The six teams in the Arena Football League, including the Columbus Destroyers, suspended operations Tuesday in light of a lawsuit filed against the league by one of its insurance carriers, and the league could also decide whether to shut down in the weeks to come.

The league is facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit from an insurance carrier that provided workers' compensation coverage from 2009 to '12, commissioner Randall Boe said in a statement.

“We haven't made a decision on whether to completely suspend operations,” Boe told the Albany (New York) Times Union, which was first to report the news. “That’s a decision that will probably be made in the next several weeks. We do know, under any set of circumstances, we will not be continuing to operate business operation units in our local markets.”

A representative from the Destroyers referred to Boe's statement.

In addition to the lawsuit, Boe cited liabilities that also occurred under the league's previous operators.

Those liabilities "severely constrain the league’s ability to expand and operate," he said in the statement.

Ron Jaworski, the former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback who serves as team president of the Philadelphia Soul of the AFL, reiterated what Boe said in that this was a shutdown of team but not league operations.

“We are ceasing local business operations as we restructure," Jaworski said in a statement. "The Soul and the AFL are not ceasing operations as we explore other options. All operations are running through the AFL office.”

The Destroyers returned to Nationwide Arena for an 12-game schedule from April to July after an 11-year absence. A previous version of the team played there from 2004 to '08.

The Destroyers went 1-11 under coach Matthew Sauk, drawing an average of about 6,500 fans for six home games — a far cry from when the original version of the team would nearly fill the 18,000-seat arena.

bhofmann@dispatch.com

@BrianHofmann