Jacksonville Sharks

The Jacksonville Sharks are a professional arena football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. They are the current champions of the Arena Football League (AFL), which they joined as an expansion team in 2010. They play their home games at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, known for sponsorship purposes as Sea Best Field.

The Sharks joined the AFL for the 2010 season, following the league's complete reorganization the previous year. In their inaugural season they set the league record for most regular season wins by an expansion team, winning twelve of their sixteen games, and ranked third in the league in ticket sales and average attendance. They advanced to the 2010 AFL playoffs, claiming the South Division title. In their second year in the league, they advanced to the ArenaBowl XXIV, defeating the Arizona Rattlers 73-70, for the first AFL Championship in franchise history.

History
The Arena Football League originally wanted to place a franchise in Jacksonville in the 1990s, citing the city's historical support for football. The proposal drew the attention of Wayne Weaver, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, but the league decided that the Jacksonville Coliseum was too small for AFL standards. In 2000, the Jacksonville Tomcats began play in the af2, the AFL's developmental league. The AFL and Tomcats ownership anticipated the completion of the new 15,000-seat Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, but the Tomcats folded after the 2002 season, before construction of the Arena was completed.

Interest in placing an arena football team in Jacksonville remained. In 2010, following the restructuring of the AFL and the cancellation of the 2009 season, the AFL announced it would place an expansion team in Jacksonville. The ownership group would be Jacksonville Sports Group, led by Jeff Bouchy, formerly part owner of the Orlando Predators AFL team under his brother Brett Bouchy.