For 25 years I was a huge Arena Football, Orlando Predator fan… then in 2016 the ownership of the team decided to just call it quits. Since then I’ve only had a passing interest in what is happening with the league.
2017 they only fielded four teams, two brand new teams (both owned by the same person) and two teams that were still hanging on. They played a 12 game schedule, but knowing that all four teams would make the playoffs because you need at least an even number of teams to create a competition bracket. Turns out that the two older mature teams dominated and battled it out in the championship game as was expected.
2018 saw one of the old teams bailing on the league and one new team coming on board. However with still only four teams it really was a mystery why bother to play a 12 week schedule because again all the teams were going to make the playoffs, which started with three teams having winning records of 8 and 4 or 7 and 5… the fourth team had a miserable year with a record of 2 wins and 10 losses. You wouldn’t think that a team with such lousy stats would last one game in the playoffs, however I guess they were peaking at the right time and ended up becoming the 2018 Arenabowl Champions.
I have to wonder what effect the fact that a team with only 2 wins all season ends up being crowned champions will have on the fan base for the other 3 teams. I think the Arena Football League is going to suffer a death blow from their own arrogance that they can be a viable sports franchise with only a few participants.