New arena football league awards expansion franchise to Wilkes-Barre

Just over 15 years since the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers played their final game, a new arena football league has announced that they’ll be bringing the sport back to Wilkes-Barre.

Arena Football 1, a new league carrying over the eight remaining teams from this year’s attempted revival of the Arena Football League, announced Tuesday that an expansion franchise had been awarded to Wilkes-Barre, joining another expansion team in Stockton, Calif., to bring the league to 10 teams total at the moment.

“I am humbled and honored to bring Arena Football back to Wilkes-Barre and Northeastern Pennsylvania,” said new franchise owner Matt Rowland in a press release issued by the league . “I want to thank AF1 and in particular (league president) Jared Widman, (league CEO) Jerry Kurz, and (league commissioner) Jeff Fisher for believing in me and in this market.”

The press release cites Rowland as an “innovative boxing promoter” with “several large cards to his credit.” Rowland is a graduate of Misericordia.

The formation of Arena Football 1 was announced on Sept. 6, about two months after the relaunched Arena Football League’s season ended.

This new league absorbed the eight surviving members from that league, along with its commissioner. Fisher spent a long time coaching in the National Football League, with 16 years as the head coach of the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans and another five with the St. Louis (later Los Angeles) Rams.

Fisher coached and served as the general manager of the United States Football League’s Michigan Panthers in 2022, and became the interim commissioner of the Arena Football League in May of this year.

“As we strengthen our league, we are excited to have teams like Wilkes-Barre in the fold,” Fisher said in the press release.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area is no stranger to arena football: from 2002-09, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers played in AF2, the minor-league affiliate of the Arena Football League.

The Pioneers lost in the ArenaBowl in their final season, and shut down operations as the whole of AF2 dissolved in September of 2009.

In the press release, it was announced that a fan vote to determine what the new franchise’s nickname would be will be announced “in the coming days.”

Fans could also expect an announcement on who will lead the new team as head coach over the next few days.