Arena football will return to Utah in April

CHICAGO — Indoor professional football is expected to return this spring in a mix of large and medium markets.

Officials with the new Arena Football One league say they also have a more modest economic model they hope will ensure success. The league is set to debut in April in 15 communities, including seven cities — including Salt Lake City — that hosted teams in the now defunct Arena Football League.

Arena Football One will be a mix of former AFL and af2 teams, with Chicago as the largest market. Tampa Bay, Arizona, Cleveland, Orlando, Dallas and Utah — all former AFL locations — will also be represented in the new league.

The league will also have teams in smaller markets such as Spokane, Wash., Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Okla., Milwaukee and Bossier-Shreveport, La. League offices will be in Tulsa.

Arena Football One this week purchased the assets of the AFL in a deal approved by a judge overseeing the AFL's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The reported $6.1 million sale included all team names, logos, records, film and video libraries, and other assets from the Arena Football League, which called off the 2009 season a year ago and then indefinitely suspended operations in August.

AFL then filed for bankruptcy protection. Legal proceedings also included af2, a 25-team indoor football league with teams in smaller markets that the AFL partly owned.