PRICE PER HEAD BOOKING AGENT PACKAGE SPORTS AGENT SPORTS BETTING

Arena Football Betting

Arena Football Betting - History - Betting Tips - Winners - Glossary

History of Arena Football

The history of Arena Football starts on February 11th, 1981, while watching the Major Indoor Soccer League all-star game at Madison Square Garden, James Foster drew the outline of a miniature football field over a hockey rink on a manila envelope and penciled in notes on what would evolve into a curiously new and exciting adaptation of America's favorite team sport. He began with a proven sport -American football- and knowing that there was no room for competition with the NFL, he decided to create an indoor, summer "hybrid." In doing so, he applied the best of the outdoor game with innovative twists: 50-yard fields, eight-player single-platoon system, drop kicks and rebound nets. Arena Football was born.

In 1985, Foster began to further develop the arena football game. To measure public response, he conducted a "test game" in Rockford, Ill. on April 26, 1986. The response led to a “showcase game” Feb. 26, 1987 at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago. The game was greeted enthusiastically by 8,200 in June 1987.

On March 27, 1990, the U.S. Patent Office issued patent No. 4,911,433 for the Arena Football Game System, making it the only sports league in history able to play a patented, rival-free game. The 1990 season also marked the first of 11 arena football seasons that the Albany Firebirds spent in New York’s capitol.

Following the 1990 season, the arena football league made its second venture onto foreign “turf.” In the United States, the arena football league expanded from six to eight teams in 1991, including the debut of the Orlando Predators.

The four-time winner of the NBA's Executive of the Year award, Jerry Colangelo, brought Arena Football to Phoenix in 1992.

The 1997 arena football season marked C. David Baker's first as league commissioner, and what followed was a “high-scorin' experience. The Rattlers, who led the 14-team circuit with nearly 16,000 fans per game, claimed their second title in Arena Bowl XI against the Barnstormers before 17,436 fans, a team record. During that week, the Arena Football League Board of Directors awarded an expansion team for 1999 to Buffalo, NY and the Arena Football Hall of Fame inducted its first class of enshrines.

Four expansion teams joined in 1997 to the arena football fever, including the Nashville Kats, New Jersey Red Dogs, New York City Hawks, and Portland Forest Dragons. On the year, five arena football clubs averaged more than 50 points per game - The Red Dogs set a pro football record with 91 points versus the Texas Terror on June 20, 1997.

Sports Information:

PRICE PER HEAD BOOKING AGENT PACKAGE SPORTS AGENT SPORTS BETTING