The Orlando Predators are a professional indoor football team based in

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 ...

, with home games at the Kia Center (formerly Amway Center.) They were members of 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 ...

from 2019 to 2023 and marketed as a revival of the original Orlando Predators, who had played 25 seasons 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 ...

from 1991 to 2016. The original owners of this team acquired the Predators' trademarks in late 2018 after the previous owner, David A. Siegel, allowed them to lapse. They moved to the new new Arena Football League in 2024. Then in 2025, they became inaugural members of the newly-formed Arena Football One following the third AFL's collapse but withdrew less than a week before its first game in that league.

History

National Arena League

The relaunch of the Orlando Predators as a member of the

was announced in January 2019 and was owned by Kenny McEntyre and Nate Starling after acquiring the trademarks for the team in late 2018. McEntyre and inaugural head coach Doug Miller were both former players with the AFL incarnation of the team. In their inaugural 2019 season, the team finished with a 2–12 record and last place in the league. During the season, players claimed the team was poorly operated including failed payments and evictions from team housing. Prior to the team's second season, the ownership of the Predators were removed by the league and replaced by another local ownership group composed of co-owner Nate Starling and the Trideco family. The new ownership group brought in former AFL Predator Ben Bennett as head coach. The 2020 season never took place due to the onset of the

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 ...

. On May 21, 2021, the team announced the Trideco family's minority ownership had been purchased by John Cheney, allowing the Trideco family to focus on launching the expansion Albany Empire. Under Bennett, the team went 4–4 and qualified for the playoffs for the first time. Bennett left the team following the season was replaced by Jeff Higgins. On September 16, 2022, the Predators announced veteran player Herkie Walls as their new head coach. The team played four seasons in the NAL between 2019 and 2023.

New AFL (2024)

On July 18, 2023, the Predators announced that Nate Starling and Mike Kwarta had left the ownership group (Kwarta moving to the Albany Firebirds) and co-owner John Cheney took sole ownership of the franchise. On the same day, Cheney announced of the team's Facebook page that the team would be returning to the

(AFL) that expects to re-launch in 2024. On September 25, 2023, at a press conference at

Full Sail University Full Sail University is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center f ...

, owner John Cheney announced the NAL Predators would join the third incarnation of the AFL. Former AFL Predator E.J. Burt was introduced as the head coach on November 6, 2023.

Arena Football One (2025)

On September 4, 2024, the Predators announced that they would be leaving the collapsed AFL and would join the newly-formed Arena Football One. They will play in the East Division along with the Albany Firebirds and

Nashville Kats The Nashville Kats were an Arena Football League team, located in Nashville, Tennessee. They were last coached by Pat Sperduto, who coached the team's original incarnation to two ArenaBowl appearances prior to the original franchise's move to A ...

. On March 4, 2025, the Predators announced their intent to withdraw from the 2025 season four days before their first game of the season, claiming that a prospective purchaser of the team had requested the Predators suspend operations for 2025 as a condition of buying the team. AF1 chairman Steve Titus rejected the proposed sale, called the excuse a "fantastic stor(y)," a "selfish and desperate aspiration," and a betrayal of trust. Titus announced that the Predators would not be welcomed back to the league and that AF1 would levy substantial fines against the Predators for the sudden withdrawal. The Predators responded by sharply criticizing the "fundamentally flawed" AF1 business model, stating it was controlled largely by three teams, and would continue efforts to sell the team and return in another league in 2026. In a later statement, Cheney indicated a willingness to play out the 2025 season and stated that Titus had fundamentally misunderstood the email that had triggered AF1's decision to expel the team, furthermore demanding that the AF1 rescind the $1.2 million fine it attempted to levy on the Predators.

Current roster

Statistics

Season-by-season results

Head coaches

''Note: Statistics are correct through the 2024 National Arena League season.''

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control National Arena League teams 2019 establishments in Florida American football teams in Orlando, Florida American football teams established in 2019 Arena Football League (2024) teams Arena Football One (2025) teams