AAF to suspend operations, report says

[corbe]

AAF to suspend operations, report says

Travis Durkee
 
2 hrs ago
 
The short, strange ride that’s been the Alliance of American Football is on the brink of running out of steam.

According to a report from ProFootballTalk, the AAF will suspend its operations Tuesday, though it's not folding entirely ... yet.

Majority investor Tom Dundon, who put $250 million into the league in February, has been unsure if the project would extend into the weekend.

“It’s pretty fluid. It’s day to day, I would say,” Dundon told SportsBusiness Daily on Monday, noting he would know more later in the week.

The original concept was for the AAF to be a sort of farm system for the NFL, much like minor-league baseball is to MLB. But the NFL Players' Association hasn’t granted the AAF permission to use third- and fourth-string NFL players, most of whom never see action in NFL games.

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/aaf-to-suspend-operations-report-says/ar-BBVwKdD?ocid=ientp

[corbe]

   Didn't they have a 'No Kneel' policy?

[ABX]

I didn't even know they had begun operations. I thought they were still a concept at this point.

[dfwgator]

   Didn't they have a 'No Kneel' policy?

Judging by the stands, I think they had a "No Fans" policy.

[corbe]

   Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the last time this was attempted called the 'USFL', we know who destroyed that, perhaps just a coincidence.

[corbe]

   I wish they'd televise Lingerie Football.

[mountaineer]

I didn't even know they had begun operations. I thought they were still a concept at this point.

No, they've been playing. Johnny Manziel is on one of the teams and got a concussion the other day.

[jmyrlefuller]

Judging by the stands, I think they had a "No Fans" policy.

They were popular in San Antonio... San Diego and Orlando had passable followings. But the rest of the league... blech.

I could go on for a long time about the flaws in the AAF's business model. (Maybe I will write up something tonight.) But the basic flaws were this:

• It was minor league football. One look at NFL preseason games and it becomes blatantly obvious that people don't want minor league football. Compare the AAF to the UFL, which ran about 10 years ago. The UFL had major-league talent—perhaps a little over the hill, but still recognizable pedigrees. Dexter Jackson, Marcel Shipp, Simeon Rice, Jeff Garcia, Daunte Culpepper... the AAF? They had Trent Richardson, whose flaws as a player and inability to find holes were still obvious in the AAF; Johnny Manziel, who only signed midseason; and maybe a few punters and kickers like Nick Novak and Colton Schmidt. Their biggest-name QB was Zach Mettenberger, who was second-string in the NFL. The rest couldn't even make an NFL roster.
• They had no grasp of expenses. The UFL lost about $30 million a year, with half as many teams and half as many games per season. The AAF tried to make a league twice as big, with almost twice as many games.
• Their choice of markets was hit-or-miss. San Antonio was a hit. San Diego was an obvious choice; Orlando had supported pro ball before in the XFL and arena football. The rest? Completely unforgivable and obvious mistakes. Birmingham and Memphis have been cliché spots for these kinds of teams every time one comes around, and Memphis has repeatedly shown it doesn't want football. Phoenix doesn't even support the sports it has very well (see the NHL's Coyotes). Atlanta lost an NHL team a few years ago out of its indifference to winter sport. Plus, no big-city teams meant no TV revenue. The only one that was a relative disappointment was Salt Lake; I'd've thought they'd support something like that better than they did.
• The season was too long. If you're building on momentum from NFL withdrawal, you have to realize that that withdrawal dies off within a few weeks. You have March Madness, and by April, baseball's begun. The UFL's six-week schedule would've been perfect for this kind of operation, had they run it in the same season.
  
• The whole thing reeks of bad faith. It was built to try to head off the returning XFL. Once it got to actually play, no one knew what to do next. The ratings were surprisingly good, but they couldn't parlay that into getting the networks to pay.
• They were far too willing to turn over the keys to a seemingly benevolent investor without realizing the dangers of giving one person control or wondering what he wanted in return. (See also: USFL and Donald Trump)

So now we await Vince McMahon and his return of the XFL. Some of the same mistakes seem to be in the cards, but in his case, this is his own vanity project, so it'll last as long as he wants it to last.

[corbe]