Arena Football Closes its Doors

The Arena Football League has closed its doors, this time indefinitely.

The league, which previously called off play for the 2009 season but said it would return in 2010, sent a curt, one-paragraph statement to its teams late Tuesday announcing it had suspended operations.

The statement said the AFL’s board had been "unable to reach any consensus on restructuring the league over the past eight months."

The 22-year-old indoor league has stumbled around losing its commissioner and two teams since the end of last season. It reached a new agreement with its players this year, but that wasn’t sufficient to persuade AFL enough owners that the league could return to profitability.

The AFL’s board said "there are no other viable options available to the league right now."

With Arena football gone the UFL should take over as the number 2 most watched football league in America, instantly surpassing the CFL and MLS.