Nashville Kats Open 2025 on Road at Southwest Kansas; Arbet is Head Coach & General Manager

The Nashville Kats open the 2025 season in the new AF1 league Saturday versus Southwest Kansas in Dodge City.

Kickoff is 6 p.m. CDT at United Wireless Arena. All AF1 games this season will be streamed live on EvergreenNOW available on Roku, Android, iOS, Android TV, tvOS, Google TV, Fire TV, Samsung and LG. Vizio will be added in April.

Following the season opener, the Kats will play back-to-back home games in historic Municipal Auditorium in downtown Nashville on Saturday, March 29 at 5 p.m. versus against the Albany Firebirds and the following Friday, April 4 at 6:30 p.m. against the Billings Outlaws.

“We are excited about the return for the second season of the newest version of the Nashville Kats,” Kats President and Director of Football Operations Jeff Fisher said. “We fielded a very competitive and winning team last season and plan to so this season. And certainly, the response of the fans to the Kats and the indoor game was amazing. It’s going to be another fun season.”

The Nashville Kats have named Arena Football Hall of Fame member Darren Arbet as head coach and general manager. Fisher also named Kats partners Bobby DeVoursney as Chief Executive Offer and Greg Pogue as Chief Operating Officer.

“At first, it was the experience and success that Darren has had in the indoor game,” Fisher said of Arbet, who was inducted into the Arena Football Hall of Fame in 2011 and is second on the all-time winningest list for indoor football."

“But beyond that, it is the disposition, it’s the gentleman that he is,” Fisher added. “It’s the understanding of everything that is required from A to Z to putting a winning team on the field and how to build and sustain a winning franchise.”

Arbet has won four ArenaBowl championships (2002, 2004, 2007 and 2015) and was twice named league coach of the year (2000, 2002) during his head coaching stint with the San Jose SaberCats from 1999-2015.

“First of all, I would like to thank Jeff Fisher and the Nashville Kats organization for this great opportunity,” Arbet said. “It is an honor to work alongside of a coach with the pedigree of someone like him”

With an overall record of 188-82 including regular season and postseason games, Arbet trails only Tim Marcum as the all-time winningest coach and is just 23 wins shy of becoming the all-time wins leader. He has the best home winning percentage (.823) in league history and is third in most postseason victories (19).

Visit TheNashvilleKats.com for more information on ticketing, marketing and sponsorship opportunities. Call or text Greg Pogue at 615-533-5730 for interview opportunities and story ideas.