ArenaBowl XXVI was the 26th edition of the championship in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

. The National Conference champion

Arizona Rattlers The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...

, defeated the American Conference champion

Philadelphia Soul Philadelphia soul, sometimes called Philly soul, the Philadelphia sound, Phillysound, or The Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP), is a genre of late 1960s–1970s soul music characterized by funk influences and lush string and horn arrangements. The ...

, 48–39. The game was played on August 17, 2013 at

Amway Center Kia Center (formerly Amway Center) is an indoor arena located in the Downtown Orlando, downtown core of Orlando, Florida. The arena is home to the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL, ...

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, home of the

Orlando Predators The Orlando Predators were a professional arena football team based in Orlando, Florida and member of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team was most recently owned by Orlando Predators LLC, a company owned by David A. Siegel, and played it ...

. The two teams met one year earlier in

ArenaBowl XXV ArenaBowl XXV was the 25th edition of the championship in the Arena Football League. The National Conference champion, Arizona Rattlers, defeated the American Conference champion, Philadelphia Soul, 72–54. The game was played on August 10, 201 ...

, in which the Rattlers took home the league championship by a score of 72–54. This was the first time that two teams met in consecutive ArenaBowls. ArenaBowl XXVI's week was produced by Ryan Johnston of InterPhase Entertainment, LLC who was brought on to produce the Gala, the KISS concert at the Amway Center in Orlando the night before the game, and production of ArenaBowl XXVI itself that was seen LIVE on CBS. InterPhase Entertainment, LLC produced the 800 person AFL Awards Gala where KISS gave a 30 minute acoustic performance in their suits, after their new team the LA KISS was announced at a press conference also overseen by InterPhase.

Venue

ArenaBowl XXVI was played at

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

, after a unanimous vote by all 14 teams in the league. It was the second consecutive ArenaBowl to be played at a neutral site, and the seventh in the history of the league. For the city of Orlando, it was the first ArenaBowl played there since ArenaBowl XIV in 2000 when the

defeated the Nashville Katz at the since-demolished

Amway Arena Amway Arena (originally known as Orlando Arena and later TD Waterhouse Centre) was an indoor arena located in Orlando, Florida. It was part of the Orlando Centroplex, a sports and entertainment complex located in Downtown Orlando. The arena wa ...

Television

ArenaBowl XXVI was televised by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, as part of a two-year agreement between the league and the network to air weekly regular season games, as well as two postseason games, on

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

Background

Philadelphia Soul

The Soul reached the ArenaBowl for the second consecutive season, having lost to the Rattlers in

. They began the season with a 4–4 record, but proceeded to win eight of their ten remaining regular season games to clinch their division again with a 12–6 record. In the conference semifinals, they defeated the

in a back-and-forth affair by a 59–55 score. In the conference championship, they faced the

Jacksonville Sharks The Jacksonville Sharks are a professional indoor football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The team plays its home games at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. They were members of the Are ...

as they had in the previous season. Philadelphia won the game on the road 75–59 to earn their third ArenaBowl berth in franchise history.

Arizona Rattlers

The Rattlers came into the game as defending champions, having defeated Philadelphia in

. In , the Rattlers finished the regular season with a 15–3 record, one win short of matching a franchise record. With home field advantage in the playoffs, they defeated the

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

in the conference semifinals 59–49, and then the

Spokane Shock The Spokane Shock were a professional indoor American football team based in Spokane, Washington, that played their home games at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The team was initially a member of arenafootball2 (af2), the Shock won divis ...

in the conference championship 65–57. Arizona made their eighth

ArenaBowl The ArenaBowl was the championship game of the Arena Football League (AFL). Originally hosted at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena based on home attendance during the inaugural 1987 season, save four years (2005–2008) the game was hosted by the team w ...

appearance, and it was also the third consecutive season that the Rattlers made it to the league championship.

Box score

References

{{Arena Football on CBS 026 2013 Arena Football League season 2013 in sports in Florida 2010s in Orlando, Florida Arena Football League in Florida Philadelphia Soul Arizona Rattlers American football competitions in Orlando, Florida 2013 in American television August 2013 sports events in the United States