CLEVELAND — There could be a new game in town on the shores of Lake Erie.
Actually, it's something we've seen before, but as the saying goes, "What's old is new again."
More than three years after playing its last game, the Arena Football League on Wednesday announced plans to return for the 2024 season, with 16 teams slated to play a 10-game schedule plus the playoffs. It marks the rebirth of the high-scoring, fast-paced style of gridiron play, where squads line up on a 50-yard field inside basketball or hockey arenas and put on a show for the loyal fans in attendance.
"The Arena Football League brand has always sat at the promontory of indoor football by offering gridiron entertainment, fast action, and iron tough athletes in conjunction with delivering a family fun fan experience that uniquely engages the pig skin enthusiast," new Commissioner Lee A. Hutton II, who makes history as the first Black commissioner in American professional sports, said in a statement. "Ultimately, the professional sports brand speaks for itself and is proud to announce, 'We are back!'"
The AFL has not yet announced where those 16 teams will be located, with Deputy Commissioner Travelle Gaines only saying the league plans to put them in "markets that previously boasted AFL franchises and engage with the rabid fanbases that supported our brand of football." If that is indeed the case, then Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse could be a prime destination.
Arena football made its first foray into Cleveland in 1992, when the Thunderbolts made Richfield Coliseum their home. The team went just 8-26 in three seasons and attendance lagged before the franchise folded in 1994, but 14 years later, the league returned when the Las Vegas Gladiators moved into what was then Quicken Loans Arena.
With Browns legend Bernie Kosar serving as club president, the Cleveland Gladiators arrived to much fanfare in 2008, averaging more than 14,000 fans a game and made the playoffs with a solid 9-7 record. Led by receiver Otis Amey and his 48 touchdown catches, the group made a surprising run to the National Conference Championship game, where they lost 70-35 to the Philadelphia Soul.
The excitement surrounding Cleveland's newest team was sapped only a year later, when the entire AFL took a season off due to financial issues. While the Gladiators and the league both returned in 2010, attendance would never reach its previous highs, and Kosar would eventually take a step back from his roles.
Still, the Gladiators remained a fixture in the city for eight seasons, making the playoffs five times and developing a cult following among Clevelanders. The highlight of their run came on Aug. 23, 2014, when more than 18,000 fans packed the Q to see them host the Arizona Rattlers in ArenaBowl XXVII. Unfortunately, Arizona would win, 72-32.
With attendance back up to more than 10,000 a game, the Gladiators announced in 2017 they would be taking a two-year hiatus due to renovations at the arena. The plan was to return in time for 2020, but that would not come to pass, as the entire league wound up filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceasing operations. In the seasons prior to the shutdown, several AFL squads had folded, and just six teams remained when the final whistle blew.
It is not known when the Arena League will announce its new lineup of clubs, but Northeast Ohioans appear to have reason to be optimistic: In a video announcing the relaunch, the AFL featured a tweet from a fan named Tyler Hatcher reading, "Ohh come on back! I miss the Gladiators! The banners are still hanging in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse."
The league will be owned and operated by F1 Sports & Entertainment, which acquired the AFL rights last year. According to President Anthony Rossi, other features will include "the components of a modern-day business — streaming, betting, technology, virtual reality, and immerse fan engagement mixed with good old-fashioned iron-man football."
The original Arena Football League lasted from 1987-2019, save for the one scrubbed season in 2009. Besides the Gladiators, the Columbus Destroyers also played in the AFL from 2004-08 and again in 2019, often placing among the best in game attendance.