Arena Football League

Arena Football League

Current season or competition: 2011 Arena Football League season
Arena Football League
Sport	Arena football
Founded	1987
Commissioner	Jerry Kurz
Inaugural season	1987
No. of teams	18
Country(ies)	United States
Most recent champion(s)	Spokane Shock
Most titles	Tampa Bay Storm (5)
TV partner(s)	NFL Network
Official website	ArenaFootball.com
Related competitions	Gridiron Enterprises
Founder	Jim Foster

The Arena Football League (AFL) is an indoor American football league founded in 1987 by Jim Foster. It is played indoors on a smaller field than American football, resulting in a faster-paced and higher-scoring game. The sport was invented in the early 1980s and patented by Foster, a former executive of the United States Football League and the National Football League.
The AFL would play 22 seasons from 1987 to 2008 before large debts forced the league to suspend operations in search of a more profitable business model. In December 2008 the league's owners canceled the 2009 season to begin work on developing a long-term plan to improve its economic model.^[1]
Unable to agree upon a viable economic plan for the future of the league, the AFL suspended operations indefinitely on August 4, 2009, with Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation following in December of that year.^[2] On September 28, 2009, Arena Football 1 was formed, containing many former AFL and af2 teams, as well as new franchises; AF1 purchased the AFL's assets (including its history and team names) in December 2009. On February 17, 2010, the AF1 announced it changed its name to the "Arena Football League", returning to the original league name. The league has its headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma and will play its games from April through August.
The league's championship game is known as the ArenaBowl.

Tweet