The Force did not return in 2012 and were replaced the Cape Fear Heroes expansion team as part of American Indoor Football.

However, local investors including then head coach Terry Smith, saved the team in time to schedule a third game at the Staten Island Xtreme the last weekend of April.

The Guard did better in 2006, posting a 13–1 record in the regular season, then defeating the Lakeland Thunderbolts and River City Rage en route to Indoor Bowl VI, where they lost to the Billings Outlaws.

The AIFA East, of which Fayetteville was a member, then merged into the Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL) for the 2011 season .

[6] Due to contractual issues between the previous owner and his players and coaches at the time, the AIFA was unable to take over those contracts.

The new Fayetteville Force never won a game and has the dubious distinction of setting a record for the largest single-game losing margin and points allowed in the history of indoor football – in any league – following a 0–138 loss to the Erie Explosion on May 21, 2011.

[7] The AIFA reorganized as American Indoor Football (AIF) after the SIFL folded following its lone 2011 season.