Following the announcement of Arena Football One, the league got their social media channels up and running last week and is actually uniform across social platforms — which is already a HUGE win considering how chaotic and messy the AFL’s social media situation was this year.
One of the first things that the AF1 did on X was host a Q&A session, which again is a huge improvement with transparency and how the AFL profiles were run in 2024.
AF1 answered a lot more questions than I thought they would, and honestly addressed some that I personally wouldn’t have even bothered answering. But kudos to them for taking the time to get involved in the community.
Here are some of the highlights from that Q&A session and some of my thoughts:
2025 Expansion
"I can tell you next week, we will be making several announcements about teams for the 2025 season!"
Here we go! Starting off with the question that is constantly on the minds of AFL Forum members across the nation. Love it. The AFL started off the 2024 season with 16 "teams" (using that term VERY loosely) and eventually ended the year with 8 franchises left standing. All eight teams put out statements sharing their support for the new AF1 and eventually were listed as new league members, so that was reason to believe they'd kickoff the inaugural season with those eight. NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND (s/o Lee Corso the legend). The AF1 is less than a week old and already looking ahead to potential expansion beyond the initial eight.
I personally would like to see a sustained season with the teams that they have before considering expansion, but I understand the logic - ESPECIALLY when it comes to the league's current geography.
When you look at the map of AF1 teams, the 8 teams stretch from Everett, WA to Albany, NY (2,891 miles), Orlando, FL to Billings, MT (2,260 miles) and multiple cities in between. For the sake of travel logistics and finances, the league needs to get teams closer in proximity to each other.
I mean this is just insane for an 8-team league lol. When you see the layout of the league geographically, they NEED additional teams. The three Kansas teams have each other, but the rest of the teams currently on geographic islands NEED regional partners.
Last season, when Southwest Kansas played in Albany, the broadcast team detailed the travel from Dodge City, KS to Albany, NY and it sounded like absolute hell:
Dodge City, KS to Denver, CO
Denver, CO to New York City, NY
New York City, NY to Albany, NY
Get beatdown.
Go back.
We're looking at multiple FULL DAYS of travel for that game alone. Being able to get travel logistics and costs down for these teams is going to be crucial for sustained success.
I could see them adding up to 4 teams for the 2025. This is strictly based on geography, I am not claiming to have any inside information on anything. This is just from Off The Wall's brain. Earlier today (9/9) Stockton, CA was announced as the first of expansion team of the offseason. Geographically, I think teams in Atlanta, GA, somewhere in Ohio & somewhere in the Great Plains would make life easier for your current franchises.
While not perfect, you can visually see how these areas (except for Stockton, I guess) of the country start to build "bridges" to those teams currently on an island.
But what cities will they choose? What cities make sense? Billings Outlaws owner Steve Titus gave us a little teaser in an article posted on 406 Montana Sports.
"We are finalizing our lineup for 2025,” said Titus. “We expect next week to announce some expansion markets, some new markets that don’t currently have teams, but that have had teams in the past and we’ll be on an international stage. We plan on having a team in Mexico next year and we’re in talks about having a team in Canada as well. So, we’re finalizing our 2025 teams and I think that the arena football community is going to be very excited about the future of this organization.”
...well then. Mexico & Canada. That is....interesting. I would think they would want to get things stable on the state side before speaking on international expansion (a gaffe former AFL Commissioner Lee Hutton made on numerous occasions leading up the 2024 season).
I would love to see them take it slow and steady, but we'll see what cities they end up choosing.
Scoring Updates & Live Streaming
"Our goal for broadcasting/streaming is to have the games as widely accessible as easily as possible."
"We’re gonna work hard to get fans easy and clear access to everything they need to enjoy our amazing game."
This is music to the ears of anybody that tried to watch AFL games and follow the season in 2024. The AFL made it as difficult as possible at times to consume their product, starting from the NFL Network deal that was dead on arrival, to the dreaded VYRE streaming platform, then eventually to YouTube - where it was a blessing if the link worked without issues or if you had a stream at all.
The phrasing of these tweets makes me believe they are pursuing a TV rights deal, but in the year 2025 they need to focus on making the game as accessible as possible and getting people hooked on the product on the field. ArenaBowl XXXIII was on CBS Sports, and it was a great spot for the league. But we live in an era where a lot of people have cut the cord and utilize streaming services for most -- if not all -- of their entertainment. I personally don't have cable, so when the ArenaBowl was played, I had to get creative to find a way to watch the game.
If the league is wanting to capture a younger audience and grow the league, they need to keep in mind that YouTube is an easily accessible platform and is the second largest search engine in the world right now. Regardless of any TV rights deal, there still needs to be a focus on making these games as easily accessible as possible.
Whether that be on YouTube, on Twitch, you name it -- there has to be options to get as much exposure as possible.
No league mandated Ironman expected in 2025
If you don't know, Ironman rules refer to players playing on both offense and defense, and they were a staple of Arena Football in the 90s and 2000s. If you played O-line, you also played D-line. If you played WR, you also played either DB or LB.
The 2024 edition of the AFL started the season off with Ironman rules, but teams seemingly just decided "hey we don't want to do Ironman any more" and eventually the league revised the rules to be free substitution a couple games into the season.
I personally love Ironman football, but times have changed. AFL players in the 90s & 2000s were able to make a pretty good living playing pro arena ball, and it's easier to set expectations of two-way ball when you have players making six figures (sometimes more) annually. When players are making $250-$1000 per game nowadays, it's a tougher ask.
Additionally, if the focus is going to be on developing players for the next level, it isn't necessarily in the best interest of the players to play Ironman anymore. I think we will still see a couple players play both offense and defense in 2025, but they are going to be few and far between.
Social Media Paybook for Teams
This is one of the things that I am most excited to see get rolled out for the 2025 season.
The AFL's social media presence was trash at the league and team levels overall. The AFL had/has multiple social pages floating around on different platforms, where they were locked out of their Facebook page for the longest time and eventually lost access to their Twitter/X & Instagram pages due to pettiness from the previous regime.
You had to be in the know to know when games were happening and how you could actually watch them, which is never good.
There were some bright spots when it comes to certain team's social media usage (primarily Albany & Billings), but overall the teams themselves were pretty bad as well.
Some teams simply did not have a social media manager or strategy cough Preds cough, while others straight up never posted anything cough Wichita cough. How do you expect to grow a team, grow a fanbase, establish a culture and grow a league if you don't utilize social media intentionally and strategically?
ANY type of social media presence across the board for these teams would be a drastic improvement from the 2024 AFL season. If the teams invest in social media and embrace it as a tool, this league can grow exponentially.
Brawl at the Mall 2?!
So you're telling me there's a chance?! I loved the novelty of the Brawl at the Mall and hope they continue to take chances and embrace some off the wall stuff like that going forward.
Looks like we'll get specific details in October.
NOT a Rebrand
When the announcement first went out, we saw a lot of news outlets in the space mention the AFL is 'rebranding' to the AF1. But as the account points out here, it isn't a rebrand.
Are the teams the same? Yes. Are the owners the same? Yes. Is most of the league leadership that took over midseason the same? Yes.
Well, when you lay it out like that you can see how people think it is a rebrand. But the biggest difference is that the new AF1 won't have G6 Sports involved and won't have (as much of) the stink of the 2024 AFL season on them.
It's a fresh start. NOT a rebrand. Don't even say the world rebrand.
Unified Presentation & Viewing Experience
Going back to my previous point about the Scoring Updates & Live Streaming, the quality of streams varied DRASTICALLY from team to team, venue to venue.
Albany had the best presentation in the league and there were some others that were pretty good as well. But then you had some that were borderline unwatchable.
Washington's started off rough and got a little better, Nashville inexplicably did not have a stream for the majority of the year and it looked like Wichita hardly even tried. Don't even get me started on the Oregon rodeo football stream.
Getting these presentation standards raised across the league will be a welcomed sight.
“Please no nonsense in 2025”
How awesome would it be if they completed a season with all teams intact and was able to sustainably grow year to year? That would be pretty sick.
Our guy Mike speaks for a lot of us. Please no nonsense in 2025.
What are your thoughts? Let me know on X
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