Arena Bowl Results 1987-2019

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.