Jersey Flight


The Jersey Flight are a professional Arena Football team based in Trenton, New Jersey, as a member of the National Arena League. The team played its first two seasons in the American Arena League. They are owned by New Flight Enterprises, LLC, and play at the CURE Insurance Arena as their home arena.

History

The Jersey Flight were announced to be joining the National Arena League at a press conference on March 20, 2017. Jersey Flight Football, Inc., was reported to be the first 100% African-American-owned professional sports franchise in the state of New Jersey. The Flight announced the franchise's first head coach would be Jake Grande, former assistant coach and defensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Sharks. The owners heavily pursued sponsors and partnerships in order to pay for multiple years of stability. However, the team did not meet the NAL's updated minimum obligations prior to the release of the 2018 schedule in December 2017 and was subsequently removed from the league without playing a game. A few days later, the Flight announced they had joined the recently formed American Arena League for the 2018 season.
After two games played, owners Samuel Davis, Jr. and Kyna Felder-Ruiz were arrested for tax fraud on April 13, 2018. The team finished the season with an official record of 5–3.
In December 2018, the team announced William Thomas as the new general manager and Adam Turkel as head coach for the 2019 season. On March 1, 2019, Turkel was informed he had been let go and claimed the team was folding. However, the Flight announced on March 10 they were playing under new ownership and Nick Coppola had been named head coach. The new ownership was later revealed as New Flight Enterprises, LLC. led by Jay Sababu with operations managed by Willard Stanback. Due to the late ownership change, the team started the 2019 season late and only played three games against other AAL teams, going 2–1. The team made the divisional playoffs as two of the four teams in the division did not finish the season, and lost to the undefeated West Virginia Roughriders. Head coach Coppola then left the team after the season.
In October 2019, the NAL announced the Flight, under their new ownership, was re-approved to join for the 2020 season along with the West Virginia Roughriders. The team then named Terry Foster as head coach and general manager.

Current roster