When college football and the NFL annually close out their seasons by mid-February, a different style of the sport takes center stage.
Call it indoor football, or call it arena football, either way, the 8-v-8, hard-hitting, fast-paced style of play provides a unique way for fans to engage with the most-popular sport in America.
Out of the many leagues seeking to be the best in the nation, the paragon of the sport is the Indoor Football League. Over the past 16 years, the IFL has built itself into a league capable of consistent excellence and impressive parity every season.
The league gives fan bases in places like Green Bay and Jacksonville a new brand of football during the spring and summer and provides cities without NFL franchises like Sioux Falls, San Diego and Des Moines professional teams that pour into the communities around them.
The IFL is spearheaded by its commissioner Todd Tryon, and saying he has a wealth of experience is underselling his ability. Tryon spent five years as a player, four years as an assistant coach and a decade as an owner, all with the IFL’s Sioux Falls Storm.
In 2019, he accepted the position of league commissioner. Under his watch, the IFL has increased in franchises, had four different championship teams and partnered with multiple television channels and streaming services, including a deal with CBS Sports to broadcast the IFL National Championship.
His tenure as commissioner has been highlighted by his investment in the teams and owners in the league, as well as the level of professionalism and quality the IFL brings to the sport.
“We're extremely strict on the way that coaches are dressing and players are dressing and the way they're presenting themselves,” Tryon said. “We're trying to prepare ourselves for a bigger stage. We're telling ourselves as the major league of indoor football, that's the way you need to act, and that's where you need to present yourself, and that's the standard that we're setting.”
Trying to stay afloat in the arena football market is no easy task. Just ask Champions Indoor Football (folded), Fan Controlled Football (on hiatus), the Continental Football League (folded) or the three iterations of the Arena Football League, which have folded twice over the last 30 years.
The IFL looks to grow its reach across the nation, but the league is picky about which ownership groups they allow to join. Tryon described that the league has four criteria for allowing new teams: quality in ownership, geographic location and community support, arena availability and the actual tenability of the franchise.
“What's the operation look like?” Tryon said. “Who's running it? Do they have any experience? If you bring somebody on that has no experience, that means us at the league office … we're the ones that have to kind of do the work of teaching and training and how to run your team. We want to be support for you, we don't want to have to lead for you.”
Leagues often go under due to their teams being unable to find an arena to play in, owners abandoning their rosters or franchises folding due to a lack of finances. Teams are often forced to move leagues to try to find a stable environment as the landscape of the sport constantly changes.
But despite arena football's volatility, the IFL has powered through. The league now contains 16 teams, including one from its initial creation in 2009, the Sioux Falls Storm, legendary franchises like the Iowa Barnstormers and the Arizona Rattlers and expansion teams like the current champion Bay Area Panthers.
Over the next few years, the goal of the league is to increase to 24 teams for the first time since 2010 by strategic expansion and careful planning, following a blueprint that sets them apart from the rest of their competition.
“You have to be careful,” Tryon said. “We brought on two teams this year (the Jacksonville Sharks and the San Antonio Gunslingers), but the nice thing is they're already two established teams, and so they're not going to take much bandwidth from the league to get up and get going. I'm still looking for a couple of potential startup expansions because we’ve got the bandwidth…so you leave the door open for that, but the goal is to get to 24 (teams).”
One of the future IFL teams is the Fishers Freight launching in 2025. The ownership group behind Indiana’s ECHL hockey team, the Indy Fuel, will be joining the league and playing out of the under-construction, all-new Fishers Event Center.
Joe Zollo, the manager of marketing and digital media for the Freight, is excited to bring an all-new football experience to the state of Indiana.
“Indiana is known for football and basketball,” Zollo said. “We’re not charging $200 for a ticket, we’re charging 20 bucks to get into a game and you could very well sit three rows from the field. It’s that family-friendly experience but offering those football fanatics the experience to take in the game of football year-round.”
Zollo is excited for fans to see the new stadium when the team starts play in March 2025. The organization has been quietly working behind the scenes, meticulously preparing everything to have the Freight be competitive and exciting for fans while still fitting right in with the IFL’s community-based mindset.
“We’re taking the Fishers Freight name, opting not to do the ‘Indiana Freight’ or ‘Indianapolis,’ we’re opting to go for Fishers specifically, giving something that the northeast side of the city can really get behind and really get excited about,” Zollo said.
With its strong leadership, iconic franchises and strategic mindset, the IFL looks to continue adding to its legacy as America’s premier arena football league for years to come, including coming soon to an Indianapolis stadium near you.
The IFL season has kicked off as the Bay Area Panthers look to become repeat champions since the Storm’s run of six championships ended in 2016.
