The league was effectively disbanded in September 2009 when no team committed to playing in 2010, but several of the stronger franchises transferred into the reconstituted AFL.

[2][3][4][5] The AF2 was founded in 1999 by the Arena Football League in an attempt to bring the game to mid-sized markets following the success of AFL on the national level.

[9] Each of these leagues, though they would eventually fold, managed to last for multiple seasons, proving that the game had some traction in the smaller cities.

With Jim Foster's patent on arena football, the AF2 had the advantage of being the same game as was being seen on the national level with the use of the rebound nets.

Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, with the intent to begin play in 2000, this XFL (which was not related to the WWE-backed outdoor league) used East Coast Hockey League ownership to keep team costs low while providing established ownership and arenas for play.

The cities that were to take part in the Xtreme Football League were: Birmingham, Alabama (Birmingham Steeldogs), Greenville, South Carolina (Carolina Rhinos), Huntsville, Alabama (Tennessee Valley Vipers), Jacksonville, Florida (Jacksonville Tomcats), Norfolk, Virginia (Norfolk Nighthawks), Pensacola, Florida (Pensacola Barracudas), Richmond, Virginia (Richmond Speed), Roanoke, Virginia (Roanoke Steam), and Tallahassee, Florida (Tallahassee Thunder).

[6] The AF2 finally took the field in March 2000 in a game between the Birmingham Steeldogs and Tennessee Valley Vipers (two of the acquired XFL teams).

The Orlando Predators also purchased the competitor Indoor Football League; several teams would be absorbed into the AF2 for the 2001 season.

[11] In addition over 9,200 fans attended ArenaCup I between the Tennessee Valley Vipers and Quad City Steamwheelers in Moline, Illinois.

[1] The remaining teams and Board of Directors of AF2, and some former members of the AFL joined to create a new league, originally called "Arena Football One", which was announced at a press conference on September 28, 2009.

Citing lower attendances at the neutral site ArenaCup games, the league returned to the original arena arrangement for the 2008 season.

The inaugural and second ArenaCups were broadcast on TNN Motor Sports/TNN Sports, which carried AFL games on Sunday afternoons at the time.

Because of legal issues regarding the bankruptcy and subsequent dissolution of the original Arena Football League, no team committed to continue with arenafootball2 operations.

In a June 2003 interview with Sports Illustrated, AFL commissioner David Baker briefly mentioned the AF2, saying how one day he envisioned the league growing to 100 teams.

Nine new expansion teams were approved for 2007 in the AF2: the Boise Burn, the Cincinnati Jungle Kats, the Fort Wayne Fusion, the Laredo Lobos, the Lubbock Renegades, the Mahoning Valley Thunder, the Texas Copperheads, the Tri-Cities Fever, and the Corpus Christi Sharks.

After the 2007 season, three of those teams folded, the Fort Wayne Fusion, the Cincinnati Jungle Kats, and the Laredo Lobos.

The Lexington Horsemen came from UIF; the Daytona Beach ThunderBirds, from the WIFL, and the Austin Wranglers moved down from the AFL.

After the conclusion of the 2019 AFL season, the Arena Football League filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceased operations in November 2019.