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Beginning of the end of Arena Football League? (again)


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Week 18 VooDoo-Outlaws Game Canceled
July 16, 2015
The Week 18 game between the New Orleans VooDoo and the Las Vegas Outlaws will not take place, the Arena Football League office announced today. All tickets that have been purchased for the July 25 contest will be refunded. Please contact collin@afloutlaws.com to request a refund.
AFL Issues Statement on Outlaws, VooDoo

Tuesday July 14, 2015

LAS VEGAS – The Arena Football League, as part of its strategic plan to solidify its financial condition and create a platform for growth, has taken over operation of the Las Vegas Outlaws and the New Orleans VooDoo, the League office announced today. In a collective decision from the AFL Board of Directors, both teams will continue as members of the Arena Football League without their previous ownership groups in place. Both the Outlaws and VooDoo have four games remaining in their respective 2015 regular season schedules.

It appears more and more likely with each passing day that both the New Orleans VooDoo and the Las Vegas Outlaws will fold at season's end. This will make 6 teams that have folded in the past 3 years for the AFL, leaving them with only 10 teams. It doesn't look to pretty for the Arena League's future. It's a shame what the league has become since it's end and rebirth in 2008. It used to be a really fun summer fix for the NFL drought a decade or so ago, however the folding and moving of teams along with mismanagement has not been a pretty sight for the league. A new commish comes along and they still manage to have to take ownership of 3 franchises, one of which has a history of decent attendance and has been around for a long time. Things must've gotten pretty dire if they are cancelling actual games for the teams with one in the midst of a playoff hunt.

What do you guys say? Do it see this league recovering, making it 2 more years, or will we see the second demise of the AFL?

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What happened to the Arena League they had a NBC contract and seemed to be on the verge of being a viable spring league just a decade ago then boom. Talent and play wither they are back to being on the witness protection channel and it now looks like the XFL.

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Tank, it turns out that financing a league with artificially inflated expansion fees is not actually a long term solution.

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

"The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert

POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy)

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It seems like there is a group in Texas willing to purchase the VooDoo and move them there. But it seems as if the Outlaws are folding, leaving the league at 11 teams.

Commissioner Butera has stated he wants to add quite a few teams in the next several years, but given the current state of the league, it probably is not likely at this point. There may even be more owners bailing out if the league's recent history is any indication.

It is remarkable to think that less than 10 years ago the AFL was being considered as a minor league to the NFL, but how quick fortunes change. I hope the league finds its footing and manages to grow back to pre-2008 levels because I am a big fan of the AFL. Honestly I think Butera has the potential to basically resurrect this dying league. He is not naive like Kurz is and he has shown willingness to take action for the better interest of the league. In my opinion he is the man I want running the AFL right now.

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Doesn't help when one of the more "stable" franchises cannot host ArenaBowl as the circus is in town.

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nfl/article17906714.html

Wow, that is an interesting thought right there. It would make sense from a financial standpoint to move to Sacramento due to the new arena being completed soon, and the name "Sacramento SaberCats" flows well. I could definitely see this move happening.

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Doesn't help when one of the more "stable" franchises cannot host ArenaBowl as the circus is in town.

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nfl/article17906714.html

Wow, that is an interesting thought right there. It would make sense from a financial standpoint to move to Sacramento due to the new arena being completed soon, and the name "Sacramento SaberCats" flows well. I could definitely see this move happening.

Does it really matter since regardless of location? Unless the AFL team is owned by a NHL/NBA owner, the arena team is basically always going to be last in the pecking order for event bookings for major (NHL/NBA arenas).

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Doesn't help when one of the more "stable" franchises cannot host ArenaBowl as the circus is in town.

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nfl/article17906714.html

Wow, that is an interesting thought right there. It would make sense from a financial standpoint to move to Sacramento due to the new arena being completed soon, and the name "Sacramento SaberCats" flows well. I could definitely see this move happening.

Does it really matter since regardless of location? Unless the AFL team is owned by a NHL/NBA owner, the arena team is basically always going to be last in the pecking order for event bookings for major (NHL/NBA arenas).

Yeah you are right but Sacramento is not a far move to make. If the rumored location was New York then I would be skeptical. And Sacramento is a far less crowded market than the Bay Area is.

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It seems like there is a group in Texas willing to purchase the VooDoo and move them there. But it seems as if the Outlaws are folding, leaving the league at 11 teams.

Commissioner Butera has stated he wants to add quite a few teams in the next several years, but given the current state of the league, it probably is not likely at this point. There may even be more owners bailing out if the league's recent history is any indication.

It is remarkable to think that less than 10 years ago the AFL was being considered as a minor league to the NFL, but how quick fortunes change. I hope the league finds its footing and manages to grow back to pre-2008 levels because I am a big fan of the AFL. Honestly I think Butera has the potential to basically resurrect this dying league. He is not naive like Kurz is and he has shown willingness to take action for the better interest of the league. In my opinion he is the man I want running the AFL right now.

I disagree with the characterization of Kurz as naive; he ran the AFL 2.0 like he ran the af2.

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

"The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert

POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy)

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It's always amazed me how AFL 2.0 was viewed as a legitimate resurrection of the original Arena Football League. It was obvious to me from the outset that the "new AFL" was simply AFL2 pretending to be its bigger, defunct brother, and in just about every sense imaginable, they've operated in that fashion. The first death knell I saw was when Pittsburgh was awarded an expansion team and they posted their inaugural season ticket prices - the football equivalent of trying to pass a Chevy Cobalt as a Cadillac.

The Arena Football League is dead, and like the NASL did with soccer 30 years ago, its demise is dragging the entire sport down along with it. The best thing they could do is fold the league, wait a decade or two, then try a resurrection with the next generation of fans and television viewers. This crowd and their predecessors have burned so many bridges, on so many different fronts, that there's nothing that'll prevent its demise (only delay it).

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  • 3 weeks later...

It should be interesting to see if Pittsburgh or San Antonio start up next year. I'm guessing if New Orleans gets bought they would end up in Houston. There's nothing solid about Pittsburgh or San Antonio, just me thinking out loud.

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