Arena Football One Statement on Expansion

Arena Football One continues to make preparations for the 2025 season. As part of these preparations and work building the premier league for Arena Football, we continue to have discussions with multiple candidates for expansion. 

Recently, we held our annual Arena Football University, where we came together in the spirit of collaboration to build our game and our league. During this time, we held sessions on best practices in marketing, ticketing, staffing, operations, and much more. With decades of experience in the room, we wanted to open up this opportunity to potential expansion candidates as well. 

Although primarily focused on growing Arena Football One as the premier destination for football played on a 50-yard field, we want to share our knowledge widely. In this spirit, we offered up this opportunity to organizations that have expressed interest in joining our league. 

Being invited to AFU does not guarantee admittance to our league. We hold rigorous standards for expansion teams and expect them to conduct themselves like teams aspiring to join the premier league for Arena Football. This includes professionalism of communications and discipline in the vetting process. 

Any indication from organizations that they attended Arena Football University should not be taken as a guarantee of admission to AF1. We want to support all organizations interested in joining as expansion teams and expect them to operate in good faith and professionalism during this process. 

AF1 is open to discussions with all potential expansion organizations. The vetting process includes a thorough financial review, a review of past football operations, and consideration of potential arenas. Each organization is given feedback on the strength of their bid, and they will not be able to secure expansion rights until they prove financial viability, have stable leadership, and have resolved past issues.

There will be more announcements around expansion in the coming days. All announcements will be first made by Arena Football One via our website and social media channels. Any other announcements are premature and not officially sanctioned by AF1.