American Indoor Football League
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Most recent season or competition: 2016 American Indoor Football season |
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American Indoor Football logo
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| Formerly |
Atlantic Indoor Football League (2005) American Indoor Football League (2006) American Indoor Football Association (2007–10) |
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| Sport | Indoor football |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Inaugural season | 2005 |
| Ceased | 2016 |
| Owner(s) | John Morris |
| President | Larry Clark |
| Motto | Fast Paced Family Fun |
| No. of teams | 16 |
| Country | United States |
| Last champion(s) |
Columbus Lions (1st AIF title) |
| Most titles | Baltimore Mariners (2 titles) |
| Sponsor(s) | Baden EyeBlack.com Source One Digital College Football USA Level 10 |
| Related competitions |
Champions Indoor Football Indoor Football League |
| Official website | AIFprofootball.com |
American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America.
The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United States in 2005; after a rapid, and largely failed, expansion effort in 2006, most of the league's remaining teams jumped to the new AIFA (the rest joined the short-lived WIFL). The AIFA expanded throughout existing territory and, in 2008, expanded into the Western United States. The league legally divided into two entities to allow for a partial merger with the Southern Indoor Football League, which resulted in all of its Eastern teams merging into the SIFL and the AIFA only maintaining its western teams. The league's western component, which remained separate of the merger, had indicated it would play as the AIFA West for the 2011 season but ceased operations January 2011. The league announced it would be relaunching as American Indoor Football in time for spring 2012. After the 2016 season, the AIF ceased operations with former AIF owner stating his support for the recently created Arena Developmental League.
The last market with a direct connection to the original AIFL was Erie, Pennsylvania. Erie's team, the Explosion, joined other regional leagues when the SIFL disbanded after the 2011 season.
The league has its roots in the Atlantic Indoor Football League, which began play in 2005 under the leadership of Andrew Haines. The first team to join the AIFL was the Johnstown RiverHawks. The league began with six teams, all of them based in the eastern United States. Two teams played all of their games on the road, and the regular season was cut short two weeks because of teams being unable to secure venues for playoff games. In the 2005–06 offseason, the league changed its name to the American Indoor Football League, while nine expansion teams entered the league and a tenth (the Rome Renegades) joined from the National Indoor Football League.
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