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af2 (short for arenafootball2) is the name of the Arena Football League's minor league, which started play in 2000. The rules are the same as for the parent league. While the parent league moved its season opening to February to accommodate a television contract with NBC in 2003, af2 stayed with the "traditional" Arena season of April-July.

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Like most other minor sports leagues, the af2 exists to develop football players, and also to help players adapt to the style and pace of arena football. In addition, the af2 is similar to other minor leagues because af2 teams play in smaller cities and smaller venues. While the AFL is played in larger cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York City and Chicago, the af2 fields teams in cities such as Oklahoma City, Anchorage, Bakersfield, and Spokane.

ArenaCup

The ArenaCup is the af2's championship game, held each August (results are below). For the league's first five years, it was held at the arena of the higher seeded team. However, as their parent league, the AFL, has changed, the af2 has changed too. The 2005 Arena Cup was the first to be played at a neutral site in Bossier City, Louisiana.

For the 2000 and 2001 Arena Cups, the game was televised nationally by TNN (now Spike TV), who carried AFL games on Sunday afternoons at the time. However, when the AFL announced their televised games would be shown on NBC rather than TNN, the ArenaCup telecast was lost. The 2002 ArenaCup was televised by the Vision Network, and the 2003 game was televised by KWHB, a local station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After having no television coverage in 2004, the game was telecast nationally by Fox Sports Net in 2005.

Baker's Vision

In a June 2003 interview with Sports Illustrated, AFL commissioner David Baker briefly mentioned the af2, saying how one day, he envisions the league growing to 100 teams. As of 2006, this vision seems rather unlikely. The af2 is fielding 23 teams for 2006, and fielded twenty teams in 2005, down from twenty-five in 2004. In fact, the league saw declines in the number of teams every year since the 2002 season, when they fielded thirty-four teams, until the 2006 season saw the addition of three teams into the fold. This is possibly due to the fact that the league grew too quickly (the league saw thirteen new teams in 2001, and ten in 2002), since historically, massive expansions have little success (the National Indoor Football League, a rival indoor league, has seen large amounts of expansion teams since they began in 2001 but many struggle financially). Three new expansion teams have been approved for 2006 in the af2: the Stockton Lightning (California), the Everett Hawks, and the Spokane Shock (both of Washington state). In addition, the Tennessee Valley Vipers, after playing the 2005 season in the UIF, have announced they will return to the af2 in 2006. (The original ownership of the team in Huntsville moved the UIF franchise to Rockford, Ill., and the league awarded an expansion team to Huntsville, and they assumed the team's original name) The Mississippi Headhunters of Biloxi, Mississippi were originally going to play in the 2006 season, but because of Hurricane Katrina the team had been given a grace period to start play in the 2007 season, but the owner chose to instead pursue relocating them to Jackson, Mississippi Also, the league is going to add the Mahoning Valley Thunder (based in Youngstown, Ohio) and teams in Boise, Idaho, and Anchorage, Alaska that season.

Current af2 teams

Eastern Division

Albany Conquest
Green Bay Blizzard
Louisville Fire
Manchester Wolves - formerly the Mohegan Wolves
Quad City Steamwheelers
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers

Southern Division

Birmingham Steeldogs
Florida Firecats
Macon Knights
Memphis Xplorers
South Georgia Wildcats - formerly the Cape Fear Wildcats
Tennessee Valley Vipers

Midwest Division

Western Division

Bakersfield Blitz
Central Valley Coyotes - formerly the first Bakersfield Blitz
Everett Hawks
Spokane Shock
Stockton Lightning

Scheduled to begin play in 2007

Alaska Wild - will play in Anchorage, Alaska
Idaho af2 (Boise) [1]
Mahoning Valley Thunder - will play in Youngstown, Ohio

Inactive Markets/Possible Expansion

Biloxi, Mississippi-possible future expansion, the Headhunters were released from their agreenment there, and are very close to moving to Jackson.
Conway, South Carolina
Iowa Barnstormers
Jackson, Mississippi-relocated Mississippi Headhunters, formerly Columbus Wardogs
Reno, Nevada
Rio Rancho, New Mexico
San Diego Riptide
Sarasota, Florida

Arena Cup Results

2000: Quad City Steamwheelers 68-59 Tennessee Valley Vipers
2001: Quad City Steamwheelers 55-51 Richmond Speed
2002: Peoria Pirates 65-47 Florida Firecats
2003: Tulsa Talons 58-40 Macon Knights
2004: Florida Firecats 39-26 Peoria Pirates
2005: Memphis Xplorers 63-41 Louisville Fire

External links

Sources

http://www.af2.com

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 *[[Defunct af2 teams]]
 *[[List of leagues of American football]]
+*[[Fan Web Site]]
 ==External links==