The Philadelphia Soul announced a pause on their season only three weeks into an Arena Football League revival that's been plagued with issues from the start.
The team's general manager Kelly Logan said he has hopes for them to return in 2025, first via the "Take The 8 Count" podcast and then the club's X (formerly Twitter) account, but that's provided this rebooted AFL can even make it that far.
At the time, the Soul, who were a three-time champion during its initial lifespan from 2004-2019, weren't confirmed to be one of the returning teams, but their imagery was used heavily in the initial press releases, and eventually were revealed to be returning though with none of the original branding from under the old ownership of musician Jon Bon Jovi and former Eagle Ron Jaworski.
They were also being brought back, alongside 15 other clubs across the league, on a tight timeline that left pretty much any prospect of a return to the Wells Fargo Center out of the question.
The Soul would go on to find a home at the Cure Insurance Arena in Trenton, but wouldn't get far enough to actually play there.
The rebooted AFL kicked off its season on April 27, but did so with little publicity going in, an NFL Network TV deal that fell through, and disastrous issues that left it making headlines for all the wrong reasons – with the Soul's problems the most glaring.
The Soul were scheduled to play the Lousiana Voodoo on the road in their opening week matchup, but ownership backed out and transferred back into the league ahead of it while the head coach had resigned and the roster flipped on the fly, causing doubt that the team would even play.
Furthering that was kicker Conor Magnan's video post to Instagram detailing what was supposed to be the team's flight out to Louisiana the day before, but had only a couple of players appear with no team staff that he could see.
Per the Philadelphia Inquirer, players were also kicked out of a nearby Super 8 motel they were sent to stay at with an unpaid bill.
A Philadelphia Soul team did take the field in Louisiana, but it was a rushed and weakly taped-together replacement roster with no direction or game plan. They got crushed, 53-18, then again a week later at Minnesota, 47-12.
They were scheduled to play Albany on the road on Sunday and then make their home debut next week against Georgia, but those are now axed with ticket sales for the latter having been pulled offline.
The league on the whole, meanwhile, seemingly continues to crumble as the Soul became its second team to cut their losses on their own season, joining Iowa.
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