When my son Adam and I first learned back in February of 2023 that the Arena Football League was coming back in 2024, we were ecstatic! But trying to go to a game this season has been a bit problematic, to say the least.

We have loved the AFL since the early 2000s and have attended many AFL and af2 games over the years. We were season ticket holders of the Grand Rapids Rampage and attended ArenaBowl XV in 2001 when Grand Rapids hosted the Nashville Kats and won the league title.

Our last AFL game together was in June of 2019 between the Columbus Destroyers and the Atlantic City Blackjacks in Columbus. We were devastated when the league shut down after that season. But upon hearing that the league was coming back, we knew we wanted to go to a game and anxiously awaited the release of the schedule.

When we first looked at the 2024 AFL schedule, we both wanted to go see the Nashville Kats host the Albany Firebirds in a Week 1 game on Saturday, April 27, but that was the day we were planning to attend the NFL Draft in Detroit, and we simply couldn’t miss out on that!

Adam then chose the Wichita Regulators at Minnesota Myth game on Saturday, May 18 for us to go to. He picked that game based on when he could get time off work. I am retired now, so it didn’t matter to me. Adam had chosen the Minnesota Myth as his team to root for this year because he liked the logo. He even bought a Myth t-shirt and hat. Being old school, I bought a Minnesota Fighting Pike t-shirt to wear to the game. The team played one season in 1996. The quarterback that season was Rickey Foggie, who was now the head coach of the Myth. I have a Fighting Pike mini helmet that I was going to take with me and get him to autograph it.

We had our hotel; we had our tickets and we had our apparel to wear to the game. We were now ready to make the trip.

But then we found out that the Myth had folded the Monday before the game. We were crushed. The room I had booked was non-refundable, so we decided to make the trip anyway. Our hotel was right across the street from the Target Center, where the game would have been played, and we could see it right outside the window!

Instead of attending an AFL game that weekend, we ended up taking a tour of U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the NFL Minnesota Vikings, and going to the Mall of America.

We then looked at going to a Nashville Kats game again and Adam picked the June 2 game against Albany because it was on a Sunday. That would work around his schedule. However, the Nashville game was moved from Sunday to Saturday, June 1 and Adam had a conflict with that date. But by now he had me all excited about going to see the Kats play, so just days before the game, I bought myself a ticket and made a hotel reservation! (You can do that when you are retired.)

Adam was not happy about this turn of events! He stayed home in Kalamazoo and watched the game on YouTube from his apartment.  

I had never been to a Kats game in Nashville before, so this was all new to me. I expected to see signs for event parking near the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, where the game was being played, but never saw a single one. So, I picked a random parking ramp a couple of blocks away. I had to scan a QR code after I parked, which sent me to a site where I put in my cell phone number, license plate number and credit card. After the game, I scanned another QR code as I left the parking ramp and they texted me a statement sometime later. It cost me over $40.00!

When I walked into the arena, I was handed a card with a QR Code on it. This was for accessing to digital program for the game.  

It was so great just being at an AFL game again. I had really missed this league! The crowd was sparse but those in attendance were very enthusiastic and loud. I was a little disappointed that the Kats and Firebirds were not wearing the same helmets and uniforms that I had known and loved over the years, but that’s just me. I hate change.

The deuce was a new part of the game this season. If a kickoff goes through the uprights, the kicking team gets two points. I got to see two of them made by Albany that night.

The first half was kind of slow and the score at halftime was only 14-7 in favor of Albany. (That’s pretty low for an AFL game.) In the second half, the Firebirds increased their lead to 32-10, but that’s when Nashville mounted a comeback. A touchdown, a failed four-point try, an onside kick recovery, another touchdown and a two-point conversion by Nashville made the score 32-24 with 15 seconds remaining in the game. A second onside kick attempt was no good and Albany ran out the clock for the win!  

After the game, I was able to go down onto the field, but there were no instructions by the public address announcer telling fans how or where to get onto the field. It took me a while, and I had to ask three different people, how to get on the field before I finally found the right place.

The post-game activities were not as well organized as they were in years past, either. Yes, players, coaches and dance team members were milling around on the field with the fans, but there were no tables set up for them to sit at and sign autographs. But still, it was great to just be walking on an AFL field after a game again!

All in all, I still had a great time! The speed of the game, the excitement of the ball bouncing off the rebound nets and the furious rally at the end of the game by Nashville to try and win is what the Arena Football League is all about. I will always love this game and this league. Now I’ll be checking the schedule once again to see if any other AFL games fit into my busy (retired) schedule!  

Randy Snow covered the Grand Rapids Rampage of the Arena Football League for ArenaFan from 2003-2008. He also covered the Fort Wayne Fusion of arenafootball2 in 2007. From 2004-2008 and in 2010, he was a member of the Arena Football League Writer’s Association and, since 2011, has been a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association. Randy lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan but will travel just about anywhere for a football game or a great football story. He runs the web site www.theworldoffootball.com and hosts a podcast with his son, Adam, called “This Week in The World of Football.”