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37-607: In April 2014, it was announced that American Indoor Football would be coming to the Buffalo, New York , market. John Augustine, a longtime figure associated with the semi-professional Buffalo Gladiators of the Northeastern Football Alliance, is leading the Lightning (the team was initially identified as the “Gladiators” in the earliest mentions, but that team name was removed and eventually replaced by Lightning well before

74-412: A 2016 season independent of a league against teams assembled as the year progressed. The Lightning's season began April 30, 2016. Some time after the 2016 season, the team's webmaster lost contact with the team after failing to get payment for his services and left a disparaging (and misspelled) manifesto mocking the team's management on their Web site. In late November, the webmaster received his payment,

111-698: A massive reorganization took place as Morris and Michael Mink set up a new league, which absorbed all of the remaining AIFL franchises, and Haines was ousted. (Haines would go on to create the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League in 2007, before similar stability problems led to the forced divestiture of that league as well. Haines would, in April 2010, announce he was relaunching his league as the Ultimate Indoor Football League beginning in 2011 and revived two defunct former AIFL teams.) The league took on

148-642: The 2016 season , the AIF ceased operations with the former AIF owner stating his support for the recently created Arena Developmental League . In 2021, league owner John Morris announced he planned to relaunch the AIF for the 2022 season, though no games would be played. In 2023, it was announced that the league was relaunched by president and commissioner John Morris with four new teams: the Cedar Rapids River Kings , Corpus Christi Tritons , RiverCity Rage and West Virginia Miners. The Columbus Lions rejoined

185-717: The Casper Events Center , saw the Reading Express defeat the Wyoming Cavalry for their first title, 65–42. As the 2010 season approached, AIFA continued to expand its nationwide footprint. Expansion franchises had been added in Richmond, Virginia ; Yakima, Washington ; Wasilla, Alaska (believed to be the smallest city in America to host a national professional football franchise) and Wenatchee, Washington . The moves gave

222-616: The National Arena League . Cedar Rapids' former coach stated an intent to form a new indoor team for Cedar Rapids, while Montero confirmed any action the former coach is illegitimate and "will not affect the Cedar Rapids River Kings". On November 5, 2024, the AIF named Mike McCoy as commissioner. McCoy had previously spent the 2024 season as deputy commissioner of the Arena Football League and previously had been

259-821: The Western United States . The league legally divided into two entities to allow for a partial merger with the Southern Indoor Football League , which resulted in all of its Eastern teams merging into the SIFL and the AIFA only maintaining its western teams. The league's western component, which remained separate of the merger, had indicated it would play as the AIFA West for the 2011 season but ceased operations January 2011. The league announced it would be relaunching as American Indoor Football in time for spring 2012. After

296-634: The Yakima Valley Warriors left, the AIFA ceased operations; it said that it would attempt to relaunch in 2012 with eight to 12 teams in at least two regions of the United States. As of June 2011, Morris had released a statement indicating he still represented the AIFA when he purchased the assets of the Fayetteville Force . On October 27, 2011, the AIFA announced it was relaunching as American Indoor Football (AIF). The move came in light of

333-745: The 2015 season). On March 2, 2015, the team announced that the Cattaraugus Community Center, a Seneca Nation -owned facility primarily used for box lacrosse and located on the Cattaraugus Reservation in Irving, New York , 30 miles south of Buffalo, would be their home venue for the 2015 season. The Lightning jumped to the Supreme Indoor Football for the 2016 season, however, the league abruptly broke down in winter 2016 before it began play. The Lightning still intended on playing

370-465: The AIF. In response, AIF owner Jim Morris announced on July 18, 2016, that the AIF was ceasing operations immediately. He also announced his support of the new Arena Developmental League (which later changed its name to National Arena League before its inaugural season) and hoped the new league would take on many of the former AIF teams. The Buffalo Blitz (formerly the Buffalo Lightning) used

407-505: The AIFA a much more significant presence on the West Coast of the United States . To accommodate this, and to keep travel expenses down, for the 2010 season the AIFA adopted a scheduling system that effectively treated the Eastern and Western conferences as separate leagues, with no regular-season crossover between the two conferences. The league also secured a television contract with AMGTV, which

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444-601: The American Indoor Football Association name at the same time. The 2007 season was relatively successful for the league, as all 112 scheduled games were played and no teams folded mid-season, a major improvement over the past two seasons (when the AIFA was known as the AIFL). The AIFA Championship Bowl I was a neutral site game held in Florence, South Carolina . In addition, the league held its first All-Star Game

481-644: The Blitz referred to.) The May 27 game would have been the team's lone road game against the Patriots; the game was scrapped after the team moved its second matchup with the Blitz to Buffalo earlier in the season to fill the holes left by the nonexistence of the Cleveland Saints and the Thunder's dissolution. American Indoor Football American Indoor Football ( AIF ) is a professional indoor football league, one of

518-703: The CIFL, AIF split into two conferences, one bearing the American name and the other (which includes both CIFL refugees) named the Continental Conference. The conference names were changed to Northern and Southern for the 2016 season. The 2016 season saw the league grow from nine teams to a total of 28 announced teams. However, only 21 teams ever played a league game that season, including four teams that folded midseason and several other teams cancelling scheduled games. The Columbus Lions , which joined for 2016, would finish

555-534: The city of Buffalo. The team later announced it would be known as the Buffalo Blitz . Augustine and co-owner Bob Guenther plan on investing $ 75,000 to build a 2,500-seat temporary stadium at RiverWorks, with seating and fresh artificial turf . After the 2017 season, the American Arena League announced the Blitz were among the original teams listed for the newly-merged league on the league website. However,

592-676: The deal, Morris would acquire the rights to the Eastern Conference teams and merge them into the SIFL, while Mink would retain the western conference teams, rights to the AIFA name, and television contract, the last of which was extended through 2013. The AIFA West originally announced that it would begin its season with four teams, beginning in March 2011, after the Tucson Thunder Kats announced it would be suspending operations until 2012. As of January 2011, no schedule had been released, and

629-689: The dissolution of the SIFL and its breakup into the Professional Indoor Football League and the Lone Star Football League . AIF announced its intentions to absorb the three remaining SIFL teams not in either the PIFL or LSFL (the Harrisburg Stampede , Trenton Steel and Carolina Speed ), as well as the remaining teams that would have participated in the AIFA West. AIF intended to launch an amateur division as well. In 2015,

666-639: The eastern United States . Two teams played all of their games on the road, and the regular season was cut short two weeks because of teams being unable to secure venues for playoff games. In the 2005–06 offseason, the league changed its name to the American Indoor Football League, while nine expansion teams entered the league and a tenth (the Rome Renegades ) joined from the National Indoor Football League . The 2006 season

703-423: The final commissioner of Champions Indoor Football . Two rule changes appeared to be inspired by Canadian football rules: 2016 American Indoor Football season The 2016 American Indoor Football season was the eleventh and final season of American Indoor Football (AIF). The regular season began February 27, 2016, and ended on May 23, 2016. Each team played a game schedule of varying lengths. During

740-692: The league absorbed the remains of the Continental Indoor Football League , picking up the Saginaw Sting and Chicago Blitz from that league; the CIFL Web site became a redirect to AIF's. (The two other surviving teams from that league chose to play in other leagues: Erie decided to join the PIFL, while the Marion Blue Racers fulfilled an earlier promise to join the X-League ). In homage to

777-590: The league after winning the most recent AIF Championship in 2016. Several of the AIF's teams were not listed on the league site after the 2024 season. The league has its roots in the Atlantic Indoor Football League, which began play in 2005 under the leadership of Andrew Haines. The first team to join the AIFL was the Johnstown RiverHawks . The league began with six teams, all of them based in

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814-652: The league announced that the Columbus Lions , the last team to win the AIF Championship in 2016, were returning to the league. On August 24, 2023, the league announced that the Amarillo Venom would return and join the AIF for the 2024 season. On September 11, 2023, the league announced that an expansion team to be based in Albany, Georgia , would also join the AIF for 2024 as its eighth franchise. On September 29, 2023,

851-643: The league announced the Beaumont Renegades as their ninth team for the 2024 season, but on October 30, the league announced that the Renegades will play an exhibition schedule only in 2024, and will join the league full time in 2025, while the AIF granted West Virginia Miners release from the league after change in the team ownership group. After season's end in 2024, the remaining teams of AIF were listed in other leagues, with Corpus Christi joining Arena Football One and Harrisburg, Amarillo, and Columbus joining

888-678: The league created a Western Conference. In 2007, the team farthest west was based in Mississippi ; in 2008, the team farthest west was based in Arizona . Three of the four teams who had won the league championship to that point were no longer active league members. The 2009 season culminated in AIFA Championship Bowl III, hosted by the Western Conference champion Wyoming Cavalry on July 25, 2009. The game, played before 6,500 fans at

925-486: The league in 2007 did not return for the 2008 season , including the 2007 champion Lakeland Thunderbolts . The AIFA became the third league since 2004 (excluding the folded WIFL and NIFL before its folding) to lose its standing champion (the 2004 NIFL champion Lexington Horsemen left to join the newly created UIF and later were in af2 , and the 2006 champion Billings Outlaws also left to join two years later). However, nine teams signed on to begin play in 2008, and

962-584: The league informed the remaining three teams that there would not be a fourth team representing Eugene, Oregon as the league had earlier promised. The league attempted to work out a schedule with the remaining three teams, but the Reno Barons and Stockton Wolves were unwilling to go forward with such a schedule and broke from the league. Both teams operated as the two-team "Western Indoor Football Association" in 2011, each playing whatever semi-pro teams were willing to face them in addition to each other. With only

999-409: The league signed a three-year national television broadcast, mobile phone broadcast, and webcast licensing agreement with Simply 4Me Incorporated (d.b.a. SimplyMe TV). However, that deal was subsequently cancelled. Later in the season, FSN Pittsburgh agreed to pick up the remaining games; Erie, Pennsylvania -based Image Sports Network was also involved with the league. Eight teams participating in

1036-499: The manifesto was removed, and the team announced that, despite financial losses, the team would play a 2017 season. The team indicated they would not return to the Cattaraugus Community Center, instead securing a "better" arena. In November 2016, the Can-Am Indoor Football League confirmed that the Lightning would be members of their league and that their new "arena" would be the outdoor Buffalo RiverWorks facility in

1073-478: The official AIF football in their press announcement upon joining the Can-Am Indoor Football League , which was created by announced AIF 2017 expansion team Vermont Bucks . The Can-Am also used the AIF footballs in games during their only season. On July 3, 2023, John Morris announced that the league would indeed relaunch in 2024 with four new teams: Cedar Rapids River Kings , Corpus Christi Tritons , RiverCity Rage and West Virginia Miners . On August 4, 2023,

1110-562: The offseason there were several membership changes in the league that saw only four of the nine teams return from the previous season. However, the league would end up starting the season with 18 full member teams, two travel only teams, and one affiliated provisional team. * — When initially announced, the West Michigan Ironmen were set to play the Northern Division's fourth-seeded Central Penn Capitals . On May 30,

1147-591: The same weekend, also in Florence. League owners stated that the neutral site was chosen so that both games could be televised to obtain nationwide exposure for the league. The league then expanded nationwide; some individual teams were able to acquire several players with NFL experience, a sign that the league had achieved a level on par with leagues such as af2 . The league earned a major television contract as well: On September 17, 2007, The American Indoor Football Association owners John Morris and Michael Min announced that

Buffalo Blitz - Misplaced Pages Continue

1184-690: The season undefeated and win the championship. The Lions then announced that they were leaving the league due to the league's instability, especially in the Southern Division where the Lions were the only team that did not have a cancelled or rescheduled game. On July 7, 2016, the Lions' owners announced the formation of a new league, the Arena Developmental League . On July 13, the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks also announced they were leaving

1221-530: The several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United States in 2005. After a rapid, and largely failed, expansion effort in 2006, most of the league's remaining teams jumped to the new AIFA (the rest joined the short-lived WIFL ). The AIFA expanded throughout existing territory and, in 2008, expanded into

1258-460: The team was later removed from the website before the 2018 season and has appeared to have ceased operations. The following Lightning players have been named to All-League Teams: Note: Statistics are correct as of the 2017 season. Games were also scheduled for May 14, and June 4, 13 and 23. No opponents were found for those dates and those games were assumed to be cancelled. (source: CAIFL and Buffalo Blitz official Web sites) The remainder of

1295-575: The team's schedule (games on May 13, 20 and 27) was not played. The May 13 game was against the Connecticut Chiefs, who folded two months prior. The May 20 game was listed by the league as also being against the Chiefs, but by the Blitz as being against the Toronto Mounties. (An all-gay traveling team bears the name, but that team is a flag football team and it is unclear whether that team is the one

1332-449: Was marred by the folding of two teams, and the league used semi-pro teams to fill scheduling vacancies. The league was briefly acquired by Greens Worldwide , Inc., the owners of the amateur North American Football League, during the 2006 season, but they terminated the contract soon afterwards. Nine teams left the league after the season, including four who split off to create the short-lived World Indoor Football League . On October 2, 2006,

1369-531: Was to syndicate a "Game of the Week" package to regional sports networks and its network of low-powered broadcast stations. In 2010, the Baltimore Mariners completed the league's first-ever perfect season by winning all fourteen regular season games and winning AIFA Championship Bowl IV. The AIFA arranged a split and partial merger with the Southern Indoor Football League after the 2010 season. As part of

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