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98-679: All eight of the inaugural teams in Arena Football One had played the 2024 season in the Arena Football League , which had been launched that year as a revival of two leagues bearing the Arena Football League name: the original that operated from 1987 to 2008, and the second—coincidentally also known as Arena Football 1 before acquiring rights to the AFL name prior to its first season—from 2010 to 2019. The 2024 AFL's lone season began with 16 teams, six of which had joined through

196-459: A free agent and can sign with any team. They also require minimum and sometimes maximum salaries for newly drafted players. Leagues may also allow teams to trade draft picks among each other in exchange for other draft picks or in exchange for players. In 1935, National Football League president Joseph Carr instituted the NFL draft as a way to restrain teams' payrolls and reduce the dominance of

294-533: A 12-game regular season (up from 10 in 2024) and an eight-team playoff culminating in a yet-unnamed championship to be held at the home arena of the highest-seeded team. On October 22, the Oregon Lightning , partially owned by the head coach of the 2024 AFL's Oregon Blackbears Chuck Jones, were announced as AF1's newest expansion team. The expansion marks the continuation of arena football in Oregon under

392-745: A converted ice rink at the American Dream Meadowlands shopping center in East Rutherford, New Jersey , with the Outlaws defeating the Firebirds 46–41. On September 4, 2024, each of the eight surviving AFL teams from the end of the 2024 season released a one-sentence statement: "A new era begins today." Concurrently, the Arizona Bandits, a planned 2025 AFL expansion team, released their own statement: "Something big

490-408: A draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team selects a player, the team receives exclusive rights to sign that player to a contract, and no other team in the league may sign the player. The process is similar to round-robin item allocation . The best-known type of draft is the entry draft, which is used to allocate players who have recently become eligible to play in

588-420: A league. Depending on the sport, the players may come from college , high school or junior teams, or teams in other countries. An entry draft is intended to prevent expensive bidding wars for young talent and to ensure that no team can sign contracts with all of the best young players and make the league uncompetitive. To encourage parity , teams that do poorly in the previous season usually get to choose first in

686-503: A letter from the USPTO rendering Hutton's and Gaines' claims to ownership of the AFL logo to be invalid. The trademark and all other trademarks from the AFL and af2 solely belong to G6 Sports Group. The league would announce the hiring of its new president and chief operating officer Jared Widman on May 28, 2024, along with the announcement that the league was contracting to nine teams, again removing Oregon (who had been briefly removed from

784-769: A new structure—legally, a continuation of the Oregon High Desert Storm of the American West Football Conference —following the Blackbears' entanglements with Hutton and its unsuccessful efforts to remain in the AFL in 2024. On November 13, the Corpus Christi Tritons were announced to be joining AF1; the Tritons had been part of American Indoor Football for the 2024 season but had been excluded when most of

882-423: A pre-launch merger with Champions Indoor Football . Within three weeks, five of the 16 teams had folded. After multiple complaints of promises that were left unfulfilled to teams, to players, and to G6 Sports and Entertainment (the holding company that had been licensing the trademarks and intellectual property to the league), a hasty reorganization ousted founding commissioner Lee Hutton. With direct backing from G6,

980-523: A roster system based on where the club finished the previous year. It ran in reverse order with the wooden spooners getting first choice and the premiers last. The draft lasted just the one season before being defeated in the courts by players and coaches opposed to its limitations. Like the IPL the SA20 also has an auction where teams bid on players and subject a salary cap and restrictions on roster size. After

1078-450: A team receives as a result of free agency (up to 32 compensatory selections are given each year), and any picks awarded for developing minority candidates for NFL head coaching or general manager positions (starting with the 2021 draft in accordance with NFL Resolution JC-2A). Teams are allowed to trade draft picks (including compensation picks since 2017) among each other in exchange for other draft picks or in exchange for players. Because

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1176-416: A team via a disaster draft , should an accident or other disaster kill or disable many players. Drafts are usually permitted under antitrust or restraint of trade laws because they are included in collective bargaining agreements between leagues and labor unions representing players. These agreements generally stipulate that after a certain number of seasons, a player whose contract has expired becomes

1274-401: A viable strategy to tank, as a second overall pick was still guaranteed. This was made evident in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft , where marquee prospects Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel were both seen as NHL-ready and likely to be stars; much speculation surrounded the struggling Buffalo Sabres , who allegedly tanked to secure the rights to at least the second overall pick (a charge that, although

1372-414: Is coming." Later that day, hype videos featuring a revamped logo began to be released. Albany was the first team to confirm it had withdrawn from the AFL, but would not elaborate further, stating that further news would follow September 5. According to sources, including ArenaFan and Arena Insider , the teams were to unite under a new banner, Arena Football One , a name that was originally slated for

1470-419: Is currently three rounds long with each of the 12 teams in the league (trades aside) making three picks each. Draft order for teams that made the playoffs the previous year are based on team records. The team with the highest previous record will pick last. Since eight teams qualify for playoffs , the bottom eight picks are determined by this method. For the remaining top four picks, a selection process similar to

1568-412: Is divided into three rounds in which each club has one selection. In addition to drafted players, MLS teams also acquire new players from their youth academies . These players are called homegrown players. Homegrown player are academy players who is given a first-team contract. They are required to have spent at least one year in a club's academy, and to have lived in the club's territory (for example, in

1666-406: Is responsible for holding drafts prior to the commencement of each season. Teams can buy foreign players with international experience while they still can purchase Indian players with little or no experience. The Pakistan Super League uses a draft system for player recruitment before the start of every season to fairly distribute the league's new players. Teams are allotted slots in every round of

1764-529: The 2024 season . The first was a draft of college players , followed by a supplemental draft . The final draft of 2013 was a preseason waiver draft in which teams could select players who had been waived by their first squads, but only one player was selected at that time. The league held a college draft, referred to after 2021 simply as the NWSL Draft after the inclusion of non-collegiate selections, prior to each league season. The waiver draft, now called

1862-585: The Arizona Bandits , a team that had previously been announced to be joining the AFL in 2025, released its own teaser at the same time as the eight inaugural teams. In an interview with the Billings Gazette , Titus indicated that one of the expansion teams would be based in Mexico, and others would be in cities that had previously hosted arena football teams. On September 9, 2024, AF1 announced

1960-590: The Minnesota Myth . These problems have prompted calls for Hutton to resign, including from Billings Outlaws owner Steven Titus. Marshals owner Wes Johnson noted that the league structure centered all power in the commissioner, whom the owners had no leverage to fire. On May 9, 2024, it was announced that the Georgia Force had abruptly folded and the Soul had suspended operations for the remainder of

2058-610: The Orlando Predators (also coming from the NAL) and the Nashville Kats ; several other such revivals were included at the start of the season but were among those contracted in the reorganization. On February 1, 2023, over a year after Darren Arbet , who had acquired the league's trademarks out of bankruptcy, sold them to an investment group called G6 Sports Investment Group and sub-partner F1 Sports & Entertainment,

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2156-572: The Stockton Crusaders as their first expansion team joining the eight former AFL teams for the 2025 season. On September 10, AF1 announced another expansion team to be based out of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and owned by Matt Rowland, a college friend of league president Jared Widman's. On September 12, the Monterrey Kings were announced as the first AF1 team in Mexico. Firebirds owner Mike Kwarta indicated in an interview that

2254-485: The women's national team . On May 13, 2024, in an email from owner Diana Hutton, the Minnesota Myth became the fourth team to suspend operations, blaming it on an inability to raise necessary sponsorships because of "negative publicity" and accusing the owners of "sabotage" in order to force her husband Lee Hutton to resign as commissioner; Hutton confirmed the team's closure publicly a day later. Hours later,

2352-425: The "re-entry wire", has also become a permanent part of the league. The league also created other draft mechanisms to address other types of eligibility, such as the unsubsidized individual distribution ranking order introduced for college draft-ineligible NWSL federation players in 2016, and the under-18 entry list for domestic minors introduced in 2023. With league expansion and contraction since its establishment,

2450-649: The 2024 season with hopes of returning in 2025. On May 12, 2024, kicker Melissa Strother made an extra point while playing for the Washington Wolfpack , making her the first female player to score a point in the Arena Football League. Strother, who had previously been on the Marshals roster prior to the CIF merger with the AFL, was a 13-year veteran of women's leagues and a former member of

2548-641: The 2024 season, while he mentioned the league might expand in the future to 24 teams, as the Chicago Rush and Arizona Bandits are expected to join in 2025 along with other possible teams in markets that were part of the league's original market announcement. Hutton also declared that the league game "will be broadcast , streamed and will also be available in VR ". He also referred to the original list of cities and revealed that other "leagues and individuals" (none specified) were trying to cancel teams contracts with

2646-452: The AF1 divisional alignment was announced, with the Monterrey Kings and Stockton Crusaders electing to postpone their inaugural seasons until 2026. Arena Football League (2024) The Arena Football League ( AFL ) was a professional indoor American football league founded in 2023 with their first, and only, season beginning in 2024. The recent AFL took its identity, history, some of

2744-440: The AFL had selected the following cities that would be receiving new teams: Austin, Texas ; Boise, Idaho ; Bakersfield, California ; Chicago, Illinois ; Denver, Colorado ; St. Paul, Minnesota ; Lake Charles, Louisiana ; Cincinnati, Ohio ; Orlando, Florida ; Salem, Oregon ; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; St. Louis, Missouri ; Tallahassee, Florida ; Nashville, Tennessee ; Everett, Washington and Odessa, Texas . Several of

2842-467: The AFL to establish a new league, Arena Football One , separate from the legal entanglements that ensnared the AFL. The original Arena Football League , created in 1981 and founded in 1986 by Jim Foster , had previously existed in two interrelated incarnations between 1987 and 2008, and 2010 to 2019. Only one of the current AFL teams has direct ties to the former AFL: the Albany Firebirds ;

2940-468: The AFL, including champions the Billings Outlaws , began hyping up "Arena Football is back" in various team social sites posing an image on September 4, 2024, saying, "A new era begins today." The next day it was announced that they would be playing in a newly-formed league called Arena Football One , sharing the name with a working title used by the 2010s AFL before its launch. The trademark

3038-535: The AIF's teams joined the National Arena League . On November 15, the Arizona Bandits , previously announced as a 2025 AFL expansion team, were officially announced as members of AF1. That same day, the AF1 announced it would be aligned into three divisions with a twelve-game schedule across a 14-week regular season, with the specific schedule and alignment to be announced on November 19. On November 18,

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3136-549: The Firebirds had previously played as the Albany Empire the previous three seasons in the National Arena League after its ownership group acquired the intellectual properties of the Albany Empire of the AFL (the final champions of that league and itself a successor to two previous AFL and AF2 franchises known as the Firebirds) after the AFL's bankruptcy. Two other existing clubs revive the names of former AFL teams :

3234-670: The Grey Cup champion selecting last. As with the NFL Draft, trading of picks is very common, meaning that a team will not necessarily have eight picks in a given draft. The draft is restricted to Canadian citizens, plus non-citizens who were raised in Canada since childhood (see the relevant section of the main CFL article ). Eligible players can be drafted both from U Sports football programs in Canada and U.S. college football programs (with

3332-788: The KHL and its players introduced a draft, starting from the very first season of the league . It also allowed teams to use a first-round draft pick to select protected players from a team's farm system. The KHL Junior Draft was discontinued in 2016. A draft system is used for The Hundred , a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament in England and Wales run by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which started in 2021. The inaugural Hundred draft took place in October 2019. The Canadian Football League holds its annual player draft before

3430-554: The MLB draft takes place during the season instead of in the offseason. In December, MLB holds the much shorter Rule 5 draft . If an organization keeps a player in the minor leagues for a certain number of years, other teams can draft him in the Rule 5 draft. The drafting team must keep the player on its major league roster; it cannot put the player in its own minor leagues system. MLL implemented its first collegiate draft in 2001. The draft

3528-493: The NBA Draft Lottery is conducted for the four teams that did not qualify for the playoffs. The WWE Draft is used to refresh WWE 's Raw and SmackDown rosters, as well as shuffle talent between the two. Cricket 's Indian Premier League instead holds a yearly auction before the start of each season in which teams bid on players, subject to a salary cap and restrictions on roster size. Indian Super League

3626-526: The NBA, the NHL uses a lottery system to determine which team gets the top pick. All 16 teams, up from 15 between 2017 and 2021, that failed to qualify for the playoffs take part in the weighted lottery with the winner moving up to select first overall. Any North American player aged 18–20, and any overseas player aged 18–21 is eligible to be selected. Players are generally chosen from junior hockey teams, high schools,

3724-463: The NCAA and overseas clubs. The NHL rotates the draft's location among cities with teams in the league. Like baseball, players drafted in the entry draft usually have to wait a few years in development, either in junior hockey or the minor leagues, before cracking an NHL roster; usually, only one or two draft picks, generally, those that are widely predicted to be blue-chip superstars, jump directly from

3822-615: The NFL requires that players be three years removed from high school, and of the lack of an effective junior development system outside the college and university programs, players are chosen almost exclusively from National Collegiate Athletic Association college football programs. The NFL draft has become one of the key events on the American football calendar, airing live on television each April. In recent years it had been held at New York's Radio City Music Hall , but in 2015 and 2016 it

3920-480: The Outlaws defeating the Firebirds 46–41. (**) Arenas that had been announced as each home team's arena but never hosted any games before their teams folded. For the 2024 return , the AFL had initially signed a national television deal with the NFL Network to broadcast over 30 AFL regular season games (games were to have been streamed on NFL+); but this never materalized, as NFL Network dropped plans to carry

4018-473: The Sabres' fans openly encouraged it, the team officially denied). From the 2016 to 2020 drafts , the top three overall picks were subject to lottery among all fourteen teams that did not make the playoffs, meaning the last-place team will only be assured of the fourth overall pick, at which point virtually any marquee prospect will have already been selected. Since the 2021 draft , only two draws are held for

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4116-416: The U.S. and Canada . Most professional football clubs and those in other sports obtain young players through transfers from smaller clubs or by developing youth players through their own academies. The youth system is operated directly by the teams themselves, who develop their players from childhood. Parity in these leagues is instead maintained through promotion and relegation , which automatically expels

4214-518: The United States. January 16, 2024, the league announced a partnership with American 7s Football League (A7FL) for player development, as players can transfer between leagues, with the A7FL functioning as its de facto minor league. As part of the partnership, both leagues "will collectively align on marketing efforts that will elevate the visibility of leagues athletes". In November 2023,

4312-470: The arenas and participated in "anti-competitive practices" to try disturb the league progress, which caused a move to different locations. Hutton also mentioned he's in preliminary talks about conducting international exhibitions games, and with that in mind they changed the official website from "TheAFL.com" to "ArenaFootballUSA.com", as they plan to globalize the game. Following the inaugural week of competition in 2024, numerous problems began to emerge with

4410-535: The bottom of the AFL ladder will get the first draft picks. Also, any team that finishes in a low ladder position for consecutive seasons will receive priority picks. The AFL's National Draft is held in November, with a pre-season draft and a rookie draft held in December. The 1991 NSWRL season featured the introduction of rugby league football's first draft system. The draft allowed teams to recruit players on

4508-407: The case of Orlando City , northern Florida). The draft gives to the teams opportunity to acquire players from other regions of the country, from outside their territory. The teams can also acquire new players by signing players from other leagues (usually foreigner leagues). MLS has two transfer windows —the primary pre-season transfer window lasts three months from mid February until mid May, and

4606-463: The cities' arenas indicated they had never been contacted or had only limited conversations before being awarded teams, with Cincinnati's arenas indicating they had in fact rejected the league's advances. Hutton purposely avoided confirming any news reports, stating that he would only release information "on our time," and threatened any news outlets who reported critically on the league with "egg on their faces come April 2024." On August 29, 2023,

4704-402: The commissioner mentioned that the league would have a salary cap of $ 700,000, but the league will allows additional salary spending for "franchise players". Players were promised a $ 1,000 per-game salary, substantially higher than that of other indoor leagues and in line with the AFL's previous incarnations. On July 18, 2023, TMZ Sports initially reported, and the league soon confirmed, that

4802-574: The draft lasts 20 rounds (down from 40 in 2019 with the exception of a 5-round 2020 draft), but earlier drafts have lasted up to 100 rounds. The MLB Draft generally receives less attention than the drafts in other American sports, since drafted players usually spend several years in the minor leagues before they crack the Major League team's roster. Also, unlike the MLS, NFL, NBA and the NHL Drafts,

4900-405: The draft lottery is rigged. NBA teams choose players from the NCAA and from teams overseas. It was formerly common for players to be chosen directly from high school, but in 2006, the NBA required that players wait a year after high school before playing in the NBA. Almost all top U.S. players thus play at least one year in college. The NHL operates a seven-round off-season draft (224 picks). Like

4998-480: The draft to the NHL (e.g. Sidney Crosby or Jaromír Jágr ). The league has incrementally expanded the draft lottery process over the course of the early 2010s to discourage "tanking"—the act of deliberately losing to get a better draft pick. Historically, the league only subjected the first overall pick to the draft lottery among the five worst teams in the league, meaning that if a draft had more than one marquee prospect (a generally rare occurrence), it would still be

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5096-614: The existing teams allowed to protect 15 players. The league will offer a base salary of $ 400 per game—less than the $ 1,000 that the AFL had initially promised in 2024 but higher than other indoor leagues, with teams allowed to pay higher salaries at their own discretion— and will not require players to play "ironman" on both offense and defense as they had under previous iterations of the league. The league will follow traditional arena football rules and restrictions otherwise. The season structure will feature two divisions (East and West) of six teams each, assuming no further expansion, all playing

5194-518: The first two selections. Starting with the 2022 lottery , the team winning one of the two lotteries is only allowed to move up a maximum of ten spots in the draft order and teams will only be allowed to win the lottery twice in a five-year period. The three major junior leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League also hold drafts of teenage players in their territories. Major League Baseball holds two drafts each year. In June,

5292-418: The first-year player draft, MLB's entry draft, takes place. Only players from Canada, the U.S. or a U.S. territory may be drafted; players from elsewhere are free agents and can be signed by any team. Draftees are high-school graduates who have opted not to go to college; college baseball players at four-year institutions who have played three years or turned 21; or junior college baseball players. As of 2021,

5390-566: The games before they were played. The league announced on March 29 that much of the league's schedule will be carried on Gray Television owned-and-operated stations in each team's home market and in regional syndication. Select AFL games were livestreamed through the Vyre streaming app before the league moved its remaining games to a league-managed YouTube account midway through the regular season. The 2024 playoffs were carried via CBS Sports Network , with DAZN holding simulcast rights outside

5488-465: The latter category containing one Canadian school, Simon Fraser ). International players, which can compose up to half of a CFL team's roster, are not subject to a draft and enter the league by way of the negotiation list , a process that allows a CFL team to unilaterally stake claim to any international player on a first-come, first-served basis without the player's consent and bar them from negotiating with any other CFL team. This includes almost all of

5586-528: The league announced a multi-year partnership with USA Football naming the AFL as an "official national team development & scouting partner", with the AFL helping USA Football recruiting players who want to represent the United States in international competition. Draft (sports) A draft is a process used in some countries (especially in North America) and sports (especially in closed leagues ) to allocate certain players to teams. In

5684-476: The league closer in line with global standards within the sport. The Premier Lacrosse League held its first collegiate draft in 2019, shortly before the start of its inaugural season. The WNBA draft is held every spring. It has had several locations during its history; the most recent draft in 2022 took place in New York City, following two drafts held virtually due to COVID-19 concerns. The draft

5782-400: The league had narrowly completed the 2024 season, it had been left with numerous unpaid debts that he, though he would maintain responsibility, had been advised not to immediately pay off, but that the team owners had stipulated the debts be paid as a condition for returning. On September 6, 2024, AF1 formally announced its launch with a press release and new social media feeds, confirming that

5880-729: The league has also irregularly held both expansion drafts to help stock the rosters of new teams, and a dispersal draft in which teams could select players from a defunct team . On August 22, 2024, the NWSL announced the elimination of its draft and discovery systems as part of its renegotiated collective bargaining agreement with the National Women's Soccer League Players Association . NWSL teams could pursue and sign any prospective collegiate and international players as free agents, transfers between NWSL teams would require player consent, and all contracts would become guaranteed, bringing

5978-422: The league kicked off, which provided the legal justification for revoking the license on the AFL trademarks. The change in commissioner did not completely restore stability; Oregon pulled out of a last-minute assignment "due to unforeseen circumstances" on May 24, forcing the temporarily independent Cedar Rapids River Kings to step in the Blackbears' stead; Rapid City, having faced continued labor strife tied to

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6076-768: The league officially announced that the Billings Outlaws , formerly of Champions Indoor Football , would be the inaugural members of the new version of the league. On August 31, the West Texas Desert Hawks (formerly the Warbirds) were the second team confirmed. The Orlando Predators were the third team announced on September 25; with the announcement of the Predators, the league announced its intent to instead have 20 teams in its 2024 season, as it planned on absorbing three additional teams from Champions Indoor Football. On October 5, 2023, Hutton appeared with

6174-693: The league officially announced the return of original AFL co-founding partner and former commissioner Jerry Kurz , this time as general counsel and senior advisor of player operations. On June 5, 2024, the league announced the addition of former AFL player Gary Compton as director of football operations. On June 8, 2024, the front office staff added Tracey Leinin as President of Football Administration. On June 24, 2024, they then added Laurie Voke as Vice President of Sales. On June 25, 2024, one day later they added former professional player and coach Dr. Jennifer Welter as Chief Marketing Officer. The 2024 season finished July 19, 2024 with ArenaBowl XXXIII on

6272-439: The league web site, then restored, the previous day) for the remainder of the season. Oregon announced a return to play in 2025 on social media and have also retained its previous online broker for ticket sales for "any future home games." Oregon was ultimately unable to return due to entanglements with former league president Travelle Gaines, who had owned the majority stake in the Blackbears and never sold it. On June 4, 2024,

6370-501: The league's quarterbacks . In the inaugural 2018 Global T20 Canada a player draft was held for franchises to choose the players from the available pool. Draft order in the NFL is determined in a reverse-record order (the previous season's worst team picking first, the Super Bowl winner picking last). There are 7 rounds of the draft (a maximum of 224 picks), so each team can have 7 selections, plus whatever compensatory selections

6468-463: The league's launch, as a revival of the previous Arena Football League that operated in two incarnations from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2019. The league launched in April 2024 with 16 teams, six of which were absorbed through a pre-launch merger with the existing Champions Indoor Football . Three weeks into the season, after numerous controversies, unfulfilled commitments and teams suspending operations,

6566-666: The league's perennial contenders. It was adopted by the precursor of the National Basketball Association in 1947; by the National Hockey League in 1963; and by Major League Baseball in 1965, although draft systems had been used in baseball since the 19th century. Major Indoor Lacrosse League ( National Lacrosse League ) adopted a collegiate draft in 1988, Major League Soccer in 2000, Major League Lacrosse in 2001, and Major League Rugby in 2020. Sports drafts are uncommon outside

6664-674: The league's teams. The Philadelphia Soul coach and roster all departed abruptly before their contest (forcing an American Arena League team from Dallas to don the Soul's uniforms for the game) against the Louisiana VooDoo , who themselves were forced to move their home schedule from Lake Charles to Lafayette days before the game after the manager of Lake Charles's arena accused the VooDoo of failing to cover rent or insurance expenses. The Oregon Blackbears ' home arena in Salem, Oregon

6762-462: The league. It was also a result of the failure of country zoning , introduced in the late 1960s, which had led to a systematic inequality whereby the clubs with the best zones, like Carlton and Hawthorn , could dominate over clubs with poorer zones like Melbourne . In the AFL Draft, clubs receive picks based on the position in which they finish on the ladder. Therefore, the teams that finish at

6860-555: The main auction takes place there is then a rookie draft where each team has two minutes to pick one rookie player that is 18-22 years of age. The team that finished last place in the last season is the first to pick and the team that finished first in the last season is the last to pick. When the Russian Superleague became the Kontinental Hockey League , the collective bargaining agreement between

6958-414: The new league would carry over Jeff Fisher as commissioner (now on a permanent basis) and Jerry Kurz , the founding commissioner of the 2010s AFL and a veteran of the original league, as chief executive officer along with the existing front office staff. In the statement, AF1 indicated that additional " expansion teams in emerging markets" would be among the teams to play the 2025 season. Of those teams,

7056-524: The new owners confirmed plans to relaunch the Arena Football League. The relaunched league, led by chairman Chris Chetty, president Anthony Rossi, president of operations Shan Singh, and commissioner Lee A. Hutton III, will feature 16 teams playing a 10-game season over the course of the summer months, followed by a postseason format that has yet to be determined. In a later interview, Chetty indicated that G6 planned no involvement or spending, with its only role being to collect licensing royalties from Hutton, who

7154-411: The ouster was made with the full cooperation of G6 Sports Group (owners of the trademarks and connected to the original F1 group that had founded the revival), who had suggested Fisher for the position. Chairman Chris Chetty, who had initially expected to remain in Canada and not to have an active role in league operations, noted that Hutton had breached multiple clauses of his contract with G6 even before

7252-596: The owners of three remaining CIF teams—the ICT Regulators of the Wichita metropolitan area, Salina Liberty and Southwest Kansas Storm in Dodge City —and CIF commissioner Mike McCoy as they announced the remainder of that league was merging into the AFL, with McCoy being named AFL deputy commissioner three weeks later. On November 16, 2023, at the AFL relaunch event, Hutton revealed the 16 teams set play in

7350-445: The ownership group fired founding commissioner Lee Hutton and reorganized as a ten-team league (shortly thereafter restored to eleven, by the end of the season shrinking to eight), hiring former NFL coach Jeff Fisher as its interim commissioner and bringing back general counsel Jerry Kurz from the previous incarnation of the league. On September 6, 2024, all eight teams, along with Fisher and Kurz, announced their joint departure from

7448-431: The postseason draft, sometimes with a "lottery" factor to discourage teams from deliberately losing. Other types of drafts include the expansion draft , in which a new team selects players from other teams in the league, and the dispersal draft, in which a league's surviving teams select players from the roster of a newly defunct franchise. Major professional sports leagues also have special contingency plans for rebuilding

7546-597: The promises made by the Hutton regime, folded following their May 23 game. West Texas reportedly followed suit on June 18, with the River Kings again stepping in to fill in for the Desert Hawks' final game. In more twists of fate in the ongoing turmoil surrounding former ownership in the "new" AFL, Arena Insider reported that former commissioner Lee Hutton and former president Travelle Gaines tried to apply for

7644-399: The remaining teams committed to finishing the 10-week season; three additional teams would fold over the course of the season, leaving eight by the end of the regular season. Jeff Fisher , who had originally joined the league as an advisor to the Nashville Kats , assumed the role of temporary commissioner for the remainder of the season. Following ArenaBowl XXXIII , the surviving members of

7742-413: The rulebook and some team names from, but is not directly connected to, the previous iteration of the Arena Football League founded by Jim Foster in 1986. On February 1, 2023, G6 Sports Group (a Delaware corporation operating as the American arm of Toronto, Ontario -based hedge fund ForceOne Capital), a new ownership group that had acquired the league's trademarks and social media accounts, announced

7840-449: The same Arena Insider reported that sources with the AFL stated that, in a unanimous vote among the remaining owners, Lee Hutton was ousted as league commissioner and that Nashville Kats president (and former NFL and USFL head coach) Jeff Fisher was appointed interim commissioner. The official announcement was made May 14. This is despite a league bylaw that was believed to have granted Hutton total immunity from ouster by league owners;

7938-532: The second incarnation of the AFL in 2010. The new league, whose intellectual properties will be owned by the Billings Outlaws, will be a full separation from G6, as all eight teams leave the AFL and join AF1. In a statement to Arena Insider, Chetty noted that after the league had narrowly completed the 2024 season, it had been left with numerous unpaid debts that he, though he would maintain responsibility, had been advised not to immediately pay off, but that

8036-519: The secondary mid season transfer window runs one month from early July to early August. Major League Rugby implemented its first collegiate draft in 2020 . Players are eligible for draft after 3 years in college at 21 years old. Free agents can try to join teams at 18 years old. Major League Wrestling held its first draft in 2021. NLL held its first collegiate draft in 1988 as Major Indoor Lacrosse League . The National Women's Soccer League used drafts from its inaugural 2013 season until

8134-556: The start of the season, either in the last days of April or the start of May. It was formerly held as part of the annual league meetings in Hamilton , but is now typically held by conference call with the first two rounds being broadcast live on TSN . Since 2016 , the draft has consisted of eight rounds, with teams drafting in inverse order of their records in the previous season, with the Grey Cup runner-up selecting second-to-last and

8232-528: The team owners had stipulated the debts be paid as a condition for returning. On September 6, all eight teams announced their departure from the AFL to form Arena Football One. Arizona officially joined AF1 in mid-November. Much of the Oregon Blackbears staff accepted positions with AF1's Oregon Lightning , a new team (formed from the existing Oregon High Desert Storm of the American West Football Conference , which had been inactive since 2023) that

8330-399: The top pick to the worst team from the year before, the NBA holds a draft lottery to determine who chooses first. The top four picks are allocated by chance among the 14 teams that did not make the playoffs the year before. This discourages a team from losing on purpose to get a better draft pick, but also causes other controversies such as allegations and conspiracy theories suggesting that

8428-474: The trademark of the AFL shield logo which was rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office citing "likelihood of confusion". "Trademark Act Section 2(d) bars registration of an applied-for mark that is so similar to a registered mark that it is likely consumers would be confused, mistaken, or deceived as to the commercial source of the goods and/or services of the parties," stated in

8526-469: The twelfth team, which is scheduled to be formally announced the last week of September, would be Arizona. The league had not ruled out further expansion before the season starts, with the schedule to be finalized by the end of October. In an interview with the Albany Times-Union , league sources indicated that an expansion draft would be held to allot players to the four new AF1 teams, with

8624-614: The weakest teams from a league in exchange for the strongest teams in the next lower league. In Australian rules football 's premier competition, the Australian Football League (AFL), a draft was introduced in 1986 when the competition was then known as the Victorian Football League (VFL). This was in response to the increasing transfer fees and player salaries at the time, which in combination with declining attendances, threatened to derail

8722-515: Was deemed unsafe, forcing a slew of schedule changes. The Iowa Rampage folded after its inaugural contest, accusing Hutton of reneging on promises to cover increased expenses, while the Rapid City Marshals granted six players their release and renegotiated lower salaries for their remaining players after they also did not receive the promised compensation from the league, a tactic the Washington Wolfpack also used. Their final game

8820-474: Was established to be separate from the ownership entanglements that had ensnared the Blackbears. Attempts to reach G6 in late September 2024 regarding the AFL's 2025 plans went unanswered. AFL deputy commissioner Mike McCoy, who had joined with the AFL's merger with CIF prior to the 2024 season, departed for American Indoor Football . The ArenaBowl Championship Game has been a staple of the AFL since its inception in 1987. Upon relaunch, this year's first game

8918-506: Was expelled from his post as league commissioner. On June 27, 2024, the league announced that the championship game, ArenaBowl XXXIII, was played on July 19, 2024, at the American Dream Meadowlands , a large shopping center and entertainment complex at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey . The Billings Outlaws and the Albany Firebirds faced off in the first ArenaBowl in five years with

9016-444: Was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on September 1, 2024, by Outlaws owner Steven Titus dba Arena Football One, LLC, of Gillette, Wyoming . (G6 Sports Group still owns the AFL logo and its intellectual properties, but not the team IP's.) The new league will be a full separation from G6, as all eight teams leave the AFL and join AF1. In a statement to Arena Insider, G6 executive Chris Chetty noted that after

9114-426: Was given mostly free rein to build out the league: "everything down the line, turnkey . As an investor this sounds good to me. Hey, it doesn’t sound like I have to operate." The league returned its logo to the one used from 2003 to 2018. The new iteration of the league announced plans to feature "streaming, betting, technology, (and) virtual reality" elements, per Rossi. In a February 2023 interview with ArenaFan.com,

9212-779: Was held at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre , and in 2017 it was held on the Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art . The 2018 draft was the first ever to be held at an NFL stadium, namely the Dallas Cowboys ' AT&T Stadium . The NBA Draft, held historically in an NBA city, but in recent drafts in either a theater in the New York area or at the Barclays Center each summer, is only two rounds long (60 picks). Instead of automatically granting

9310-571: Was held every year until MLL merged with the Premier Lacrosse League in December 2020, with the merged league operating under the PLL banner. Major League Soccer has two types of draft that occur each year, plus a third that is held intermittently when the league adds one or more teams . The two annual drafts are the three-round long MLS SuperDraft (a maximum of 81 picks since 2021, down from four rounds and 104 picks in 2020), which

9408-675: Was held for the first time in 2001, and MLS Supplemental Draft , with the MLS Expansion Draft held in the offseason immediately before the league expands. The MLS SuperDraft happens every January. During the draft the teams from the league will pick up to three players each from colleges across the United States. Only players from the American college sports system (e.g., the NCAA and the NAIA ) are eligible to be drafted. Canadian U Sports men's soccer players are not included. The draft

9506-481: Was on May 4, 2024, on the road at Southwest Kansas, losing 34–18. Rossi disowned any connection to league operations in the wake of the controversy, instead stating that his company had licensed the Arena Football League trademarks to Hutton's company for a fee that Hutton did not pay. Documents related to the Louisiana VooDoo showed that Hutton had indeed operated the league through the business structure of

9604-518: Was planned to be played at a neutral site. ArenaBowl XXXIII was the first ArenaBowl hosted on a neutral site since ArenaBowl XXVI . Only a handful of ArenaBowls were held at neutral sites such as Las Vegas , New Orleans , and Orlando . This year's site was originally selected as the Target Center , home of the Minnesota Myth , but was dropped when the Myth folded and Myth co-owner Lee Hutton

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