Jersey Bearcats (American Arena League) @ Warinanco Sports Complex (Roselle, NJ)

26 IN 26 STOP 11

*This trip occurred on April 18, 2026.

Indoor football is a sport with a very WILD history. While there were a plethora of random exhibition indoor games held throughout the early part of the 20th century (and even an NFL playoff game), the sport as it is known today first debuted in 1987 when an executive who had previously worked with the NFL founded the Arena Football League - the first indoor football league (who, it should be noted, owned the trademark for "Arena Football" - hence the sport being called "indoor football" instead).

Since then, many leagues have started up, many leagues have folded for various reasons, many teams have started up, many teams have folded for various reasons (some before even playing a game, and others MID-SEASON), there was a league where the fans controlled play calls, the AFL had games broadcast on network television, the AFL folded, Antonio Brown (yes, THAT Antonio Brown) owned an indoor football team¹, the AFL attempted a comeback (emphasis on "attempted"), and there’s probably one or two other stories in there that I forgot. To give a more personal example of just how volatile indoor football can be, I had intentions of seeing the Massachusetts Pirates of the Indoor Football League (probably the most stable of the indoor leagues right now) last season, but ended up backing out. Unfortunately, the Pirates relocated to Orlando, FL during this past offseason (having already moved from Worcester to Lowell due to purported arena lease issues). Anyway, with that preamble out of the way, let’s talk about this team and league - though to be honest, it’s going to be kinda difficult.

First, the league: The American Arena League was founded in 2017 as a merger of two other leagues. However, the league went dormant after 2021 (I THINK), though its minor league circuit (AAL2) continued on and became the de facto "top" league. This year (2026), the league is making a comeback with a whopping FOUR teams² - one of them being the Jersey Bearcats.

The Jersey Bearcats were founded in 2018, but didn’t join the AAL until 2021 (though I guess that it was technically AAL2). In their (rather) short time in the AAL2, they won the league’s championship in 2023; in fact, three of the founding members of "AAL 2.0" are the now junior circuit’s three most recent champions!

In order to be able to talk about the team’s history, I ended up scrolling through their Instagram feed to get more information. Through that, I found out that the team originally played in Metuchen, NJ, but at some point (Wikipedia says 2023), they moved to Warinanco Sports Center in Roselle, NJ - a building whose name is somewhat familiar to me as my high school’s hockey team played games there.

I don’t know the full history of the building, but its website indicates that it was built in 1961 as the first public "artificial" skating rink in its county (i.e. not just a frozen lake) and then extensively renovated in 2017; this renovation also saw the building get renamed to "Warinanco Sports Center" (and is also why I remember it being called "Warinanco Rink" when I was in high school).

As a community sports center, I feel like a lot of the things I've said about other places like this apply - though it is smaller than many of the other community arenas I've been to (i.e. Middletown, Danbury or Mennen). One thing that separates Warinanco from these places, however...

...The arena isn't fully indoors.

The main arena here is a separate structure from its entrance (which hosts a cafe), and while three sides of the arena do feature walls, the fourth side (which is the one closest to the entry building) is partially exposed to the outdoors. In essence, it's KINDA like a cross between a gazebo and a barn - complete with massive support beams for the roof which create obstructed views.

There's only a few rows of seats here (on the side opposite the entrance), but due to the height of the bleachers being quite low and the fact that players were standing on the benches (as I think there's not enough room for them to sit), it was near impossible to see the game from them if you were trying to sit down.

I’ll be honest: the main reason this trip ended up on my radar was because I randomly looked up indoor football one day to see what leagues/teams were in existence this year. Once I saw that a team was playing in Jersey, I decided to look them up and found out that they were VERY close to home. Despite having a prior commitment that would, in part, conflict with the ending of this game (this game started at 4, and my other event was at 7), I chose to go to it to alleviate a potential "sticky" situation next month (which is when I was originally planning to go).

Unfortunately, said prior commitment meant that I had to leave the game around halftime - which is quite early for my tastes. However, I apparently didn't miss too much, as the score was 40-6 when I left and ended 54-6, so it seems that not much happened during the second half. Also, I mentioned earlier that the AAL has only four teams this year; however, those four teams are "padding" their schedules by playing teams from what is now AAL2, and the Bearcats' opponent for this game was an AAL2 side: the "New Jersey" Eagles (New Jersey in quotes because my research indicates that they play in Pennsylvania).

Finally, for WHOLLY inexplicable reasons, the boards featured ads for the Dallas Vigilantes - a team from the original AFL that only existed for two seasons and folded in 2011 - FIFTEEN years ago.

MERCH

There was a t shirt toss that I was on the wrong side of the arena for...and that was it. There was also popcorn for sale from a group that also sells their popcorn at Rutgers basketball games.