American Indoor Football League The American Indoor Football Association West ( AIFA West ) is a professional indoor football league that was formed in 2006 . The league ' s creation coincided with the demise of the Atlantic / American Indoor Football League ( AIFL ) , and all AIFL teams subsequently joined the AIFA . The league is owned by Michael Mink , who co - founded the league along with John Morris in 2006 . The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United States in 2005 ; after a rapid , and largely failed , expansion effort in 2006 , most of the league ' s remaining teams jumped to the new AIFA ( the rest joined the short - lived WIFL ) . The AIFA expanded throughout existing territory and , in 2008 , expanded into the Western United States . The league legally divided into two entities to allow for a partial merger with the Southern Indoor Football League , which resulted in all of its Eastern teams merging into the SIFL and the AIFA only maintaining its western teams . As such , none of the charter teams or markets of the AIFL have teams in the AIFA . Only one market ( Erie , Pennsylvania ) had continuously held an AIFL / AIFA team from the time of the league ' s founding until the SIFL merger . History . The league has its roots in the Atlantic Indoor Football League , which began play in 2005 under the leadership of Andrew Haines . The league ( originally proposed under the name " United States Indoor Football League " in 2004 ) began with six teams , all of them based in the eastern United States . Two teams played all of their games on the road , and the regular season was cut short two weeks because of teams being unable to secure venues for playoff games . In the 2005 - 06 offseason , the league changed its name to the American Indoor Football League , while nine expansion teams entered the league and a tenth ( the Rome Renegades ) joined from the National Indoor Football League . The 2006 season was marred by the folding of two teams , and the league used semi - pro teams to fill scheduling vacancies . The league was briefly acquired by Greens Worldwide , Inc . , the owners of the amateur North American Football League , during the 2006 season , but they terminated the contract soon afterwards . Nine teams left the league after the season , including four who split off to create the short - lived World Indoor Football League . On October 2 , 2006 , a massive reorganization took place as Morris and Mink set up a new league , which absorbed all of the remaining AIFL franchises , and Haines was ousted . ( Haines would go on to create the Mid - Atlantic Hockey League in 2007 , before similar stability problems led to the forced divestiture of that league as well . Haines would , in April 2010 , announce he was relaunching his league as the Ultimate Indoor Football League beginning in 2011 and revived two defunct former AIFL teams . ) The league took on its current name at the same time . The 2007 season was relatively successful for the league , as all 112 scheduled games were played and no teams folded mid - season , a major improvement over the past two seasons ( when the AIFA was known as the AIFL ) . The AIFA Championship Bowl I was a neutral site game held in Florence , SC . In addition , the league held its 1st All - Star Game the same weekend , also in Florence . League owners stated that the neutral site was chosen so that both games could be televised to obtain nationwide exposure for the league . The league has since expanded nationwide and individual teams have been able to acquire several players with NFL experience , a sign that the league has achieved a level on par with leagues such as af2 . The league had earned a major television contract as well : On September 17 , 2007 , The American Indoor Football Association owners John Morris and Michael Mink announced that the league signed a three - year national television broadcast , mobile phone broadcast , and webcast licensing agreement with Simply 4Me Incorporated ( d . b . a . SimplyMe TV ) , who would produce a live broadcast and relay the games on the Internet and through the ION Television network in exchange for US $ 2 , 500 , 000 in rights fees for the AIFA . Without any public explanation , these games never made it to broadcast in any medium . ION subsequently dropped the league from their schedule and replaced it with Western movies . It was not until April 15 , 2008 that SimplyMe , after having not produced a single broadcast by the midpoint of the season , reported in a letter to the league that it would no longer produce AIFA games . Later in the season , FSN Pittsburgh agreed to pick up the remaining games ; Erie , Pennsylvania - based Image Sports Network also televised local games of the Erie RiverRats . Eight teams participating in the league in 2007 did not return for the 2008 season , including the 2007 champion Lakeland Thunderbolts . The AIFA is the third league since 2004 ( excluding the folded WIFL and NIFL before its folding ) to lose its standing champion ( the 2004 NIFL champion Lexington Horsemen left to join the newly created UIF and are now in af2 , and the 2006 champion Billings Outlaws also left to join two years later . ) However , nine teams signed on to begin play in 2008 , and the league created a Western Conference . In 2007 , the team farthest west was based in Mississippi ; in 2008 , the team farthest west was based in Arizona . Three of the four teams who have won the league championship are no longer active league members . The 2009 season culminated in AIFA Championship Bowl III , hosted by the Western Conference champion Wyoming Cavalry on July 25 , 2009 . The game , played before 6 , 500 fans at the Casper Event Center , saw the Reading Express defeat the Wyoming Cavalry for their first title , 65 - 42 . As the 2010 season approached , AIFA continued to expand its nationwide footprint . Expansion franchises have been added in Richmond , Virginia ; Yakima , Washington ; Wasilla , Alaska ( believed to be the smallest city in America to host a national professional football franchise ) and Wenatchee , Washington . The moves give the AIFA a much more significant presence on the West Coast of the United States . To accommodate this , and to keep travel expenses down , for the 2010 season the AIFA adopted a scheduling system that effectively treats the Eastern and Western conferences as separate leagues , with no regular - season crossover between the two conferences . The league also secured a television contract with AMGTV , which will syndicate a " Game of the Week " package to regional sports network s and its network of low - powered broadcast stations . In 2010 , the Baltimore Mariners completed the league ' s first - ever perfect season by winning all fourteen regular season games and winning AIFA Championship Bowl IV . Split and partial merger with the SIFL . The AIFA arranged a split and partial merger with the Southern Indoor Football League after the 2010 season . As part of the deal , Morris would acquire the rights to the eastern conference teams and merge them into the SIFL , while Mink would retain the western conference teams , rights to the AIFA name , and television contract , the last of which was extended through 2013 . The AIFA West originally announced that it would begin its season with four teams , beginning in March 2011 , after the Tucson Thunder Kats announced it would be suspending operations until 2012 . As of January 2011 , no schedule had been released , and the league informed the remaining three teams that there would not be a fourth team representing Eugene , Oregon as the league had earlier promised . The league attempted to work out a schedule with the remaining three teams , but the Reno Barons and Stockton Wolves were unwilling to go forward with such a schedule and broke from the league . Both teams are operating as the two - team " Western Indoor Football Association " in 2011 , each playing whatever semi - pro teams are willing to face them in addition to each other . With only the Yakima Valley Warriors left , the AIFA ceased operations . It will attempt to relaunch in 2012 with 8 to 12 teams in at least two regions of the United States . Basic rule differences . Two rule changes appear to be inspired by Canadian football rules : 2005 Teams . - 2005 Season . Standings / Schedules 2006 Teams . - 2006 Season . Standings / Schedules 2007 AFIA West Teams . - 2007 Season . Standings / Schedules 2008 AIFA West Teams . AIFA - 2008 Season . Standings / Schedules 2009 AIFA West Teams . AIFA - 2009 Season . Standings / Schedules 2010 AIFA West Teams . AIFA - 2010 Season . Standings / Schedules