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NGL Overview
The National Gridiron League Ushers in a New Era of Football Excellence
The National Gridiron League (NGL) is a professional spring football league founded and incorporated in Florida on October 20, 2017.
The league is currently composed of eighteen franchises located throughout the continental United States. Located in sixteen states, with Ohio and Virginia hosting two franchises, the NGL is the largest professional football league outside of the NFL.
The NGL's style of play is similar to indoor and arena American football, with a smaller game field and limited twenty-one-player rosters. Still, it emulates traditional American football because the league plays outdoors with traditional football sidelines.
The NGL is the second professional football league, after the NFL, to build and develop its own infrastructure. NGL management has set the goal of developing commercial infrastructure to ensure the league's long-term success.
The league is currently structured as a single entity, with the league owning and operating all teams.
2017 Founding
The National Gridiron League was founded by former college football player and businessman Joe McClendon III in October 2017. McClendon III desired to own an eight-man professional team but felt no current indoor or arena football league offered an opportunity for long-term viability due to its operational structure and gameplay rules. McClendon began meeting potential investors and hiring league personnel to launch the league in the spring of 2019.
2019 Season
Initially, the league planned to launch as an indoor league and become a premier competitor with leagues such as the Arena Football League (AFL) and the Indoor Football League (IFL). Those plans were halted soon after the NGL began serious negotiations with arena venues in several proposed cities the league planned to launch. With the NGL planning to launch with 12 teams in the league, the league reached agreements with seven venues. During facility negotiations, league personnel discovered that arena facility deals often required teams to surrender all concession and parking sales, 20 percent of merchandise sales, and push hefty facility fees onto ticket sales. NGL officials worked feverishly to reach favorable deals with the remaining five facilities but could not reach agreements. Instead of launching with seven franchises, the league chose to continue negotiations and planned to launch in the spring of 2020.
2020 Season
As the NGL prepped for the launch of the 2020 season, all games and events were canceled due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 Season
Although many COVID-19 restrictions remain in place, the NGL planned to host a shortened 2021 season in a single location, allowing the league to have a controlled environment. The league began negotiations with the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, to host the shortened season. Still, negotiations would soon break down as the city and the league could not reach an agreement for player housing.
2022-2023 Season
The NGL would sit dormant for the next two spring seasons as league majority owner McClendon focused on launching a smaller professional football league in partnership with several professional athletes. After purchasing the intellectual property for the new league, McClendon would soon enter negotiations to sell it. After several months of negotiations, the intellectual property was sold for $3.5 million (US). McClendon would then return his focus to launching the NGL.
2025 Season
Plans were officially announced for the 2025 NGL season in the summer of 2024. The league will launch with 18 teams hosting 147 games, with a league championship being held in early August.
