How Not to Launch an Arena Football Team

AF1 Column on the league’s future: https://www.theaf1.com/news/af1-is-ea... The Stockton Crusaders say they will start playing arena football in 2027. Of course, a similar announcement was made for the 2025 season. The same folks also told the world they would be playing in 2026. So, what’s changed? This time, they cobbled together a press conference, which seems like an attempt to fool people into believing this is real. I say this with a certain degree of confidence: the Stockton Crusaders are not real. Now, maybe they put things together and backfill on their plans. Maybe this fantasy becomes reality. Then again, if there is one thing people in this region love doing, it’s organizing a press conference to float a pipe dream in order to convince someone else to help fund it. The most telling thing about this event wasn’t who was there, but who wasn’t. Namely, a league. Any league. Arena Football One or AF1 wasn’t involved. There was a bit of league branding. No league officials were in sight. The hero image for the announcement simply said ‘Arena Pro Football’. Aside from media reporting on AF1 and some brief mentions of it during the press conference, the league appeared to have no involvement in what was happening with the Stockton Crusaders. It's weird. The AF1 has successfully emerged from the wreckage of Lee Hutton’s AFL to become a solid, stable outfit under Jeff Fisher. We also know AF1 has been open to having Stockton in the league, even announcing them as an expansion team in 2024. The group behind the Crusaders has never had its house in order. When a new team launches in AF1, it happens with a lot of league involvement. First, it happens after the season. The timing in Stockton was odd. Second, the press conference usually has a league official, normally Jerry Kurz or Jeff Fisher, on hand. They are also part of official press releases and whatnot. Third, both league and team messaging are released at the same time. There is a lot of cooperation and a basic, effective PR campaign to ensure the messaging gets out. So, is Stockton really getting an arena football team or is this just hot air? About The Touchback #takeitouttothe25 The Touchback is the world's best sports and culture website…or something like that. You'll either really like it or really hate it. But it's worth reading either way.