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52-694: The Baton Rouge Blaze was an expansion team that joined the af2 in 2001. The Advocate held a "Name the Team" contest which was won by a local teacher, Sean Fluharty. The head coach was former LSU quarterback Alan Risher . The cheer/dance team was known as the Starz and was led by former Miss Fitness Universe and Miss Bikini Universe Katie Uter. The Blaze was joined by the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings , Columbus Wardogs , Florida Firecats , Iowa Barnstormers (not to be confused with

104-646: A 1995 inaugural season. He served as its Managing Owner through 2001. A very difficult decision was made to sell the team due to rapidly raising personnel operating expenses, as well as having to continue to play in an iconic, but antiqued and undersized venue in Des Moines. The AFL Barnstormers were sold to NHL NY Islanders owner Charles Wong and moved to Long Island in New York to become the New York Dragons . In 1999 Foster co-founded and helped organize

156-726: A logo was developed and venues had begun to be lined up, the league and its nine teams were purchased by the AF2 on July 29, 1999, and the Xtreme Football League never played a single game. The AF2 finally took the field in March 2000 in a game between the Birmingham Steeldogs and Tennessee Valley Vipers (two of the acquired XFL teams). Fifteen teams were fielded in 2000 with the rights for several more cities quickly secured. The Orlando Predators also purchased

208-739: A major European based sports/events promotion firm, Keith Prowse Co., conducted a 2nd European Pro Football 5 game tour featuring the Black Hawks vs. the Indianapolis Capitols, also of the NSFL, playing in Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Frankfurt, (2 games). Following that 2nd European venture, in the fall of 1979, Foster was hired by the NFL to become the promotion manager of NFL Properties, (marketing and licensing). During his tenure with

260-682: A minimum $ 50 victory bonus. The AF2 was founded in 1999 by the Arena Football League in an attempt to bring the game to mid-sized markets following the success of AFL on the national level. The AF2 was not intended to be a farm system for the AFL like the American Hockey League and Minor League Baseball are to the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball , respectively. The league

312-466: A return of the league for 2013, but that did not materialize. Kurz had also mentioned af2 in an interview on The AFL Podcast in 2024. The ArenaCup was the AF2's championship game, held annually in August. For the league's first five years, it was held at the home arena of the higher-seeded remaining team. However, as the old AFL has changed, the AF2 also changed. In the same year that ArenaBowl XIX

364-409: A success, the league returned for a second season and returned all 15 original teams as well as 13 expansion teams. For legal purposes, the league was effectively dissolved on September 8, 2009, when no team submitted the paperwork to return in 2010. Since the original AFL had suspended 2009 operations and later suspended all operations indefinitely after declaring bankruptcy , the minority owners (as

416-682: A well known European soccer coach and sports promoter Bob Kapp, to organize and introduce the sport of American (pro level) football to Europe for the first time, during a five-game exhibition tour in June 1977 between the Nite Hawks and the Chicago Lions of the Northern States AAA Pro Football League playing exhibition games in major European cities, including Paris, Lille, Frankfurt, Gratz and Vienna. In

468-513: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a sports team in Louisiana is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Af2 Like most other minor sports leagues, the AF2 existed to develop football players and also to help players adapt to the style and pace of arena football . In addition, the AF2 was similar to other minor leagues because AF2 teams played in smaller cities and smaller venues. While

520-1040: The Arena Football League Hall of Fame inaugural class in 1998 and the af2, (arena football2 league) inaugural Hall of Fame class of 2009 and the Intellectual Properties Lawyers Hall of Fame from Iowa, class of 2008. Foster served is an adjunct professor in the Tippie College of Business ,a Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center in Iowa City, teaching pro sports management from 2011 to 2013, in addition to continuing his ongoing sports/events and marketing-related consulting projects work through Fostering Sports, Inc. based in Davenport. He continues to do collegiate level guest lecturing and mentoring, as well as motivational themed public speaking and interviews. He also served on

572-719: The Daytona Beach ThunderBirds , from the WIFL , and the Austin Wranglers moved down from the AFL . After the season, Austin and Daytona Beach folded, along with Louisville , Lubbock , and Texas . The league was expected to expand to Toledo, Ohio and Worcester, Massachusetts by 2011. When AF2 folded, some teams joined the AF2 Board of Directors in forming the new "Arena Football 1" that soon became

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624-829: The Fort Wayne Fusion , the Cincinnati Jungle Kats , and the Laredo Lobos . The Everett Hawks , Alabama Steeldogs , and the Bakersfield Blitz also ceased operations. For 2008, the league fielded one team fewer, at 29. Two teams were reactivated: the Iowa Barnstormers and the Peoria Pirates , and the league admitted three new teams that were transferring from other leagues. The Lexington Horsemen came from UIF ;

676-439: The Iowa Barnstormers , which would bring professional football to his home state of Iowa for the first time, playing in the state's capitol and largest city, Des Moines . After staging a very successful and well received sold-out preseason, market test game on April 22, 1993, Foster opted to move forward, completing the raising of the required capital to fund and operate the team and launch operations in June 1994 in preparation for

728-585: The National Indoor Football League , a rival indoor league, saw large numbers of expansion teams after beginning play in 2001 but many struggled financially and played only briefly, incurring considerable financial losses before folding. In more recent years, the American Basketball Association has exhibited the same situation to an even greater degree. Nine new expansion teams were approved for 2007 in

780-503: The Professional Indoor Football League , Indoor Professional Football League , and Indoor Football League . Each of these leagues, though they would eventually fold, managed to last for multiple seasons, proving that the game had some traction in the smaller cities. With Jim Foster 's patent on arena football, the AF2 had the advantage of being the same game as was being seen on the national level with

832-536: The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He also served as the paid executive director of the overall 22 houses fraternity system at UIowa from 1970 to 1972 when he graduated. In 1974 He founded, played and served as club director of the Newton Nite Hawks minor league football team of the Northern States AAA Pro Football League (NSFL). After winning the league championship in 1975, Foster worked with

884-843: The Steel before ultimately folding after the 2016 AFL season. After the 2014 AFL season, the Iowa Barnstormers changed leagues from the AFL to the Indoor Football League. After the conclusion of the 2015 season, the last AF2 team remaining in the AFL, the Spokane Shock, joined the Barnstormers in the IFL as the Spokane Empire , and then also folded in 2017. After the conclusion of the 2019 AFL season ,

936-609: The 2015 season. The Milwaukee Iron rebranded itself in 2011 as the Mustangs, adopting the name of a previous Milwaukee team . Tulsa relocated to San Antonio before the start of the 2012 season, retaining the Talons' name and history and folded after the 2014 season. Milwaukee suspended operations for the 2013 season, and the team relocated to Portland, Oregon for the 2014 season, becoming the Portland Thunder , later renamed

988-545: The AF2, saying how one day he envisioned the league growing to 100 teams. The AF2 started off with 15 teams in 2000, then expanded to 28 teams in 2001, and finally to 34 in 2002. The number of teams the league fielded dropped every year from there on after, until the 2006 season; 27 teams were fielded in 2003, 25 in 2004, and 20 in 2005. Finally, in 2006, the AF2 saw its first expansion in four years, fielding 23 teams, and continued that into 2007 with 30 teams. The drop in teams between 2002 and 2006 could be partially attributed to

1040-891: 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 the Corpus Christi Sharks . The Texas, Laredo, and Tri-Cities teams moved to the AF2 from other indoor football leagues. For the 2007 season, the league fielded 30 teams. After the 2007 season, three of those teams folded,

1092-419: The AFL owned 50.1%) of AF2 were wary of being owned by and paying money owed to the bankrupt league's creditors. The remaining teams and Board of Directors of AF2, and some former members of the AFL joined to create a new league, originally called "Arena Football One", which was announced at a press conference on September 28, 2009. Legally, Arena Football One, later doing business as the Arena Football League,

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1144-620: The AFL remained in the league. The Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz ceased operations after the 2010 season. In the 2011 season, the Alabama Vipers relocated to suburban Atlanta and assumed the identity and history of the former Georgia Force before folding after the 2012 season, while the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings moved to New Orleans and became a continuation of the VooDoo and then ceased operations after

1196-438: The AFL was played in cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Chicago, the AF2 fielded teams in cities which are part of metropolitan statistical areas ranging in size from Milwaukee (with 1,739,497 residents) to Albany, Georgia (with 164,000 residents). Also in common with other minor professional sports leagues, players also earned less than in the AFL, with each player making $ 200-$ 500 per game, with

1248-574: The AFL's developmental league, af2 , in addition to founding and organizing the Quad City Steamwheelers af2 team in 1999 and serving as managing owner through the 2006 season. The Steamwheelers won back to back af2 titles in 2000 and 2001 with a 33–1 record. They were undefeated in their inaugural season going 19–0, (a recognized all time pro football record). In 1990, thanks to a lengthy, successful effort by well known Chicago-based intellectual properties attorney, William Niro, Foster

1300-683: The American and National Conferences. The conferences were further subdivided into three divisions each. Each division represented a region of the country in which teams played. Unlike most sports leagues, the alignment of teams into divisions was not even; in 2009, the Central division featured three teams while the West featured five teams. Teams were placed in divisions based on geographic rivalries to reduce travel costs as teams played division opponents more often than non-divisional opponents. Alignment

1352-538: The Arena Football League filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceased operations in November 2019. Jim Foster (football) James Foster is the inventor of the game of Arena Football, (and US patent recipient), the founder and first commissioner of the Arena Football League (AFL). He is also a former National Football League (NFL) and United States Football League (USFL) executive and

1404-674: The Iowa Barnstormers in the AFL through the 2000 season and then as an af2 team for the 2001 season. He also served on the Iowa State Historical Society foundation board, 1998–2002 while living in Des Moines. Foster moved his family to Davenport, Iowa, in August 2002 to oversee operations of the Steamwheelers on a full-time basis. Jim Foster was inducted into the American Football Association's Minor Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982,

1456-486: The Iowa Barnstormers that became the New York Dragons of the AFL ), Lafayette Roughnecks , Lincoln Lightning , Louisville Fire , Macon Knights , Memphis Xplorers , Peoria Pirates , Rochester Brigade , and Wichita Stealth . In 2001, the Blaze went 10-6 but did not make the playoffs. Due to the owner's financial difficulties, the team was dissolved prior to the 2002 season. This American football team article

1508-570: The NFL (1979–82) he invented the game of arena football while watching the Major Indoor Soccer League All-Star game being played at Madison Square Garden on February 11, 1981. He sketched out a diagram along with basic rules on the back of a 9" × 12" manila envelope. Foster opted to leave the NFL in September 1982 to pursue a goal of managing a major professional football team, taking an offer to help launch

1560-416: The NFL, Foster made a pivotal decision to begin working full-time on carefully testing and researching the mechanics and basic rules of the new game he had invented before actually launching the Arena Football League (AFL), starting play in early June 1987. Foster served as founding president and commissioner from 1985 to 1992, at which time he stepped down to begin the initial development of his own AFL team,

1612-661: The Phoenix-based Arizona Wranglers as assistant general manager during their inaugural 1983 season in the new USFL . After the season ended, he then accepted an offer to move back to the Midwest to serve as executive vice president of the Chicago Blitz of the USFL. When the fateful decision was later made to move the USFL in 1985 from a spring season to a fall season on a head-to-head basis with

Baton Rouge Blaze - Misplaced Pages Continue

1664-463: The Xtreme Football League were: Birmingham, Alabama ( Birmingham Steeldogs ), Greenville, South Carolina ( Carolina Rhinos ), Huntsville, Alabama ( Tennessee Valley Vipers ), Jacksonville, Florida ( Jacksonville Tomcats ), Norfolk, Virginia ( Norfolk Nighthawks ), Pensacola, Florida ( Pensacola Barracudas ), Richmond, Virginia ( Richmond Speed ), Roanoke, Virginia ( Roanoke Steam ), and Tallahassee, Florida ( Tallahassee Thunder ). Although

1716-689: The board of the Quad Cities area Iowa Athletics I Club Board of Directors (2008–2020) and is also a member of the Iowa Gamma Sigma Phi Epsilon Alumni Board of Directors (2010-). His younger son Palmer, became a 3rd generation Iowa Hawkeye student-athlete, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Derrold (Pat) Foster (football, track and JV basketball and baseball 1945–1949), then by his father Jim. Palmer played Hawkeye football 2011–2013,(letter winner and honor student). After graduating from UIowa in 2014, Palmer

1768-554: The competitor Indoor Football League; several teams would be absorbed into the AF2 for the 2001 season . The first season concluded with over 868,000 people attending AF2 games, averaging over 7,200 per game; several teams ended with average attendances over 10,000 fans. In addition over 9,200 fans attended ArenaCup I between the Tennessee Valley Vipers and Quad City Steamwheelers in Moline, Illinois . Deemed

1820-598: The fall of 1977, he was hired away from the Nite Hawks to take over the reins of the struggling NSFL Quad City Mohawks in Rock Island, IL , (the one time home of charter NFL team, the Rock Island Independents led by star player Jim Thorpe). Foster rebranded the club as the Black Hawks, as well as rebuilding the team roster. That led to their first winning season in a decade and a berth in the 1978 NSFL Championship game. In June 1979 Foster, working with

1872-624: The first USA based team sport to ever play with a US patent in place. This primarily included no use of the Goalside/cross bar and flanking nets apparatus, as well as that no active usage of the Sideline Barriers could be incorporated into game playing rules. Additional patents were also secured for the arena football game system on an international basis, primarily in multiple European countries and also Mexico. The AFL/patent holders attempted to claim that several other properties of

1924-463: The game were covered under the patent, but a successful 1998 lawsuit from a competing upstart league, (which continues to play today without the goalside net system, instead hanging a simple plastic goal from the arena rafters) narrowed the AFL's patent mainly to the Goalside/cross bar/flanking nets apparatus). Foster and his family, (Susan, Nile and Palmer) moved from Chicago to Des Moines in August 1994 and lived there from 1994 to 2002 while he operated

1976-458: The individual AF2 teams also prevented players from leaving for the parent league mid-season; this preserved the quality of play in the lower league and did not destroy team dynamics with players coming and going throughout the season as they do in the NHL and MLB. The foundation of the AF2 was a response to the launch of several small-market indoor football leagues in the mid-to-late 1990s, including

2028-424: The league expanding too rapidly in its first three seasons. Many teams were financially unstable and folded . This could have been at least in large measure due to higher expenses, even compared to those of similar leagues. Franchise fees in the league ranged from $ 600,000 to $ 1 million. Historically, massive sports league expansions have had little success, either in indoor football or other sports. For instance,

2080-607: The new Arena Football League. Iowa, Milwaukee, Tennessee Valley (which changed its name to Alabama to reflect the state, rather than the region), Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Bossier-Shreveport, and Spokane all moved to the new AFL to join "old" AFL teams Arizona, Orlando, Tampa Bay, Chicago, and Cleveland, along with expansion teams in Dallas and Jacksonville, and the American Indoor Football team in Utah that had also been in

2132-542: The old AFL. Kentucky, Tri-Cities, and Arkansas also committed to the new league, but Kentucky folded, and Tri-Cities and Arkansas followed Green Bay and Amarillo to the Indoor Football League . Albany did not play in 2010 while seeking an expansion into the "new" AFL in 2011, along with a planned addition in Toledo. By the conclusion of the 2015 AFL Season , none of the seven AF2 franchises that moved into

Baton Rouge Blaze - Misplaced Pages Continue

2184-479: The original arena arrangement for the 2008 season. With the exception of ArenaCup V , all AF2 championships were televised either nationally or locally. The inaugural and second ArenaCups were broadcast on TNN Motor Sports/TNN Sports , which carried AFL games on Sunday afternoons at the time. However, when the AFL broadcast rights were purchased by NBC , the ArenaCup national telecast was lost. The 2002 ArenaCup

2236-656: The use of the rebound nets. Working on a smaller scale, the AF2 would try to capitalize on local and regional rivalries. The Xtreme Football League was another upstart league trying to capitalize on the arena football phenomenon. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama , with the intent to begin play in 2000 , this XFL (which was not related to the WWE-backed outdoor league ) used East Coast Hockey League ownership to keep team costs low while providing established ownership and arenas for play. The cities that were to take part in

2288-483: Was an entity-model league in which the league owned the individual teams and hired local management groups to operate them, rather than the traditional North American sports league model where each team is a separate business and the league is a non-profit association formed and controlled by the various team owners in order to co-ordinate and govern operations. There had been rumors of a possible return of AF2, after Arena Football League commissioner Jerry Kurz had stated

2340-405: Was an entity independent of the original Arena Football League and AF2 and was made up of former AFL and AF2 teams with several new (expansion) teams and one team from another league. After acquiring the assets of the former Arena Football League in a bankruptcy court sale, the new entity formally became the "new" Arena Football League. Unlike the previous Arena Football League and AF2, the new AFL

2392-411: Was granted a US patent on the game of arena football and the equipment unique to it, particularly the end zone Goalside Rebound Nets and padded Sideline Barriers, meaning that other indoor football leagues not affiliated with the AFL were legally required to play by at least somewhat different rules than the ones the AFL uses until the patent expired in September 2007. as a result, Arena Football became

2444-439: Was instead designed as a league that would develop the players in the interest of the higher league as a whole. The lack of AFL–AF2 team affiliations would prevent the AFL from "stashing" players in the lower league for later use. Players in the AF2 were signed to one-year contracts, after the expiration of which they essentially became free agents to sign with whichever league and team they would prefer. The 16-week contracts with

2496-633: Was later the Managing Owner of both the Iowa Barnstormers and the AF2 's Quad City Steamwheelers . Born and raised in Iowa City , Iowa, Foster graduated from the University of Iowa in 1972 with a BGS in advertising/marketing and broadcast journalism, (working on air for UIowa radio stations WSUI and KICR). At Iowa, Foster lettered in track/cross country while also being a member and officer in

2548-413: Was played at a neutral site in Las Vegas , ArenaCup VI was the first AF2 championship to be played at a neutral site in Bossier City, Louisiana . The practice continued the following year when ArenaCup VII was played in Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan ; the title game returned to Bossier City in ArenaCup VIII . Citing lower attendances at the neutral site ArenaCup games, the league returned to

2600-503: Was selected and received a post graduate academic-athletic scholarship to play and coach football with the Durham University Saints in Durham UK, 2014–2015 in the British University League while earning a master's degree at Durham. He then played one season of American pro level football in the Polish American Football league, followed by 6 seasons in the British Premiere American Football League, 2016-2019 and 2021-2022 where he earned multiple honors for his play as an outside linebacker.He also

2652-442: Was subject to change each year as new teams joined the league and others dropped out. Because of legal issues regarding the bankruptcy and subsequent dissolution of the original Arena Football League, no team committed to continue with arenafootball2 operations. This list is the final alignment of AF2 at the end of the 2009 season. In a June 2003 interview with Sports Illustrated , AFL commissioner David Baker briefly mentioned

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2704-438: Was televised by the Vision Network , and ArenaCup IV was televised by KWHB , a local station in Tulsa, Oklahoma . After having no television coverage in 2004, the national telecasts returned to the airwaves with Fox Sports Net in 2005 and Comcast Sports Net in 2006, 2007, and 2008. ArenaCup IX, as well as the season in its entirety, was broadcast online via NiFTy TV. The league's teams were divided into two conferences,

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