Arizona Bandits

The Arizona Bandits are a future professional indoor football team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL), but will begin play in 2025.

History
The Bandits are slated to be the second official Arizona-based team to play in the AFL and the first since the Arizona Rattlers (now of the Indoor Football League) who played in the AFL from 1992 to 2008 and again from 2010 to 2016.

Birth of the Bandits and future
Four years after the AFL folded for the second time, it was announced on February 1, 2023, that the league intended on relaunching in 2024. On July 18, the 16 intended market cities were announced, including Arizona.

On September 6, 2023, the Bandits launched their Facebook and Instagram pages with new logos and news about the ownership group, which is led by local businessmen Matthew Mason and David Glynn, along with Bakersfield, California-based semi-professional team owner Tim Carbajal. Carbajal had originally been in line to own the California Grizzlies, but was unable to secure a lease with Bakersfield's Mechanics Bank Arena. Their head coach and general manager is former San Jose SaberCats and Bay Area Panthers head coach Darren Arbet, who won four ArenaBowl championships with the SaberCats before that franchise abruptly folded in 2015. On November 16, 2023, the Bandits were among the team that attended a special AFL Launch Party in New York City. However, as of press time, the Bandits are on hiatus until 2025 and have yet to announce where they will play.

In an interview with KTVK 3TV and KPHO CBS 5, co-owner Matthew Mason announced that the Bandits will be playing in a new state-of-the-art arena in either Phoenix or Scottsdale that could also host a potential revival of the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League.

On May 14, 2024, the league fired commissioner Lee Hutton and contracted to 10 teams, leaving the Bandits' future existence in doubt. However, with the positive changes in the league led by interim commissioner Jeff Fisher, the Bandits continue to plan to join the league for 2025 and beyond.