Getty Image / Mike Stobe
The defunct Arena Football League recently announced it would make a triumphant return. The AFL already went under in 2008 then again in 2019 but the third time’s a charm!
WaPo sports writer Jake Russell shared a list of 18 cities that would have Arena Football League teams upon relaunch. There are some big cities and some small towns in the mix.
The list includes: Austin, Boise, Bakersfield (CA), Chicago, Denver, St. Paul, Lake Charles (LA), Cincinnati, Orlando, Salem (OR), Philly, San Antonio, Tallahassee, Nashville, Everett (Washington), and Odessa (TX).
The interesting thing about some of the small cities, like Tallahassee where I went to college, is there are really only 1 or 2 places (at most) where an Arena Football franchise could play. In the case of Tallahassee, the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center is really the only option in town.
Here in Tallahassee we reached out to the city and both major universities that have arenas suitable for the AFL…
They all found out about Tallahassee being named an AFL location at the same time we did. What a head scratcher. https://t.co/0XJe5sLOpM
— Ryan Kelly (@RyanLKelly) August 1, 2023
Or, in the case of Bakersfield, the person who was selected as an Arena Football League franchise owner gave a fake name and did it as a joke… A report from Defector reveals the AFL chose someone named ‘Tim Robinson’ of the Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield. Only there is no Tim Robinson…
i’m in tears https://t.co/tldZk8RiXz pic.twitter.com/kboJddjYXc
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) August 1, 2023
In Salem, Oregon, the “Mayor Chris Hoy and Marion County Commissioner Kevin Cameron ‘both said they had no knowledge of an AFL team coming to Salem'” according to the Defector report.
They found the same to be true in Cincinnati where reporters from Cincinnati Enquirer couldn’t find any arena operator who had knowledge of being selected to own an Arena Football League franchise. The GM of the Heritage Bank Center, Cincy’s largest arena, did tell the Cincinnati Business Courier his arena would not host an AFL team.
The Bakersfield case is interesting. Because the person behind the fake ‘Tim Robinson’ story turned out to be a man by the name of Tim Carbajal. He told Defector that Tim Robinson was an alias but went on to say the Bakersfield AFL team would be named the California Grizzlies. There’s now a Twitter handle attached to that.
However, Carbajal told Defector the California Grizzlies AFL franchise still don’t have an arena to play in. But he does have experience managing a semi-pro team so here is some legitimacy to the Bakersfield saga. Carbajal told Defector “it’s definitely going to happen. When it rolls out, people are going to be astonished.”
As you can imagine, given the ‘Tim Robinson’ connection (I Think You Should Leave) there have already been countless memes surrounding this story. Just type ‘Arena Football League’ into Twitter and scroll…
One thing’s for certain, there are enough football fans in the US to support another league. But the space is getting crowded by the minute.