Af2
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- The correct title of this article is af2. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
| Af2 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sport | Arena Football |
| Founded | 2000 |
| No. of teams | 30 |
| Country |  United States |
| Current champions | Spokane Shock |
| Official website | www.af2.com |
af2 (short for arenafootball2) is the name of the Arena Football League's minor league, which started play in 2000. The rules are the same as for the parent league. While the parent league moved its season opening to February to accommodate a television contract with NBC in 2003, af2 stayed with the "traditional" Arena season of April-July.
Like most other minor sports leagues, the af2 exists to develop football players, and also to help players adapt to the style and pace of arena football. In addition, the af2 is similar to other minor leagues because af2 teams play in smaller cities and smaller venues. While the AFL is played in larger cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, the af2 fields teams in cities such as Wilkes-Barre, Bakersfield, Spokane, and Youngstown.
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[edit] Baker's Vision
In a June 2003 interview with Sports Illustrated, AFL commissioner David Baker briefly mentioned the af2, saying how one day, he envisions the league growing to 100 teams. As of 2006, this vision seems rather unlikely. The af2 is fielding 30 teams for 2007. The af2 fielded 23 teams in 2006 and twenty teams in 2005, down from twenty-five in 2004. In fact, the league saw declines in the number of teams every year since the 2002 season, when they fielded thirty-four teams, until the 2006 season saw the addition of three teams into the fold. The 2007 season will continue the expansion with a net gain of seven teams (the Macon Knights and Memphis Xplorers have ceased operations). This is possibly due to the fact that the league grew too quickly (the league saw thirteen new teams in 2001, and ten in 2002), since historically, massive expansions have little success (the National Indoor Football League, a rival indoor league, has seen large amounts of expansion teams since they began in 2001 but many struggle financially). Nine new expansion teams were approved for 2007 in the af2: the Boise Burn, the Cincinnati Jungle Kats, the Fort Wayne Fusion, the Laredo Lobos, the Lubbock Renegades, the Mahoning Valley Thunder, the Texas Copperheads, the Tri-Cities Fever, and an unnamed team in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Texas, Laredo, and Tri-Cities teams are all moving to the af2 from other indoor football leagues.
[edit] ArenaCup
The ArenaCup is the af2's championship game, held each August. For the league's first five years, it was held at the arena of the higher seeded team. However, as their parent league, the AFL, has changed, the af2 has changed too. The 2005 Arena Cup was the first to be played at a neutral site in Bossier City, Louisiana. The 2006 ArenaCup was played in Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan.[1]
For the 2000 and 2001 ArenaCups, the game was televised nationally by TNN (now Spike TV), who carried AFL games on Sunday afternoons at the time. However, when the AFL announced their televised games would be shown on NBC rather than TNN, the ArenaCup telecast was lost. The 2002 ArenaCup was televised by the Vision Network, and the 2003 game was televised by KWHB, a local station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After having no television coverage in 2004, the game was telecast nationally by Fox Sports Net in 2005 and Comcast Sports Net in 2006.
[edit] Past ArenaCup results
| Date Played | Winning Team | Losing Team | Site | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 10, 2000 | Quad City Steamwheelers | 68 | Tennessee Valley Vipers | 59 | Moline, IL |
| August 10, 2001 | Quad City Steamwheelers | 55 | Richmond Speed | 51 | Moline, IL |
| August 23, 2002 | Peoria Pirates | 65 | Florida Firecats | 47 | Peoria, IL |
| August 23, 2003 | Tulsa Talons | 58 | Macon Knights | 40 | Tulsa, OK |
| August 27, 2004 | Florida Firecats | 39 | Peoria Pirates | 26 | Estero, FL |
| August 27, 2005 | Memphis Xplorers | 63 | Louisville Fire | 41 | Bossier City, LA |
| August 26, 2006 | Spokane Shock | 57 | Green Bay Blizzard | 34 | San Juan, PR |
[edit] Current af2 teams
(in 2007 divisions)
[edit] American Conference
[edit] East Division
[edit] Midwest Division
[edit] West Division
- Bakersfield Blitz
- Boise Burn
- Central Valley Coyotes
- Everett Hawks
- Spokane Shock
- Stockton Lightning
- Tri-Cities Fever
[edit] National Conference
[edit] Central Division
[edit] Southwest Division
- Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings
- Corpus Christi Sharks
- Laredo Lobos
- Rio Grande Valley Dorados
- Texas Copperheads
[edit] South Division
[edit] Inactive Markets/Possible Expansion
- Albuquerque or Rio Rancho, New Mexico [2]-possible start 2008
- Biloxi, Mississippi-team never began due to Hurricane Katrina damaging arena in Biloxi
- Dayton, Ohio or Toledo, Ohio
- Fort Pierce, Florida [3]
- Iowa Barnstormers - possible return 2008
- Jacksonville Wizards
- Mississippi Headhunters - possible start 2008
- Ottawa, Ontario , Canada
- Peoria Pirates - possible return 2008
- Portland, Maine
- Reno, Nevada
- Sarasota, Florida
- San Bernardino, California or Ontario, California
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Tucson, Arizona or Prescott, Arizona [4]
- Yuma, Arizona, if they have a standard arena
