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

*This trip occurred on May 24, 2026.

That’s right - I WENT BACK.

As I said during the preliminary round, I originally had other plans for this day, so I wasn't thinking of going back to see more of the IFL Cup. However, rain and general wetness ended up affecting said plans (as well as my schedule for the whole weekend)¹, so I decided to come back to check out MORE indoor football (as it sorta fit around the Staten Island Monarchs game I went to).

One thing I forgot to mention in two prior posts about the sport²: indoor football games have a tendency to be MUCH higher scoring than outdoor football (or at least they did in the old AFL days). Case in point: I didn't mention this in the original post for...some reason, but Arizona and Vegas scored 61 and 73 points respectively in their wins on Monday. Only five times has an NFL team scored 61 points (with the last time being in 1989), and 73 points is the ALL TIME NFL RECORD for points scored in a single game (set in the league's 1940 championship game and yet to be matched)³.

Anyway, since I've already gone over the league, event, and teams before, I won't bore you trying to re-explain things (though one thing that did change: IFL Cup game balls were now available for purchase). Instead, let's just get to the games:

Consolation Game: New Mexico Chupacabras vs. Orlando Pirates

I also realized that I didn't talk too much about how the IFL Cup teams are doing THIS season in the last post, but let's just say...things aren't going great in Albuquerque. The team has only one win on the year (over another team that only has one win on the year), and have scored the fewest touchdowns in the league (not to mention the multiple endzone interceptions they had on Monday).

The Pirates, meanwhile, are apparently one of the weaker defenses in the league - allowing the most points per game, which when combined with a middle of the pack offense, leads to the team being somewhat "middling" at 4-3 (also, as mentioned on Monday, they apparently have depth issues). They're beaten a bunch of the teams behind them in the standings, but came up short against the one of actually good teams and got blown out by two others (one of those blowouts being the game against Vegas on Monday).

All of this points to this game likely being a bit less interesting, which in a way, it was: the Pirates ended up winning by 30 points (but scored far fewer than either the Rattlers or Knight Hawks did on Monday). However, I only saw THE FINAL MINUTE of this game, as I found out that despite American Dream being, well, American Dream, there is an advantage in being the only shopping mall fully open on Sundays in Bergen County...though it causes MASSIVE traffic jams (plus I was busy in the morning, and the game got moved up from 1 PM to noon). The Pirates did score in the time I was there, however, so I didn't miss ALL of the action (just MOST of it).

Championship Game: Arizona Rattlers vs. Vegas Knight Hawks

Both teams are among the better teams in the league this season: Vegas came into this game with only one loss, while Arizona had two - but one of those losses was to the Knight Hawks a few weeks before the IFL Cup.

I actually didn't see the first half of this game, as I was coming from Staten Island as mentioned earlier. However, since that game ended about half an hour after this game started, I figured I'd try and catch the end of this game (i.e. see who wins the whole thing). Traffic in and around the mall was MUCH lighter than it was during the consolation game, and I was able to find a spot MUCH closer to the arena than my prior visits (as I arrived after 8:30 and everything had already closed save for a Wetzel's Pretzels which essentially served as the concession stand).

Arizona led by at the half, but Vegas was (once again) able to make the comeback and ended up claiming the victory (partially aided by Arizona not kicking a field goal at the end of the first half in what ended up being a four-point game). However, the most interesting part of the night was seeing Jerome Bettis (yes, THAT Jerome Bettis) involved in the presentation of the trophy...and being able to see it all unfold ON THE FIELD (do NOT ask how I got there).

The IFL currently has not announced whether there will be a "sequel" to the IFL Cup soon or a permanent team in the area, but did leave the door open for expansion to NJ/NY as early as next year. Either way, I'm interested in checking it out again (hopefully soon).

As a final side note, I ended up walking around the Nickelodeon themed indoor amusement park while trying to kill time between the end of the consolation game and me heading to Staten Island. I must say that I'm impressed with how they managed to fit an entire amusement park with "full sized rides" in a space WAY smaller than your average amusement park. Also, the nostalgia bait of things such as Hey Arnold and freakin' LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE is definitely...interesting.

(And with this post, I'm now up to over 3,700 words on the IFL Cup as a whole)