2016 Portland Steel schedule

[David]

Portland's 2016 Home Schedule. (Image Credit: Portland Steel [banner only])

The newly branded Portland Steel, retaining its historical achievements as the Portland Thunder, kick off their third season in the Arena Football League on April Fools Day, battling the Arizona Rattlers at the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter Garden.

The first two months of the season will be sure to rack up the frequent flyer miles, as the Steel will play three straight games on the road. After a home date with their expansion sibling Los Angeles KISS, the Steel will hit the road for three more games. Portland will play a total of 6 road games in the team's first 8 games. In the second half of the season, the Steel will enjoy the friendly confines of the Moda Center to kick off the summer months. From June to August, the Steel will play 6 of their final 8 games at home.

With a total 8 teams in the AFL in 2016, the Steel's schedule features 3-match-ups with geographic rivals Arizona (1 home, 2 away) and Los Angeles (2 home, 1 away), and home-and-away games with Orlando, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Jacksonville, and Tampa Bay. This schedule will allow Portland fans the opportunity see the Orlando, Philadelphia, and Cleveland visit the Moda Center for the very first time.

Portland will play a total of 16 games during the regular season in a span of 18 weeks, down from 18-game seasons the league has provided since the 2011 season. Each team will receive two bye weeks, one of which will be a league-wide bye in observation of Independence Day weekend (Week 14).

The following is Portland's 2016 schedule (times are pacific; royal blue denotes home games). Television and streaming listings will be released at a later date and will be updated once that information becomes available.

APRIL
Week 1 -- Fri., April 1 - Arizona Rattlers at Portland Steel (L 28-80)
Week 2 -- Sat., April 9 - Portland Steel at Orlando Predators (L 50-53)
Week 3 -- Sun., April 17 - Portland Steel at Philadelphia Soul (L 32-70)
Week 4 -- BYE
Week 5 -- Sat., April 30 - Portland Steel at Arizona Rattlers (L 21-68)

MAY
Week 6 -- Mon., May 9 - Portland Steel at Los Angeles KISS (L 27-66)
Week 7 -- Mon., May 16 - Portland Steel at Cleveland Gladiators (L 48-55) (OT)
Week 8 -- Sat., May 21 - Portland Steel at Jacksonville Sharks, (L 34-65)
Week 9 -- Sat., May 28 - Portland Steel at Los Angeles KISS, 7 p.m. (L 42-54)

JUNE
Week 10 -- Fri., June 3 - Tampa Bay Storm at Portland Steel (W 68-35)
Week 11 -- Sat., June 11 - Portland Steel at Arizona Rattlers (L 49-76)
Week 12 -- Sat., June 18 - Cleveland Gladiators at Portland Steel (L 49-58)
Week 13 -- Mon., June 27 - Philadelphia Soul at Portland Steel (L 38-59)

JULY
Week 14 -- BYE
Week 15 -- Sat., July 9 - Orlando Predators at Portland Steel (L 41-47)
Week 16 -- Sat., July 16 - Jacksonville Sharks at Portland Steel (W 55-53)
Week 17 -- Sat., July 23 - Portland Steel at Tampa Bay Storm (L 40-41)

AUGUST
Week 18 -- Mon., August 1 - Los Angeles KISS at Portland Steel (W 48-46)

PLAYOFFS
Conference Semifinals -- Sat., August 6 - Portland Steel at Arizona Rattlers (L 40-84)

OPPONENTS' ARENAS
Arizona Rattlers - Talking Stick Resort Arena; Phoenix, Arizona
Cleveland Gladiators - Quicken Loans Arena; Cleveland, Ohio
Jacksonville Sharks - Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena; Jacksonville, Florida
Los Angeles KISS - Honda Center; Anaheim, California
Orlando Predators - Amway Arena; Orlando, Florida
Philadelphia Soul - Wells Fargo Center; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Tampa Bay Storm - Amalie Arena; Tampa, Florida

Click here to view the week-by-week schedule for the AFL's 2016 season.

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[Yeseeka]

This works for me. All the road games at the end of the season mean I should be able to get to go to a couple of games after college is done.

[Kasey]

to note, the Thunder's game against the Tampa Bay Storm has been changed from June 4 at 7 p.m. to June 3 at 7 p.m. The Thunder requested the change so that the game that week would not conflict with the Starlight Parade, which is a part of the Rose Festival and was scheduled for the night of June 4.

The change in the schedule has been made to the original post.

[David]

Schedule has been updated with games that will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network. The Thunder will play a total of four (4) games on CBSSN.

There has been no word regarding the ESPN schedule of games at this time.

EDIT: As I was updating the kickoff times on the AFL Schedule, I noticed Portland's June Schedule has been quietly tweaked.

I double checked with the AFL's Official Website and ArenaFan and both report the same scheduling. Since the Thunder have not updated their Social Media or website in some time, we will go with the AFL & AF's schedule. 

Changes are as Follows:

• The game against Tampa Bay on Friday, June 3 has been moved to Monday, June 6.
  
  
• The game against Cleveland on Saturday, June 18 has been moved to Monday, June 20.
  
  
• The game against Philadelphia on Saturday, June 25 has been moved to Monday, June 27.

Kickoff times have not been changed. 

[Kasey]

thanks for the updates, David. it stands to reason that if north networks keep roughly the same schedule that each team will have more games on national tv. i recall last year there were only three combined on the two networks.

[David]

ESPN has released their televised AFL schedule. The Thunder will play one game on ESPN2.

WatchESPN/ESPN3 will also return this year. I will put WatchESPN/ESPN3 next to the games for the televised schedule unless CSN announces that they will air games.

[David]

Schedule has been changed to reflect the team's change from Thunder to Steel.

[David]

The AFL has modified the Steel's schedule once again.

The changes are as follows:

• The game against Tampa Bay on Monday, June 6 has been moved to Friday, June 3.
  
  
• The game against Cleveland on Monday, June 20 has been moved to Saturday, June 18.

Kickoff times remain the same.

It should be worth noting that both games have been moved back to their original dates. The Tampa Bay and Cleveland games were both moved to Monday dates back in January.

I'm curious as to why the AFL decided to move them back to their original dates. Makes me wonder why they bothered to move the games to Monday in the first place.

[David]

The May 7th game between the Los Angeles KISS and the Portland Steel has been changed. Due to the Portland Trail Blazers Western Conference Semifinal playoff series against Golden State, the Moda Center will not be available for the Steel.

Instead of moving the Steel to Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the AFL decided to award the KISS a 9th home game and take away one from the Steel. The game will now be played Monday, May 9th at 7 PM at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA.

[Kasey]

May 1, 2016 11:39:59 GMT -8 David said:

The May 7th game between the Los Angeles KISS and the Portland Steel has been changed. Due to the Portland Trail Blazers Western Conference Semifinal playoff series against Golden State, the Moda Center will not be available for the Steel.

Instead of moving the Steel to Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the AFL decided to award the KISS a 9th home game and take away one from the Steel. The game will now be played Monday, May 9th at 7 PM at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA.

pretty clear the league does not care at all about the Portland market. this makes seven road games in a row.

[David]

[Source] Kasey said:

pretty clear the league does not care at all about the Portland market. this makes seven road games in a row.

Agreed. I don't see this as helping the fan base grow, let alone a good showcase for potential owners.

I don't know why they don't swap the original road game in LA to be Portland's new home game but I guess that logic escapes Butera.

[DiamondThief]

Or, they simply could have rescheduled the Steel's game for Sunday.

[David]

May 2, 2016 10:20:25 GMT -8 DiamondThief said:

Or, they simply could have rescheduled the Steel's game for Sunday.

At Moda? I think the excuse was they did not want to take down the basketball set-up for a Sunday game.

I personally think Veterans Memorial Coliseum should be looked at for cases like this. They do it for the Winterhawks, who is to say it can't work for AFL (and potentially future IFL games)? The Soul used to play in two arenas (when they still had 2 in Philly) when it went up against a concert, Flyers game, or 76ers game.

Either way, I see this as a slap to the face toward Portland from the AFL. Which is all the more baffling why the "AFL Guru" believes Blazers would be interested in owning the Steel.

[DiamondThief]

May 2, 2016 12:20:23 GMT -8 David said:

May 2, 2016 10:20:25 GMT -8 DiamondThief said:

Or, they simply could have rescheduled the Steel's game for Sunday.

At Moda? I think the excuse was they did not want to take down the basketball set-up for a Sunday game.

I personally think Veterans Memorial Coliseum should be looked at for cases like this. They do it for the Winterhawks, who is to say it can't work for AFL (and potentially future IFL games)? The Soul used to play in two arenas (when they still had 2 in Philly) when it went up against a concert, Flyers game, or 76ers game.

Either way, I see this as a slap to the face toward Portland from the AFL. Which is all the more baffling why the "AFL Guru" believes Blazers would be interested in owning the Steel.

The coliseum would probably have a capacity for 8,000 or so for arena football. That might be too small for the league to accept, though attendance probably would not be that high anyway.

They probably would have the same amount of work regardless, albeit in a shorter time span. I cannot imagine Paul Allen appreciating the loss of revenue (with whatever deal they may be giving the AFL) from losing a home game. I think of it this way: He is seeing first hand just how ridiculously this league operates. 

Additionally, despite what Adam may think, the single-entity format really does not look like something Paul Allen would be interested in getting involved in. Then again, maybe Adam is right and really does know more about everything as he thinks he does.

[David]

Per-ArenaFan: the June 27th game against Philadelphia has been changed from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. kickoff.

Apparently UniVision is being flexible about airing games at the appropriate time on the West Coast.