Los Angeles 1 of 4 Cities New to Arena Football

Having played one season, the Arena Football League will expand into Los Angeles this spring as the league goes from four to six teams.

James Foster, founder and President of Arena Football, announced the league’s arrival into Los Angeles at a Sports Arena press conference Friday. The team, as yet unnamed, will play in the Sports Arena.

The owners of the franchise are Byron Lasky, a real estate developer, and Irving Zeiger, a former Coliseum commissioner.

The league is putting new teams in Detroit, Providence, R.I., and the New York metropolitan area, along with Los Angeles. Chicago and Pittsburgh are the holdover franchises from last season, with the Denver and Washington dropping out. The first games will be April 29, the Arena Bowl championship on July 30.

The league is content to grow slowly with only six teams, according to officials.

“We started out crawling, then we went to a walk and right now we are just starting to jog,” Foster said.

The league has signed a five-year contract with ESPN to broadcast Arena Football starting with 15 games this season.

“We are very excited to be with ESPN,” Foster said. “We will have 12 regular-season prime-time games with three postseason games on ESPN this year and we’ll also have a six-game syndicated package with Mizlou broadcasting Thursday or Monday night games,” Foster said.

Arena Football is football played indoors on a synthetic surface on a field 50 yards by 85 feet. It has eight players going both ways instead of offensive and defensive specialists. Quarterbacks and kickers are exceptions.

Each team is allowed to keep 18 players on a roster with a three-man taxi squad. The game is played with narrowed field-goal poles, padded sideline barriers and end zone nets that allow the football to remain in play.

“We an have extensive scouting program already under way,” said Mike Hope, general manager of the new franchise. “We’ll have a training camp where the teams will be put together April 8th, and we won’t need as many players that are needed for outdoor football.”

The new L.A. team plans to hold a contest to determine the team’s name. A coach will be named soon.