IFL Cup @ The Arena at American Dream (East Rutherford, NJ)

26 IN 26 STOP 14

*This trip occurred on May 18, 2026. Technically, I've been to American Dream before, but since this is the first time I'm visiting it SPECIFICALLY to watch a sporting event, I'm marking this as a "First Visit".

I know I talked about indoor football about a month ago, but I must stress one point: it’s hard to encapsulate just how FREAKISHLY INSANE the sport/its history is. If you needed further proof of that, however, look no further than today’s trip.

Before we get into the trip, however, I realized that I forgot to mention what exactly indoor football is last time. In essence, indoor football is largely just like the NFL, but on a much smaller field - 50 yards endzone to endzone, with said endzones usually being eight yards deep, and there are pretty much no sidelines (there are walls which are usually padded hockey boards, and if a player is tackled into or over the wall, they're out of bounds). In addition, there's different timing rules; while I don't know all of them, the big one is that the clock does NOT stop as often as it does for "regular" American football (for example, it runs while a team is preparing to kick an extra point after a touchdown).

Each team has eight players on the field at any given time (as opposed to eleven in the NFL), and the game was previously known for having guys play both offense and defense in a single game; while this element has been lessened in recent years, I hear some players still play as "ironmen". Also, wide receivers (the players who try to catch passes) can run towards the line of scrimmage (the line where the ball is placed before a play starts) BEFORE the ball is snapped (aka the play ACTUALLY starting). However, if they run past the line before the snap, it's a penalty.

There are also a few scoring differences from the NFL. As kicks have less field to travel, it is entirely possible for a kickoff (which is taken from the kicking team's own goal line) to reach and go through the other team's uprights (as it's only 58 yards, which NFL kickers have been hitting with ease recently). In some arena leagues, this scores the kicking team two points, and the receiving team gets the ball closer to the other team's endzone as a result. Some leagues also have what's known as a "rouge"; I don't exactly know how to score a rouge, but it's worth one point, and it's one of the most famous things in Canadian football (for now).

Now, let’s talk about this event: founded in 2008, the Indoor Football League is currently the longest continuously operating indoor football league in the United States (given the AFL’s demise in 2019 plus the gong show that was their attempt at a comeback). Yes, it has had its fair share of franchise foldings and relocations, but the fact that it hasn’t completely imploded in on itself (yet) should be commended (and it also features some of the former AFL’s more "stable" teams).

On January 29, 2026, the league announced an event known as the IFL Cup. A four team tournament meant to be a showcase of the league and improve its visibility, the league’s announcement touted the opportunity for fans to experience indoor football at “the nation’s premier indoor entertainment destination”. However, a number of people (like me - who’s actually INTERESTED in the event) would challenge the idea of this event being at a “premier destination”, because that venue is...

American Dream.

I know this is supposed to be a SPORTS blog, but as someone who lives in New Jersey, it is IMPOSSIBLE not to get long winded about just how ridiculous the history of this place is - though I’ll try to be quick:

It all started back in the 1990s when a real estate developer planned to build a mall in the Meadowlands area of New Jersey. Unfortunately, the site they wanted was unsuitable due to being wetlands, so the developer chose another site: the Meadowlands Sports Complex.

The plan was to build the mall there so that there would be something to do on weekdays (or something like that, as the Devils and Nets were both planning on leaving), and construction started in 2004 with the expectation that the mall (then known as "Xanadu") would be complete two years later. In the intervening years, however, the project changed hands a few times, lost funding due to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, had construction get stopped multiple times, changed names at least once or twice, been roundly criticized for its bright exterior, and - perhaps most importantly - NEVER OPENED. As a side note, there was supposed to be a baseball stadium for an independent league team, but one of the ownership changes killed that.

While progress on the mall inched along for over a decade, we all wondered if the thing would ever ACTUALLY open (and just how long drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike would be subjected to THIS). Eventually...somehow, someway, the mall partially opened on October 25, 2019 (with a much more muted look and its current name), and then more parts of the mall opened over the next couple of years.

HOWEVER...

As of 2025, I think I heard somewhere that the mall is VERY MUCH not profitable, the town of Paramus sued it because it doesn’t follow Bergen County’s blue law (which requires most businesses to be closed on Sundays), and questions about its future STILL hound it (not to mention the downturn of shopping malls in general).

With ALL OF THAT out of the way¹, I should mention that in addition to being a mall, there's an indoor water park, an indoor ski slope, the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and a whole lot of other activities, but I won't go much further than that as I think it's more or less irrelevant to the IFL Cup. Instead, let’s get into how this place hosts sporting events:

The Arena at American Dream

One of the more interesting features of American Dream is an NHL-sized skating rink which actually hosted a professional women’s hockey team in the past (the predecessor of the New York Sirens). The "arena" has three levels (since the mall has three levels), and each of the upper levels feature "balcony areas" from which you can see the field. This event also is NOT the first time the place has hosted indoor football: the AFL’s ill fated 2024 revival hosted its championship game here!

The wildest thing about the "arena", however, is that there are storefronts near it, so it's very open to the public (save for the second level, where there's construction currently going on). In theory, this isn't exactly a surprise (since I assume it offers various public activities when not being used), but you have to think about this: tickets were sold for this event for ALL THREE LEVELS. The lowest level had sections roped off with bleachers, and the second level was hard to access as there was only one access point and staff were present seemingly checking for tickets, but I'm not going to say any more than that - just that the food court is basically on the third level of the arena and has several tables in its "balcony area" surrounding the field, plus one business on the first level has some high-top tables set up right behind one of the benches² (and also that I opted NOT to try and buy tickets prior to the event because Ticketmaster fees).

There's not much else to say about this arena (outside of the fact that there's a basement which I can only assume has locker rooms and hopefully showers), but there is one WEIRD feature: the roof is basically a massive sunroof as it's a large glass structure. While this is interesting because it makes the rink naturally lit...how do they maintain ice when it's getting DIRECT sunlight all day (even if days are shorter during skating season)?

That aside, I mentioned earlier that this event was a four team tournament. The semifinals for were both held on May 18th (i.e. the day before this was posted), and the championship game plus a consolation game are going to be played the Sunday after this goes up, but I've got other plans for that day (spoiler alert: other sports) which means I'm not going to be able to see them live. My original plan was to see only one of the games as I had to pick my mom up from the airport about halfway through the second game. However, once I realized that it would be easier for me to go from the Meadowlands to Newark Airport rather than going home and then heading back out, I figured I'd try to squeeze both games in (or at least half of the second game). In fact, large parts of this post were actually written AT the mall because there was an approximately FOUR HOUR GAP between the two games (which included me watching the players for the second game warm up while writing this).

With that in mind, I'm going to go over the games separately, as well as briefly introduce the teams, starting with:

Arizona Rattlers vs. New Mexico Chupacabras

The Arizona Rattlers are one of indoor football's oldest teams. Founded in 1991 in the original Arena Football League, they jumped to the IFL in 2017 amidst AFL 1.0 imploding in on itself. They've been quite successful in their 35 years of existence, having won seven championships between the AFL and IFL (including, IIRC, a year where they made a "championship or fans' money back" guarantee).

The Chupacabras, on the other hand, are new for 2026...but also not. They're actually the continuation of a team known as the Duke City Gladiators, who were founded in 2015 as members of a league called Champions Indoor Football. They won back to back CIF titles in 2018 and 19, then moved to the Indoor Football League in 2020 (but had to wait for 2021 to make their IFL debut). They subsequently went dormant in 2025, but were sold and rebranded for this season³.

This game was quite one sided - the Rattlers got two or three endzone picks (I don't remember exactly how many) en route to a comfortable win. Also, this game was at noon on a Monday - yet when I checked tickets right before heading to the mall, the middle level was unavailable for THIS GAME ONLY (a day pass was sold and it had the middle level). In addition, if a fan ends up with a game ball for any reason, they're allowed to keep it - which is very much NOT allowed in the NFL or in soccer (I think) - not sure about other forms of football however. I mention this because I saw a LOT of game balls in the first level stands during this game, and it allowed me to see the ball up close (which in turn )

Vegas Knight Hawks vs. Orlando Pirates⁴

The Vegas Knight Hawks were founded in 2022, and if the "Knight" in their name wasn't enough of a clue, they're owned by the same group that owns the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL. Much like how the Golden Knights were successful right away, the Knight Hawks have found success in their short time in the IFL, as they are currently the league's defending champions.

The Pirates were founded in 2018 in the National Arena League, jumped to the IFL in 2021 and won a title that same year, then moved to Orlando this season. I'd rather not get into the move personally (as I've mentioned WHERE they moved from before on this blog), but partially based on the fact that the team had a coaching change seemingly come from out of the blue early this season (and the supposed reasons behind it), I can only assume that the TWO arenas they played in prior to moving to Florida had their reasons for kicking them out (along with the IFL claiming the move was for "geographic purposes").

This game seemed to have more people in attendance (as it was at 7 PM when more people are out and about) and thus had a louder crowd, but it also seemed to have far fewer balls leave the playing area (as in I only saw ONE fan with a game ball). As mentioned earlier, I had to leave this game right before halftime to go to the airport (it started at 7 PM, and I left at 8:30); Orlando got off to a hot start, but Vegas led by 2 points at the half and then outscored Orlando 45-7 in the second half. I did catch some of the broadcast for this game while stuck in Newark Airport traffic, and the broadcasters attributed the lopsided second half to a lack of player depth for the Orlando Pirates.

MERCH

From what I could tell, the only merch available were shirts from a booth sponsored by one of the league's retail partners (as it was unlikely any of the four teams were going to haul boxes of merchandise thousands of miles across the country). As they were "custom pressed" at the game, you could get any of the logos they had (the IFL, the IFL Cup, and the four teams) printed onto any of the shirts they had, which was cool.

However, remember how I mentioned that in the IFL, you can keep a ball that ends up in the stands? Well, late in the first game, a ball sailed out of play right in front of me, so...

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As goofy as the idea of "professional sports in a shopping mall" may be, I actually thought this was kinda fun (though there's another reason I enjoyed this that I can't exactly discuss "freely"). There's also a chance I ended up in the footage for these games as I was on the lower level quite a bit at various points (as evidenced by several of the photos in this post); if you want to try and find me back there, I will note that yes, that is an "original" XFL jersey I'm wearing, and it was 75% off from the thrift store where/when I got it.

Also, to my surprise, this post ended up being almost 2,600 words - though a decent part of that can be attributed to me explaining indoor football as a whole.