ArenaBowl XXXIII was the 33rd edition of the ArenaBowl, the championship game for the 2024 Arena Football League season. It took place at the American Dream Center, an ice rink located inside American Dream Meadowlands, a shopping mall and entertainment complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 19, 2024. It is the first since the original league's bankruptcy in 2019 and the reestablishment of the AFL in 2024.[1] The game featured the Albany Firebirds facing off against the Billings Outlaws who had faced each other earlier in the season in Billings winning 36-35.
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| Date | July 19, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Arena | American Dream Meadowlands, East Rutherford, New Jersey | ||||||||||||||||||
| Winning coach | Cedric Walker | ||||||||||||||||||
| Losing coach | Damon Ware | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Network | CBS Sports Network | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Ari Wolfe, Bret Munsey and Brent Stover | ||||||||||||||||||
Billings won the Arenabowl 46-41 for their first ArenaBowl championship.
Venue
editArenaBowl XXXIII was the first ArenaBowl hosted on a neutral site since ArenaBowl XXVI. The site was originally selected as the Target Center, home of the Minnesota Myth. However, this was dropped when the Myth folded and Myth co-owner Lee Hutton was expelled from his post as league commissioner.
On June 27, 2024, the league announced a new venue for the game would be held at American Dream Center, an ice rink located inside American Dream Meadowlands, a large retail complex and entertainment facility located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, adjacent to the Meadowlands Sports Complex and not far from MetLife Stadium. [2][3] The choice of a shopping mall for the event drew widespread attention, with Matt Reigle of Outkick describing it as "either the coolest thing I've ever seen or the saddest,"[4] a former AFL broadcaster writing for Barstool Sports praising it as an example of the league's reputation for being willing to try new things,[5] and Karl Rasmussen of Sports Illustrated commenting that the lack of traditional angled seating or a press box had consequences for the CBS Sports Network television broadcast, which largely operated from a single high camera, giving unusually angled views of the action.[6] CBS Sports Network commentator Ari Wolfe himself commented that the situation was "unlike anything we've ever seen."[7]
Teams
editThis was the second consecutive ArenaBowl appearance for Albany, who appeared in and won ArenaBowl XXXII, the last ArenaBowl of the previous Arena Football League as the Albany Empire in 2019; the Empire had also won two National Arena League titles in the interim in 2021 and 2022.[8] This was Billings's first league championship appearance in its current incarnation and the fifth for the Billings Outlaws brand overall, the first since the 2010 United Bowl. The two teams were the first and second ranked teams in the AFL in the 2024 regular season. In the two teams' regular season matchup, the Outlaws, using rules the team had pushed to bring in from Champions Indoor Football as part of that league's merger with the AFL (and which Albany had themselves used to win a game under similar circumstances against the West Texas Desert Hawks four weeks prior),[9] scored a touchdown, four-point conversion and a deuce (a kickoff through the Firebirds' uprights) in a five-second span to win their week 9 contest 36–35.[10] Albany and Billings each advanced to the ArenaBowl by defeating the Salina Liberty[8] and Nashville Kats, respectively, in the AFL playoffs (Billings having avenged its lone regular season loss against the Kats in said game).[11]
Game summary
edit| Quarter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albany Firebirds | 0 | 13 | 16 | 12 | 41 |
| Billings Outlaws | 3 | 14 | 16 | 13 | 46 |
at American Dream Center, East Rutherford, New Jersey
- Date: July 19, 2024
- Game time: 5:30 p.m. EDT
- Referee: Dave Cutaia
- TV announcers (CBS Sports Network): Ari Wolfe, Bret Munsey and Brent Stover
- Recap
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References
edit- ^ "News: Arena Football League Relaunch The Arena Football League (AFL) - The AFL Returns in 2024!". demosite475.footballshift.com (Press release). February 2023. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
- ^ Baldissard, Jack (27 June 2024). "33rd AFL ArenaBowl Championship Game to take place at the American Dream Center (New Jersey)". Arena Football League. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
- ^ Staff, American Dream (27 June 2024). "33rd ArenaBowl Championship Game". American Dream. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
- ^ Reigle, Matt (2024-07-19). "Arena Football's Arena Bowl XXXIII Is In A Mall... A Big One, But Still". OutKick. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
- ^ RDT. "The AFL's Arena Bowl Being Held In The Middle Of A Mall Is So Perfect". www.barstoolsports.com. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
- ^ Rasmussen, Karl (2024-07-19). "Arena Football League Hosting Championship Game Inside a Mall Looked So Bizarre". SI. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
- ^ Yoder, Matt (2024-07-19). "Fans marvel at ArenaBowl XXXIII being played in a shopping mall". Awful Announcing. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
- ^ a b Williams, Brandon (July 14, 2024). "Albany Firebirds ArenaBowl-bound after sinking Salina with second-half surge". WTEN. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
- ^ Kelly, Michael (May 31, 2024). "Firebirds coach: 'Truly hate the rule' that helped team stay undefeated". Times Union. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
- ^ Kelly, Michael (June 22, 2024). "Firebirds stunned in final seconds at Billings". Times Union. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
- ^ Napier, Brian (2024-07-14). "Bailey Giffen's game-winning field goal sends Billings Outlaws to ArenaBowl XXXIII". 406 MT SPORTS. Retrieved 2024-07-14.