Editing AF2 (section)

==History==
The AF2 was founded in [[1999 in sports|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.<ref name="oursportscentral.com">{{cite web | url=http://www.oursportscentral.com/footballhistory/credits/ | title=A Brief History of Arena and Indoor Football}}</ref>  The AF2 was not intended to be a [[Farm team|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 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 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=2707574 | title=The Jim Foster Interview Part 1 | date=2000-05-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=2707585 | title=The Jim Foster Interview Part 2 | date=2000-05-14}}</ref>

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 the [[Professional Indoor Football League (1998)|Professional Indoor Football League]], [[Indoor Professional Football League]], and [[Indoor Football League (1999–2000)|Indoor Football League]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/the-bigger-better-af2/n-2707762 |title=The Bigger, Better af2 |author=Mike Vergane |date=October 23, 2000 |publisher=OurSports Central |work=www.oursportscentral.com |access-date=July 19, 2017}}</ref> 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 (football)|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 the use of the rebound nets.<ref name="oursportscentral.com"/>  Working on a smaller scale, the AF2 would try to capitalize on local and regional rivalries.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=2707506 | title= AF2 Announces Kickoff 2000 | date=2000-01-11}}</ref>

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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 in sports|2000]], this XFL (which was not related to the [[XFL (2001)|WWE-backed outdoor league]]) used [[ECHL|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 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 (arena football)|Pensacola Barracudas]]), [[Richmond, Virginia]] ([[Richmond Speed]]), [[Roanoke, Virginia]] ([[Roanoke Steam]]), and [[Tallahassee, Florida]] ([[Tallahassee Thunder]]). Although 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.<ref name="oursportscentral.com"/>

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 the competitor Indoor Football League; several teams would be absorbed into the AF2 for the [[2001 AF2 season|2001 season]].<ref name="oursportscentral.com"/>

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.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.arenafan.com/history/?page=yearly&fpage=attendance&year=2000&league=2 | title=2000 af2 attendance chart}}</ref>  In addition over 9,200 fans attended [[ArenaCup I]] between the Tennessee Valley Vipers and [[Quad City Steamwheelers]] in [[Moline, Illinois]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.arenafan.com/history/?page=abowls&league=2 | title=ArenaCup History}}</ref>  Deemed a success, the league returned for a second season and returned all 15 original teams as well as 13 expansion teams.

===Dissolution===
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 the AFL owned 50.1%) of AF2 were wary of being owned by and paying money owed to the bankrupt league's creditors.<ref name=barnstormers />

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, 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/extra/afl/news/story?id=4512394&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines |title=Arena Football 1 to launch in 2010 |date=September 28, 2009 |access-date=September 29, 2009}}</ref>  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 was an [[Professional sports league organization|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.

===Rumors of a return===
There had been rumors of a possible return of AF2, after Arena Football League commissioner Jerry Kurz had stated a return of the league for 2013, but that did not materialize.<ref>[http://www.arenafan.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=121924 AF2 or something], ArenaFan Message Board, May 25, 2012</ref><ref>[http://bostonafl.blogspot.com/2012/05/af2-to-return-in-2013.html af2 to return in 2013?] Chris Menn, bostonafl.blogpost.com, May 26, 2012</ref>  Kurz had also mentioned af2 in an interview on The AFL Podcast in 2024. <ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rQI5z86stM AFL Pod #027 - Interview with Jerry Kurz, Arena Football League Senior Advisor], Arena Football League YouTube, June 2024</ref>