Originally hosted at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena based on home attendance during the inaugural 1987 season, save four years (2005–2008) the game was hosted by the team with the higher seed based on regular season performance.

For the series final two games, regular season home attendance between the competing teams determined which would host.

The final ten games of the series would be staged under the "new" Arena Football League, concluding with ArenaBowl XXXII between the Albany Empire and Philadelphia Soul.

The second AFL ultimately had the same fate as the first, ceasing operations after its 2019 season and undergoing Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

[1] The ArenaBowl was revived in 2024 and was played at a neutral site, the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey.