After four years away, the Arena Football League has announced they're making a comeback.
Under a set of new owners, the league plans to come back in 2024 they announced today, creating quite the buzz on social media among fans wondering if the league would ever have the momentum to make such a move.
“I think that there is a need for an indoor-style league, playing in the spring, which is not the time when the NFL is playing, and I just think that from the research that we've done, there's so many people that are still so interested in the game and a lot of the teams," Travelle Gaines, the league’s president of player development shared with Bally Sports.
The new iteration of the league is aiming to roll out a total of 16 teams, with a mix of previous teams and new teams and locations with a diverse group of owners.
16 teams is setting the bar for a relaunch high, considering when the league folded up and declared bankruptcy in 2019, there were just four teams playing.
Following years of rumors among players and coaches that the league was on the brink of folding due to financial reasons, they cancelled the 2009 season and never fully recovered in the years after.
They will enter a market that will now compete for eyeballs and ticket sales alongside recent upstart leagues like The Rock's launch of the XFL 3.0, as well as the Fan Controlled Football League and USFL that all take place outside of the traditional NFL and college football seasons.
See the social media announcement from the league below.