{"id":50879,"date":"2025-11-18T05:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T05:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/50879\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T05:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T05:12:08","slug":"indoor-football-leagues-massachusetts-pirates-relocating-to-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/50879\/","title":{"rendered":"Indoor Football League\u2019s Massachusetts Pirates relocating to Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/F228540037BCE764528AB2BC75B206CD.jpg\" alt=\"IFL\u2019s Massachusetts Pirates relocating to Orlando\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-7a5d4fdb=\"\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/video\/1742338\" data-v-7a5d4fdb=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">IFL\u2019s Massachusetts Pirates relocating to Orlando<\/a> <\/p>\n<p data-v-7a5d4fdb=\"\">Orlando is about to host two professional football leagues, with the Massachusetts Pirates announcing they will relocate to the city and join the sports lineup at the Kia Center. The move follows the recent arrival of the Orlando Storm of the United Football League. The Storm will play at Inter&amp;Co Stadium.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">ORLANDO, Fla. &#8211; Orlando is about to host two professional football leagues, with the Massachusetts Pirates announcing they will relocate to the city and join the sports lineup at the Kia Center.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The Pirates, part of the Indoor Football League, are moving from Massachusetts to Florida and will begin playing in Orlando in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WOFL\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The team said the move marks a major step as the franchise looks to expand its fan base and presence in a larger market.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">&#8220;We\u2019re excited to be here in Orlando,&#8221; co-founder, president and general manager Jawad Yatim said. &#8220;The Indoor Football League is going into its 18th season. Outside of the NFL, we\u2019re the longest continuously running league in America.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The IFL season starts immediately after the NFL wraps up and finishes before its next season begins. Founded in 2017, the Pirates quickly became one of the league\u2019s top teams, reaching multiple title games and winning the championship in 2021.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/fox-local\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">&#8220;For those who haven\u2019t been to an indoor football game, it\u2019s the outdoor game inside,&#8221; Yatim said. &#8220;It\u2019s a 50-yard field. It\u2019s fast-break football, and we\u2019ve got some outstanding talent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Rob Keefe has been named head coach. Keefe previously led the Orlando Predators (2014-16) to three straight playoff appearances and two league titles.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35&#8217;S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The move follows the recent arrival of the Orlando Storm of the United Football League. The Storm will play at Inter&amp;Co Stadium, while the Pirates will play at the Kia Center.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The Pirates will take the field for their inaugural Orlando season in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: This story was written based on information shared by the Indoor Football League.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/tag\/sports\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sports<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/orange-county\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Orange County News<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/orange-county\/orlando\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Orlando News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IFL\u2019s Massachusetts Pirates relocating to Orlando Orlando is about to host two professional football leagues, with the Massachusetts&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47,115,1335,139,141,140,110,628],"class_list":["post-50879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sports","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}