendance numbers both of which will be very important when it comes to my next step. 

Step Three: Find League Sponsors or Partners

It would appear the partners promised by the previous people in power never came to fruition despite claims they were working with Nike, BSM Sports, and a couple of other brands. The league needs one or more people dedicated to simply attracting league wide sponsorships, and/or partnerships. Lowering the cost of ownership was one idea the previous powers had correct, but their execution was piss-poor at best. 

The new people in charge need to re-dedicate themselves to this cause and bring in brands that can see the value in partnering with a league that has teams in Kansas, Texas, New York, Florida, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, and could in the near future look to expand to other markets by reviving lost teams in 2025. 

These partnerships could be as simple and small as offering brands a graphic on the website, a dasher board in the Arena Bowl, naming weekly and/or yearly player awards after a sponsor or commercials run league-wide. If at all possible, approaching brands that can provide essentials for the players to live comfortably in season would be ideal.

Whether those are things like soap and toothpaste, meal vouchers, or a partnership with a national hotel chain to provide rooms at a cheaper price, or a travel partner like once promised, the more you can offer players, or team owners that they do not need to worry about via sponsorships on the league level, the more attractive this league becomes long term. Maybe it never goes as far as promising to pay portions of the salaries, but if teams are saving money throughout the year because of league sponsors providing amenities the team otherwise would have, perhaps those salaries are more feasible. 

Step Four: Get the League Office Back to Operating in the Black

The League office can not be in debt if this league hopes to find success going forward. A reoccurring complaint throughout this from Lee Hutton was that some teams never paid their buy in. Now this may very well be true, but if that is the case, then it should have already been rectified, and used to pay the players/coaches that were promised wages that never saw a dime. We are past that point now, and now this league needs to move forward as if it’s operating at square one financially. 

Forcing a team to pay a buy-in may be a band aid for a gunshot wound at this point, a pointless gesture that would at best only shift the issues and not solve them. This needs to be bigger picture fixes, specifically an infusion of capital into the league not from the owners, and preferably from outside sponsorships. The bones of this league can be something great with the right partners and people in place. Having Jeff Fisher as the commissioner to lead the way should help the league find more partners willing to invest in the league.

Step Five: Pay the Players, and Coaches What They Were Promised

This will be the hardest step for the new league to swallow, but they have to understand perception is everything. Until these players are treated with the respect they are asked to show, this league will never stand on equal ground with leagues like the IFL, where whether or not a player will get paid on a week-to-week basis is no longer a question, and hasn’t been for years. 

A move like this to pay the people affected by the previous ownership group will be no small task, but it is the right move for a league that needs to rebuild an image nearly destroyed by all the negatives to come out of this. Players will never forget the teams that didn’t pay them, and they also will never forget the league that made an effort to make it right. 

Goodwill promotion is a side effect of a move like this that can not be written off or under sold as a factor in this decision. Perception is everything in a day and age where word travels faster than ever thanks to social media, and more and more independent news outlets popping up by the day. 

A story like this would take off like wildfire and would go a long way toward erasing the negative energy toward the league as of right now. Keep in mind the IFL wasn’t always the model of stability it is now, but their commitment to consistency and putting out a good product year after year made fans slowly forget about the missteps along the way. The moral of the story is a messy beginning doesn’t mean a league is doomed to fail. It is year 16 for the IFL, and they continue to see their audience and reach grow by the year.  Sometimes, following the model of success, and not trying to reinvent the wheel is exactly how you find legitimacy as a business.

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