The Oregon Lightning are a professional indoor football team based in

Redmond, Oregon Redmond is a city in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. The population was 33,274 at the 2020 census, and according to 2023 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 37,009. The city is on the eastern side of Oregon ...

. They were founded in 2020 and began playing football as members of the

American West Football Conference The American West Football Conference (AWFC) was a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2018 by Platinum Events & Security, LLC, the owners of the Idaho Horsemen. The league's inaugural season was in 2019. Players were ...

in 2021, known then as the Oregon High Desert Storm. It is the first team to play in Central Oregon. They are owned by Chuck Jones, former head coach of 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 ...

Oregon Blackbears The Oregon Blackbears were a professional Indoor American football, indoor football team based in Salem, Oregon. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (2024), Arena Football League (AFL), beginni ...

, along with Sara Gumm and Jay Jenkins. They play their home games at the First Interstate Bank Center at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds in Redmond and are now members of Arena Football One.

History

The Lightning are the fourth ''official'' Oregon-based team to play major league arena football and are the second to play outside of the

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, area. They are also the first "major" sports team based in

Deschutes County Deschutes County ( ) is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 198,253. The county seat is Bend. The county was created in 1916 out of part of Crook County and was named for the Deschu ...

. The team will have the smallest arena capacity in the league set at 4,000. Their main geographic rivals in AF1 are the

Washington Wolfpack The Washington Wolfpack are a professional indoor football team based in Everett in the U.S. state of Washington. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL), beginning play in 2024. They are n ...

and

Billings Outlaws The Billings Outlaws were a professional indoor football team based in Billings, Montana. They were a member of the Indoor Football League (IFL), of which they were the 2-time defending champions. They played their home games at Rimrock Auto A ...

. Their logo was created using

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and finalized as a

two-dimensional A two-dimensional space is a mathematical space with two dimensions, meaning points have two degrees of freedom: their locations can be locally described with two coordinates or they can move in two independent directions. Common two-dimension ...

logo with the

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

state map in the background behind a

sasquatch Bigfoot (), also commonly referred to as Sasquatch (), is a large, hairy Mythic humanoids, mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.Example definitions include: *"A large, hairy, manlike ...

running with the ball. The "97" on the jersey is to indicate U.S. Highway 97, which travels directly through Redmond.

Oregon Arena Football History

The first team representing the state of

in the original

were the

Portland Forest Dragons Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

, who played from 1997 to 1999 before relocating to Oklahoma City and being rebranded as the

Oklahoma Wranglers The Oklahoma Wranglers were a professional arena football team based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They were members of the Central (1996–1997) and Western (1998–2001) Division of the American Conference of the Arena Football League (AFL). Th ...

. Oregon would not see the AFL again until 2013 when the

Portland Thunder The Portland Steel were a professional arena football team based in Portland, Oregon and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team started as the Portland Thunder, joining the AFL in 2014 as an expansion team along with the Los Ange ...

were established by Clackamas billionaire

Terry Emmert Terry W. Emmert is an American businessman, entrepreneur and sports franchise owner from Clackamas, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. He is the founder and owner of Emmert International, an engineering and transport service company, the Internatio ...

and would take the field a few months later. The Thunder were rebranded as the

Portland Steel The Portland Steel were a professional arena football team based in Portland, Oregon and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team started as the Portland Thunder, joining the AFL in 2014 as an expansion team along with the Los Ange ...

in 2016 after the league took control of the franchise from Emmert, then abruptly folded at season's end with no explanation. The second incarnation of the league would fold three years later. Both teams played their home games at the

Moda Center Moda Center, formerly known as the Rose Garden, is the primary indoor sports arena in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is used for basketball, rodeos, circuses, conventions, ice shows, concerts, and dramatic productions. The arena has a capa ...

American West Football Conference (2021-2024)

On October 15, 2018, the

(AWFC) was founded by Chris Reynolds of Platinum Events & Security, LLC, the owners of the Idaho Horsemen and added the Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks, Reno Express, and Tri-Cities Fire to create the league. The AWFC postponed the 2020 season due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and then cancelled the season entirely due to the unavailability of arenas during the pandemic. The AWFC played the 2021 season, adding two teams in the Oregon High Desert Storm and Tri-City Rush, but the Skyhawks were unable to play any home games due to their home arena, the

Town Toyota Center Town Toyota Center is a 4,300-seat multi-purpose arena in Wenatchee, Washington. The arena was built and is owned and managed by the Wenatchee Public Facilities District (PFD). It is the home venue of the Wenatchee Wild, an ice hockey team in the ...

, being used for as a pandemic relief center and vaccination site. The Storm began play in 2021 at the First Interstate Bank Center at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds and Expo Center in Redmond. In 2023, the Storm made it to American West Bowl IV to face the Idaho Horsemen after they defeated the Skyhawks 44–40 in the semi-final. However, they lost the championship to the Horsemen 42–20. Shortly afterward, the team's website and social media pages disappeared as the team and league suspended operations (Idaho joined the

National Arena League The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. As of the end of the 2024 season, the league consisted of five teams. A team's typical payroll budget is $600,000 per season, but as of the 2022 ...

, effectively shutting the league down because it owned the AWFC).

Hiatus

During the Storm's suspension of operations, the

played in a revival of the

during the 2024 season. That team played four games (three at home at the Oregon State Fairgrounds Pavilion in

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada * Salem, Ontario, various places Germany * Salem, Baden-Württemberg, a municipality in the Bodensee district ** Salem Abbey (Reichskloster Salem), a monastery * Salem, Schleswig-Holstein Israel * Salem (B ...

, and one on the road) before being taken off of the schedule for the remainder of the season, being kicked out of that league and eventually folding due to the team's ownership being entangled with a league management company that had been ousted midseason. The league itself would cease operations immediately after the season ended.

Relaunch as the Oregon Lightning

On October 22, 2024, Arena Football One announced the launch of the new Oregon Lightning. Chuck Jones, the former head coach of the now-defunct Blackbears and the Oregon High Desert Storm, part-owns the new team along with Sara Gumm and Jay Jenkins, two local business owners. A header on the Lightning's website identifies the team as "formerly known as the Oregon High Desert Storm". The change of brand was necessitated because of the existence of another AF1 team with the Storm name, the Southwest Kansas Storm, while the legal revival of the Oregon High Desert Storm allows the team to remain legally distinct from the Blackbears and the previous AFL's legal entanglements. In a recent interview with Shady Sports Network, Jones stated that the Lightning name was chosen in homage to the

, a team name used for Oregon-based franchises in both the previous Arena Football League and the

World Football League The World Football League (WFL) was an American football league that played one full season in 1974 in sports, 1974 and most of its second in 1975 in sports, 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a w ...

. Former Blackbears president Patrick Johnson, who had spearheaded the efforts to keep the Blackbears alive, served as a senior advisor to the Lightning until February 2025. Jones retained the Blackbears' coaching staff to serve as assistants for the Lightning. On November 18, 2024, the Lightning joined the league's West Division along with the

and

(Potential opponents the

Arizona Bandits The Arizona Bandits are a dormant professional indoor football team based in Tempe, Arizona. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL) and later Arena Football One (AF1), but never played in ...

went dormant for the season). The team is headquartered at a facility outside Eagle Crest Resort, dubbed "Lightning Ranch," where all the players reside. The Lightning debuted March 15, 2025, in a 78–36 loss to the Billings Outlaws. Jones acknowledged the Lightning had a personnel disadvantage compared to some of AF1's powerhouse franchises, who had the resources to hire former National Football League talent, but pressed forward with the team as a long-term building project.

Current roster

Staff

Source:Team Staff Page
Team website

References

External links

* {{AWFC Sports in Oregon American football teams established in 2018 2018 establishments in Oregon American football teams in Oregon Arena Football One (2025) teams