SIOUX FALLS, SD -- The Indoor Football League will kick off its 13th season with a Hall of Fame Game on Sunday, March 26, 2021, featuring the defending United Bowl champion Sioux Falls Storm hosting the Green Bay Blizzard, the league announced on Tuesday. Adding to the excitement around the league's kickoff weekend is the induction of the newest members of the IFL Hall of Fame during halftime of the Hall of Fame Game.
The announcement of the Hall of Fame Game comes as part of the release of the IFL's 2021 schedule. America's longest continuously-running indoor football league, the IFL will kick off in 2021 with 12 teams stretching from the East Coast to the West Coast and from as far north as Wisconsin and the Dakotas all the way south to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
The first full weekend of IFL action in 2021 will be the first weekend of April when all 12 teams are in action, beginning with a pair of games on Friday, April 2.
Each team will play 16 regular season games in 2021 – eight home and eight on the road. The expanded schedule, up from 14 scheduled games in 2020, is a nod of appreciation to the fans and corporate partners that stuck with the teams and league during the shortened 2020 COVID-impacted season.
Some interesting facts about the 2021 IFL schedule:
- The 2021 roster of IFL teams includes six teams that will be playing their first seasons in the league and six "veteran" IFL brands.
- The defending champion Sioux Falls Storm has earned the right to open the season in the spotlight, and from the first game the Storm will wear targets on their backs, including rematches of the past three United Bowls against Arizona and Iowa.
- The IFL's 2021 campaign includes five traditional holiday weekends – Easter Weekend, Mother's Day Weekend, Memorial Day Weekend, Father's Day Weekend, and the weekend of the Fourth of July.
- Five of the six first-year teams will get to test their mettle against veteran IFL teams in Week 2, which is the first weekend of play for each of the first-year IFL teams; the lone matchup between two rookie IFL teams to open the season is Spokane at Frisco.
- There are only two of the 17 full weekends of play in 2021 when there will not be a game played in the state of Arizona – Week 9 and Week 15, which is Fourth of July weekend. During Week 8 the state of Arizona will be hosting 3 of the 5 IFL games played that weekend.
- The league will play its 16-game regular season schedule over 18 weeks technically, but all except Sioux Falls and Green Bay -- the Hall of Fame Game participants -- will play their 16 games over 17 weeks.
- The postseason, which will feature eight teams, starts the weekend of July 30 with the first-round games, followed by the semifinals the weekend of August 6 before the final two teams enjoy a bye week in advance of the United Bowl the weekend of August 20.
The IFL opens in three new markets in 2021, with the Massachusetts Pirates, Northern Arizona Wranglers, and Louisville Xtreme joining the league. In addition to those three new organizations, the 2021 season will also mark the first time the Spokane Shock, Duke City Gladiators, and Frisco Fighters will take the field. Each of those teams joined the league in 2020, but none were able to play due to the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the league following its first week of play.
In addition to the 12 teams playing in 2021, the IFL has five additional teams set to play in 2022, including the expansion Columbus Wild Dogs, Quad City Steamwheelers, San Diego Strike Force, Oakland Panthers, and Cedar Rapids River Kings.
"We are extremely excited to be able to continue to grow the IFL, especially given the climate we are in during this atypical year," said IFL Commissioner Todd Tryon. "We were able to maintain our strict standards for team ownership and attract some great individuals and ownership groups into our league, which will only make us better. The future of the IFL continues to be very bright."
Generally concentrated in the Midwest and western part of the United States, the addition of Massachusetts will allow the league to eventually expand into a new region of the country. The addition of Louisville and Northern Arizona bolster the league's footprint in the middle of the country and the southwestern United States.
"The IFL has never before been situated for greater success, both within our local team markets and nationally," Tryon added. "We have a solid plan for expansion, along with national growth as it relates to our league broadcasts and league sponsorships, and we have great league members who all believe in the same vision. It's been too long since we've been able to get on the field and allow our great athletes to perform for our fans, and for us the Hall of Fame Game can't come soon enough."
