Af2

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The correct title of this article is af2. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
Af2
af2 logo
Sport Arena Football
Founded 2000
No. of teams 30
Country Flag of United States 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

[edit] National Conference

[edit] Central Division

[edit] Southwest Division

[edit] South Division

[edit] Inactive Markets/Possible Expansion

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

af2

AMERICAN CONFERENCE
EASTERN DIVISION

Albany Conquest
Manchester Wolves
Mahoning Valley Thunder
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers

MIDWESTERN DIVISION

Cincinnati Jungle Kats
Fort Wayne Fusion
Green Bay Blizzard
Louisville Fire
Quad City Steamwheelers

WESTERN DIVISION

Bakersfield Blitz
Boise Burn
Central Valley Coyotes
Everett Hawks
Spokane Shock
Stockton Lightning
Tri-Cities Fever


NATIONAL CONFERENCE
CENTRAL DIVISION

Amarillo Dusters
Arkansas Twisters
Lubbock Renegades
Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz
Tulsa Talons

SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION

Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings
Corpus Christi Sharks
Laredo Lobos
Rio Grande Valley Dorados
Texas Copperheads

SOUTHERN DIVISION

Alabama Steeldogs
Florida Firecats
South Georgia Wildcats
Tennessee Valley Vipers


DEFUNCT TEAMS
Augusta Stallions | Baton Rouge Blaze | Carolina Rhinos | Charleston Swamp Foxes | Cincinnati Swarm | Columbus Wardogs | Fresno Frenzy | Greensboro Prowlers | Hawaiian Islanders | Iowa Barnstormers | Jacksonville Tomcats | Lafayette Roughnecks | Laredo Law | Lincoln Lightning | Macon Knights | Memphis Xplorers | Mobile Wizards | New Haven Ninjas | Norfolk Nighthawks | Peoria Pirates | Pensacola Barracudas | Richmond Speed | Roanoke Steam | Rochester Brigade | San Diego Riptide | Tallahassee Thunder | Wichita Stealth
Related Articles: Arena Football League | af2 | Arena football | Indoor football
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