All @TheAAF football operations will be suspended in the next few hours, per source with knowledge of situation. League is not folding, yet. But it's heading that way.— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 2, 2019
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I know some people that really got into it the first few weeks.
I think the XFL will do better though. Vince is not dumb, he learned from his previous mistakes.
Womp womp
Can't even finish the season? Even the XFL got through Season 1.
Dundon Hate Me should be the motto of this soon-to-be failed experiment
Well that's one way to acquire a small part of a larger org
Well you don't have $250M just laying around by being bad at business.
Trump would suggest otherwise hell there are plenty of millionaires who are really bad at business. But at a certain point you have enough money it doesn't matter.
I was going to say that but didn't want to get political. But yes, having a lot of money does not mean you are good at making money. In this case I think he made a good investment though
Dundons let worth is $1.5b
A loss of $70m to acquire player tracking technology that bundles with real time gambling to sell to all professional leagues is small potatoes for a guy like him.
right after they signed johnny football too. I was looking forward to him throwing 4 picks a game and running for net 20 yards not on his 5th team in 5 years but his 5th LEAGUE in 5 years. that's gotta be a record.
CFB
NFL
ARENA
CFA
AAF
im sure the XFL will be next for him?
He Hate Me 2.0
I don't believe he ever signed with an Arena team, although there was plenty of interest in him, so that could also be a next destination. I believe it was Rapper Jim Jones, who is part of the Richmond Roughriders ownership group that was looking to bring him or Kaepernick in if they would play. Richmond's team has since folded I believe.
Looks like Arena this coming season will be Philly, Baltimore, Albany, Atlantic City, Washington, and Columbus.
I also did not realize how fractured Arena football had become. There are apparently at least five leagues operating now. There is the Arena League, The National Arena League, the American Arena League, Champions Football League and the Indoor Football League.
Arena has 6 teams, NAL has 6 teams, AAL has 13 teams, CFL has 8 teams and the IFL has 10 teams. The IFL seems to be mainly northern Midwest states, Champions is southern Midwest (Texas to Nebraska) while the other three leagues are all East Coast based.
Yep which is why I stopped adding players in arena to my yearly Hokies in the Pros list. It got to be too much, guys would be on one team Monday a different Team Friday and a different league the next Monday.
Sad part is the games where pretty good. But only being shown on the NFL network really limited their broadcast-ability.
There were games on CBS, CBS Sportnet, and some on TNT. There was some online only streams on Bleacher Report Live. They were just really scattered.
I never knew when or where any of them were. There was no advertising.
Huh, I only ever saw them on NFL. They really needed better advertisement if they were on those as well.
Is the season over? Or are they shutting down mid-season?
They are 8 games in. They are suspending operation, not officially shutting down, but pending some financial shot in the arm, yeah, they dead.
I know it's probably kind of silly to compare two different sports. But if MLS can survive and even grow on 250k-500k television ratings, I feel like a AAF-like football league could still work if they can find owners willing to nurture it slowly and cultivate local fanbases.
I can't help but feel like these owners tend to way overestimate the revenue these leagues will be making starting out and it nips them in the butt ultimately.
And the women's soccer league is only broadcast on Lifetime, but they are still going strong.
There is also a major difference in personnel to take into account. MLS has about 27 guys on each roster, AAF has 52. Coaching staff for MLS is 4 or 5 with a trainer and assistant while AAF was 11 to 13 per team plus a full training staff.
AAF was averaging about 800K in viewership but I am not sure how much if anything they were receiving from television. Their TV deal was with CBS but it only accounted for 2 games the opening weekend and one per week after that on the CBS Sports Network, so essentially they had no guaranteed TV revenue for 75% of their product.
The MLS also has a $90mill a year TV deal. In comparison, the NFL has a deal worth $255mill a year.
The difference is the XFL can distribute its product without a major network backing it, because it could go on the WWE Network if they chose too do it.
I expect them to come hard at high school kids to try to get them paid.
I'm curious on how the XFL is going to work. I wonder if they are going to try and hire on all the players as 'independent contractors' like what happens with WWE (John Oliver had a great segment on this on Sunday), because I can't see that going over well.
Vince doesn't exactly have the best track record for business ventures outside wrestling. I hope he gets this right, but I have very much lowered expectations about this.
People just expect the XFL to fail. I don't think Vince is stupid. I think he has a legit understanding of why it failed the first time and what he can do to make it better.
There is a LAX league that just started that offers ownership of the league as part of its payment to its employees. I think if someone were to do that at a pro football level there would be some major incentives for people to join it.
Like what? Most people expect it to fail because there's not much you can do. The deck is stacked against you. Just the way it is.
While I feel bad for the AAF, there was some good news released that way more than balances it out for DC sports fans.
Wizards have fired Ernie Grunfeld after 15 traumatizing years.
The first time around they marketed the xfl to be like Nfl Blitz with sexy cheerleaders. This time around they are doing no players with criminal history, no cheerleaders, and are taking player safety into consideration.
Vince needs to roll into Clemson and Alabama and start signing some players
I just sat down with Oliver Luck last night. We discussed the AAF (he already knew) and how they plan on differentiating themselves. Recruiting, TV Deals, etc. It should be fun to watch but I can't see it going much better.
I'd love to hear more.
Yes, yes I would!
The only way a second league will work is if it is a true development league for the NFL with support and backing of the existing teams like a Minor league. MLS is essentially heading that way.
Where are you drawing the comparison to MLS from? Is it because a handful or players every year get pulled in by European Clubs? Those don't represent nearly enough revenue to keep the league afloat. MLS has meticulously worked on expansion only where it made sense and can reasonably expect fan bases that make sellouts a normal occurrence in regards attendance. They also made a solid decision regarding television contracts and other streaming services.
The NFL product is stale, and if someone could do it right, they could certainly create a newer exciting league.
I would argue that the College game is more exciting because of the variance in offensive styles that you could never see at the NFL level. There are certainly enough of the spread type offensive player not working in the NFL.
Not surprised one bit... I saw this coming a mile away.
IMO same thing will happen to XFL. Pretty good ratings in first couple of weeks and then people lose interest and it dwindles down.