In the 2017 Arena Football League off-season, the Tampa Bay Storm ceased operations and the Cleveland Gladiators announced they would not play the next two seasons as the Quicken Loans Arena went under renovations. That left the league with three teams – the Philadelphia Soul, Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade.
Today, the league has six teams and everything is looking on the up. The biggest thing for the league is they have a team in the mideast as opposed to all teams being on the east coast. That team is the Columbus Destroyers.
The Destroyers are not an expansion franchise. They are returning after an 11-year hiatus. Having them back in the league is a big step to a positive future for the league.
Committee chairman Ron Jaworski announced that the league would be expanding with four to six new teams in 2020. A source with the Washington Post told our Stephen Ur at ArenaBowl XXXI last July that a member within Ted Leonsis’ inner circle was looking to bring a team to Detroit, MI.
The Gladiators are also expected to make a return in 2020, which would not only make for an interesting in-state rivalry with the Destroyers. With them and potentially Detroit, it would mean three teams would be playing in the mideast, spelling expansion further west for the league in the next few years.
The league has come a long way in just a couple years. They’re not done yet, either. The future is very bright.
