Arena Football — Back. For the first time.

Old habits die hard…

Arena Football is back.

Not only is it back, but its coming back strong.  16 teams is nothing to scoff at.  Info from Digital Sports Daily,

Arena football isn’t dead yet.

Officials from what will be known as Arena Football 1 say they will have 16 teams, including four in markets where the former Arena Football League had clubs: Chicago, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Orlando, Fla.

The league will also have teams from the AFL spinoff, arenafootball2, as well as at least one team from another indoor league.

Play would begin in 2010.

The new league says its markets include Bossier-Shreveport, La., Arkansas, Fresno, Calif., Des Moines, Iowa, Jacksonville, Fla., Kentucky, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Spokane, Wash., Alabama, Kennewick, Wash., and Tulsa, Okla.

(This version CORRECTS to reflec that there are teams in four markets where the former AFL had teams.)

Hopefully this version of the AFL is more forward thinking and can avoid some of the problems that plagued the previous iteration of Arena Football.  Furthermore…how crowded is the football scene in Florida?  Tampa Bay Bucs, Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, what I assume will be the revival of the Orlando Predators in the AFL, and the UFL’s Florida Tuskers (which will play in Orlando)…That combined with the various other warm weather activities in Florida, is it really all that surprising that they have trouble selling out games?