Editor's Note: I wrote this on Tuesday March 4th, moments before the AF1-Orlando Predators bombshell was dropped on us. Whole point of this blog was to dunk on Orlando for having overpriced tickets, and now that they've dipped, idk if it will hit as hard.
But you know what? Screw it. Publishing anyways.
Arena football season is here, folks! After a long offseason of a new league being born and months and months of asking “will they / won’t they?” and teams coming and going, this week we finally have football being played!
That’s right, we’re done waxing poetic about long term goals and talking about the upcoming season — we’re ready for some football!
But what’s better than watching an Arena Football game from the comfort of your living room on your favorite new streaming service?
How about going to an Arena Football game LIVE and in person?! That sounds AWESOME!
One of the allures of arena football is that it is affordable family fun that you can bring your wife and kids to, bring your college buddies and even meet up with some folks internet friends that you’ve made talking about arena football for the past 12 months (soon….soon!)
But in order to go see a game live and in person, you gotta buy tickets — DUH! Let’s take a look at ticket pricing around the league. SURELY all of these teams are making these games affordable, right?
RIGHT?!
Salina
Get in price: $12
Season tickets starting at $150
Family Package $110.00
4 tickets to any two home regular season football games (Blue Seating)
2 Large Sodas (per game)
1 Large popcorn (per game)
Salina! What a gem and what a deal for the fine folks of Saline County. I just know that the folks in section 308, row 7 are gonna have an absolute blast with the family.
Albany
Get in price: $25
Season tickets starting at $140
Solid pricing for a really great team that will be a perennial contender no matter what league they are in. Doesn't seem like there is really a bad seat in the house either.
That season ticket pricing is a great deal!
Corpus Christi
Get in price: $29
Season tickets starting at $75
Hmm. The math doesn’t appear to be mathing here. $29 for one game through Ticketmaster vs $75 for the season? Something is off here, but regardless not bad price wise per game. (Despite having the old schedule on their website
…sigh…
Washington Wolfpack
Get in price: $10
Season tickets starting at $135
Okay the math DEFINITELY isn’t mathing here. The lowest season ticket package listed on their site is $135, but I can buy individual game tickets for $10. Why not just buy individual tickets for each game for nearly half the price?
Granted, the season tickets are probably better seats but numbers wise it’s a bit of a head scratcher on the surface.
Regardless, really solid deal for season tickets in Everett!
Oregon Lightning
Get in price: $15
Season tickets starting at $72
A great value in Salem, Oregon! That being said, the green zone seats that are the cheap seats seem to be quite a ways from the action given the layout of the First Interstate Bank Center for rodeos, concerts, motorcross, & now arena football.
Affordable. Family. Fun!
Southwest Kansas Storm
Get in price: $15
Season tickets starting at $80(?)
Not able to see season ticket pricing on the website, but I’d have to guess 6 games at $15 each with a season ticket discount would come out to roughly $80 total. Pretty good entertainment in Dodge City on a budget.
These folks in Kansas have it good! Football fans in Kansas have it good.
Now, this is the portion of the blog that I have been building up to and if you can sense the tone of the article so far, this is where you might want to buckle up.
Orlando Predators
Get in price: $70
Season tickets starting at ??? - not listed on the website
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, ORLANDO. READ THE GODDAMN ROOM.
More than 200% more expensive than the get in price of other teams in the league?! I understand the KIA Center is probably the best venue in the league, it’s been a pillar of the downtown Orlando community since its debut in the 2010s — BUT COME ON.
The get in price for the Orlando Magic is $23 for the next home game. You’re telling me that the Orlando Predators can charge 3x more than the Magic? The team for which the KIA Center was built?
They really saw this ^^ in a home playoff game and said "Yeah, let's charge $70 per ticket". Yeah, that'll do it!
You would be better off changing your team colors to blue to at least camouflage the seats.
Do you want people in the stands or not? The heyday of Orlando Predators arena football in the old TD Waterhouse down Hughey Ave had the building PACKED with a truly raucous atmosphere. Let’s just be real, that wasn’t the case last season and it won’t be the case this season if ticket prices stay where they are at.
Editor's note: turns out it wouldn't be the case this season for OTHER reasons
Growing up as an Orlando Predators fan, this is absolutely ridiculous to see. Make the tickets affordable, get people in the building and make the Predators games a DESTINATION. Build a broader fanbase and a culture — otherwise you’re going to be spinning your wheels in mud continuously and not making any progress.
Arizona Bandits & Nashville Kats
For the sake of my sanity and your time, I’m just gonna group these together.
Get in price: ???
Season tickets starting at ???
We’re in the week of the inaugural game kicking off and no ticket information is posted and available for purchase for either team, as of the time of this blog being posted.
Nashville still has a “COMING SOON: 2025 SCHEDULE & TICKET INFO!” on their website.
Aw gee, glad that's there when the season kicks off ...checks calendar... this week.
And this is ASSUMING the Kats are playing at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium again in 2025 as well, which is not a guarantee considering no announcement has been made since the Kats rose from the dead on social media on February 18th.
Reporter Tailgate Jones captures my thoughts perfectly:
And Arizona — oh Arizona. The speculation has been that the team will be playing at Mullett Arena and the conversations I have had with players on the team have been really exciting with a positive outlook on the season. They can’t wait to get started.
Less than 3 weeks away and this is where we are at.
The team was officially announced on November 15th, and in the 109 days since then, there has not been an official announcement on where the Bandits will be playing. You can even make the case that they have had EVEN LONGER since they were supposed to join the league in the infamous 2024 season in what seems like both yesterday and a lifetime ago.
There are a couple schools of thought here:
If they had a place to play locked, they surely would have announced it by now and started selling tickets, right? Seems like sports team 101 stuff — you want people to buy tickets, so you sell them.
They have a place locked in, but are waiting to announce it for some reason — which just doesn’t make sense.
If they don’t have a place to play locked in, how and why on Earth has it gotten to this point?
Regardless of the reasons, this is the type of stuff that is holding arena football back from growing as a whole. Arizona is literally giving fuel and fodder to the naysayers and haters of the new league (and the entire sport, for that matter) to toss on their personal flammable effigy of the hopes and dreams of arena football optimists everywhere.
All that to say:
Great job to the 7 out of 10 teams in the league that offer an affordable, fun source of entertainment in their communities. Well done to each of you.
Orlando, Arizona, Nashville — do better.
Editor's note: RIP Orlando Predators (AFL 1991-2016, NAL 2019-2023, AFL 2024, AF1 almost 2025). Adolescent Trey hopes you come back, but this time with an owner who views the team as more than just a vanity project and does more than make the team about himself.