The Arena Football League (AFL) returned last weekend, but it didn’t come without its issues. The league was initially supposed to air a handful of games on the NFL Network each week, but at the last minute things fell apart. Beyond that, we’ve seen a change in ownership of the Philadelphia Soul, variations in quality between arenas among many.
As the AFL is set to return some more bad news came out for the league. The ownership group for the Iowa Rampage have announced they are disbanding the team after just one week of action in the new AFL.
The Iowa Rampage ownership team sincerely regrets to inform you that the the team will be discontinued.
Please read the full press release below for more information: pic.twitter.com/z1rAW4c5qR
— Iowa Rampage (@IowaRampageAFL) May 2, 2024
In the release the Iowa Rampage seem to point the finger towards the AFL ownership for the early failure. Going into the deal with the AFL their main concern was around costs. They go on to list the reasons they believe the AFL failed in their promises.
Lee Hutton and his team have destroyed not only the revival of the AFL, but they have destroyed the hopes of the players all over the US, coaches who have dedicated time and energy through training camp…
At the end of the day, the Rampage could not continue on without the promised monetary support they feel was promised to them going into the AFL season.
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As owners, we do now take this decision lightly and we wished this wouldn’t have to come, but without the promised support of the league, we have no other option than to discontinue operations immediately.
The unfortunate news is that this may be the first of many announcements that we’ll hear like this in the near future. Insiders say that the AFL could shed as many as 6 teams before the season finishes, possibly more.
It seems a major indicator in which teams will disband is purely based on how much support they were relying on the AFL to…