List of Arena Football League teams

The AFL was a professional indoor American football league based in the United States.

The AFL started play with the 1987 season, featuring the Chicago Bruisers, the Denver Dynamite, the Pittsburgh Gladiators and the Washington Commandos.

The Pittsburgh franchise became the Tampa Bay Storm in 1991 – they were the only franchise remaining from the inaugural 1987 season still operating until the 2017 season; after that season, they announced an indefinite suspension of operations, leaving open the possibility of returning in the future if the league were restructured in such a way as to make operation of a franchise potentially profitable.

As of the 2019 season, the final season in league history, 65 different franchises (operating under 85 different names when allowing for a franchise changing city or name) had competed in the AFL, of which 60 either left to compete in another indoor football league, suspended operations, or folded outright.

The league reached its maximum size in the 2001, 2004 and 2007 seasons, in which 19 teams competed in each instance.

The Tampa Bay Storm , formed as the Pittsburgh Gladiators in 1987, was the oldest franchise in the AFL (and the last remaining inaugural team) before folding in 2017.