[6] The Empire were expelled from the NAL two months into the 2023 season due to Antonio Brown's wildly erratic behavior to include not paying the players or staff.

[7] After the Antonio Brown fiasco, Bob Belber, general manager of the arena, stated that New York's exceptionally high worker's compensation premium, running around $1,500,000, a full order of magnitude higher than other indoor squads, was the main factor in the NAL Empire's sale to Brown and its collapse, and the primary reason the Empire was not included among the inaugural teams in the 2024 Arena Football League relaunch; he stated that if the city wanted arena football to return, the state would have to lower that premium before the middle of August 2023.

On October 6, the league announced the addition of the Firebirds, as well as the Southwest Kansas Storm, Wichita Regulators, Orlando Predators, Rapid City Marshals, and a team eventually known as the Washington Wolfpack.

Firebirds president Jeff Levack blamed the smaller teams for having "scared off" a television carriage agreement with NFL Network.

[12] The Firebirds returned to the playoffs and made it all the way to the championship game in ArenaBowl XXXIII being played at American Dream Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey (a neutral site), only to lose to the upstart Billings Outlaws 46–41.

On September 4, 2024, the Firebirds, along with the surviving members of the collapsed AFL, left the league and joined the newly-formed Arena Football One.