There are numerous indoor football leagues in the United States and Canada. And every so many years these leagues will merge with each other as teams fold and the amount of clubs dwindle and fade into football lore.
The Arena Football League began all this. The league was invented by Jim Foster on an envelope while in attendance of an indoor soccer match. That rendition was played on a hockey rink. The beauty of this idea was that football could be enjoyed indoors and anywhere there was a hockey rink or a basketball arena.
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So, the Arena League began with four teams in 1987 as a test.