The Raleigh Rebels were a professional indoor football team based out of

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

. They played their home games at the

Dorton Arena J. S. Dorton Arena is a 7,610-seat multi-purpose arena located in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the grounds of the North Carolina State Fair. It opened in 1952. Architect Maciej Nowicki of the North Carolina State University Department of Archite ...

and were members of the

American Indoor Football League American Indoor Football (AIF) is a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

(AIFL). During the team's inaugural season, they played an all-road schedule as a favor to the league (the Ghostriders were also playing an all-road schedule, since they were a quick formation of the Carolina Sharks), along with the fact that they couldn't get a lease for an arena in Raleigh until 2006. During their first year, the Rebels compiled a mediocre record of 3-7, almost beating the Canton Legends for fourth place. Since the league had only six teams, everyone of them (including the Rebels) made the playoffs. Their inaugural year ended with a thud as they lost in the first round to the Legends. The Rebels' second year turned out to be better than their inaugural year. They finished the regular season at 8-6 and automatically went to the Southern Conference championship game, due to the

Richmond Bandits The Richmond Bandits were a professional indoor football team based in Richmond, Virginia. They were a charter member of the Atlantic Indoor Football League. In 2005, the Bandits defeated the Erie Freeze to win the AIFL's first-ever American ...

' suspension, making them forfeit. However, a week's worth of rest couldn't prepare them for the top-seeded

Rome Renegades The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, ...

, as they fell 63-14. Following their AIFL playoff loss, the Rebels announced their intentions to move to the WIFL with the

. They would have become charters member of this newly formed league. Despite changing their name to the Carolina Bombers on August 24, they would never have a chance to play in the new league, because on October 16, they ceased all operations, along with the

.Renegades end operations
news.mywebpal.com, 16 October 2006

Season-By-Season

, - , colspan="6" align="center" , Raleigh Rebels (AIFL) , - , 2005 , , 3 , , 7 , , 0 , , 5th League , , Lost First Round (

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

) , - , 2006 , , 8 , , 6 , , 0 , , 3rd Southern , , Lost SC Championship (

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

) , - !Totals , , 12 , , 15 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

References

External links

Official Site of the Carolina Bombers (under construction)

Rebels' 2005 AIFL Stats

Rebels' 2006 AIFL Season & Results
American football teams in North Carolina American Indoor Football Association teams American Indoor Football League teams World Indoor Football League (2007) teams Sports in Raleigh, North Carolina American football teams established in 2005 American football teams disestablished in 2006 2005 establishments in North Carolina 2006 disestablishments in North Carolina {{RaleighNC-stub