Death of the Alliance of American Football

[MilSox]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

r.  Don't forget that the Chargers are playing in the Galaxy's soccer-specific stadium in L.A.

 

On 5/8/2018 at 4:18 PM, MJWalker45 said:

Northern cities should be avoided if you're talking February through April football. San Antonio would want to get as much money as possible out of the renovations that were just completed on the Alamodome so I think they would still be in play. Austin should be avoided because the only suitable stadium is DKR and they won't let that get used if it interrupts spring football practices. 

Not all northern cities would have to play outdoors though.  Milwaukee, for example.

[MJWalker45]

2 hours ago, NicDB said:

 

Not all northern cities would have to play outdoors though.  Milwaukee, for example.

Would the Brewers be fine with them tearing up the field at the start of the year though?

[MilSox]

4 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

Would the Brewers be fine with them tearing up the field at the start of the year though?

 

TBH, I wouldn't hold my breath. But they've held concerts in midseason before, so maybe for the right price?

[MJWalker45]

Just now, NicDB said:

 

TBH, I wouldn't hold my breath. But they've held concerts in midseason before, so maybe for the right price?

That usually tends to be that line teams straddle. I remember the Indians having a concert during a road trip in the early 2000's and the field had a giant rectangular dead spot in left field for 2 months. 

[WideRight]

From the Memphis announcement it looks  like we know the following (confirmed or very likely true):

 

Orlando--Steve Spurrier

Atlanta--Brad Childress

Memphis--Mike Singletary

Phoenix--Rick Neuheisel

Salt Lake City--Jim Mora

Southern Cal (SD?)--Mike Martz

 

That is an impressive lineup of coaches and a pretty decent city lineup.  It still leaves 2 markets left.  My guess, a Texas Team (San Antonio) and St. Louis.

[WideRight]

16 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

That usually tends to be that line teams straddle. I remember the Indians having a concert during a road trip in the early 2000's and the field had a giant rectangular dead spot in left field for 2 months. 

 

My understanding, from past discussions, was that Miller Park does not have the capacity to hold a football field within it.  Something about the way the outfield is configured means you would not have the space for a full football field. 

 

For northern cities with domes, you basically have Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Indy, and St. Louis  (I am not counting places like Syracuse, Boise or Fargo.)

[Mac the Knife]

43 minutes ago, WideRight said:

From the Memphis announcement it looks  like we know the following (confirmed or very likely true):

 

Orlando--Steve Spurrier

Atlanta--Brad Childress

Memphis--Mike Singletary

Phoenix--Rick Neuheisel

Salt Lake City--Jim Mora

Southern Cal (SD?)--Mike Martz

 

That is an impressive lineup of coaches and a pretty decent city lineup.  It still leaves 2 markets left.  My guess, a Texas Team (San Antonio) and St. Louis.

 

Phoenix is a bad idea.  Salt Lake City is viable.  If those two are firm, then Albuquerque and Denver make sense, as would San Antonio, Amarillo, El Paso or Oklahoma City, avoiding California and its workmen's comp laws/insurance altogether.  Do you have a link to the announcement?

[dfwabel]

With the announcement in Memphis, AAF Head of Business, Tom Veit was on local radio,

 

A link to the 15 minute interview is here.  While Veit said that they have a 10-year business plan, when asked about salaries, Veit would not give specifics.

 

Also, on Tuesday, Charlie Ebersol was interviewed by Rich Eisen.  Draft in September and the eight cities should all be named by the end of the month.  

 

[dfwabel]

4 hours ago, WideRight said:

From the Memphis announcement it looks  like we know the following (confirmed or very likely true):

 

Orlando--Steve Spurrier

Atlanta--Brad Childress

Memphis--Mike Singletary

Phoenix--Rick Neuheisel

Salt Lake City--Jim Mora

Southern Cal (SD?)--Mike Martz

 

That is an impressive lineup of coaches and a pretty decent city lineup.  It still leaves 2 markets left.  My guess, a Texas Team (San Antonio) and St. Louis.

Which league didn't have an impressive lineup of unemployed coaches?  

Sorry, but nobody gives a good g%ddam about Mike Singletary and his woodshop cross necklace as a HC.  

[MilSox]

5 hours ago, WideRight said:

 

My understanding, from past discussions, was that Miller Park does not have the capacity to hold a football field within it.  Something about the way the outfield is configured means you would not have the space for a full football field. 

 

For northern cities with domes, you basically have Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Indy, and St. Louis  (I am not counting places like Syracuse, Boise or Fargo.)

 

That's not actually true. There were reports of the UFL eying Miller Park and they've held several soccer matches since then.

 

The sightlines would be wonky, but no worse than they were for Packers games at County Stadium.

[Mac the Knife]

1 hour ago, dfwabel said:

With the announcement in Memphis, AAF Head of Business, Tom Veit was on local radio,

 

A link to the 15 minute interview is here.  While Veit said that they have a 10-year business plan, when asked about salaries, Veit would not give specifics.

 

Also, on Tuesday, Charlie Ebersol was interviewed by Rich Eisen.  Draft in September and the eight cities should all be named by the end of the month.

 

They can have a 50-year business plan, but that doesn't mean they have the capital to sustain it that long.  In fact, any business that has more than a 5-year plan is already in trouble, because you cannot accurately project out that far; there are just too many variables involved.

 

Let's face it, if this weren't DICK Ebersol's kid?  He'd never have be getting any pub whatsoever.  How, based on what I've seen/heard, he landed venture capital commitments for this, is a little beyond me.  But VC firms are kinda funny - they expect a return on their investments, usually within 3-5 years, at most. 

 

A 10-year business plan is a minimum $1 billion commitment to do this right, with ownership that has a Lamar Hunt/Phil Anschutz MLS level of commitment.  I'd bet $20 at any odds someone would want to give that they're not prepared for those kinds of losses over that period of time.  And with I believe only two VC firms and one TV partner involved, AAF has an original XFL-like problem:  if any one pulls out, the plug gets pulled on the whole thing.

[Needschat]

7 hours ago, Mac the Knife said:

 

Phoenix is a bad idea.  Salt Lake City is viable.  If those two are firm, then Albuquerque and Denver make sense, as would San Antonio, Amarillo, El Paso or Oklahoma City, avoiding California and its workmen's comp laws/insurance altogether.  Do you have a link to the announcement?

 

I'd not be surprised if the Alliance does end up in Oklahoma City/Norman.  

[dfwabel]

25 minutes ago, Needschat said:

 

I'd not be surprised if the Alliance does end up in Oklahoma City/Norman.  

OU Board of Regents doesn't allow non-suite alcohol sales at Gaylord Family-Okkahoma Memorial Stadium @ Owen Field. Granted, David Boren wouldn't have it as President, but he retires in less than two months so Jim Gallogly may look into it since Oklahoma State started selling for baseball and softball this spring with the thought to bring it to Boone Pickens Stadium this fall.

[NYC Cosmos]

On 5/9/2018 at 6:20 PM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

It's not BS.  Having a "soccer-specific" stadium does not mean that no other sport can be played there.  It means only that the stadium is optimised for soccer.  Don't forget that the Chargers are playing in the Galaxy's soccer-specific stadium in L.A.

We are talking abut minor league football. You think an NY-NJ team would play in the Meadowlands? If it does, the league is a bunch of fools. Brooklyn? Not a chance. 7 extra dates for a small stadium means money. The Galaxy's home has what, 10 extra dates? Money talks. 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

6 hours ago, NYC Cosmos said:

On 09/05/2018 at 6:20 PM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

Having a "soccer-specific" stadium does not mean that no other sport can be played there.  It means only that the stadium is optimised for soccer.  Don't forget that the Chargers are playing in the Galaxy's soccer-specific stadium in L.A.

We are talking abut minor league football. You think an NY-NJ team would play in the Meadowlands? If it does, the league is a bunch of fools. Brooklyn? Not a chance. 7 extra dates for a small stadium means money. The Galaxy's home has what, 10 extra dates? Money talks. 

 

Huh? The Meadowlands?  Of course not.  I am saying that a team in either one of those new leagues would want to play at Red Bull Arena.

But, if they choose to aim lower in terms of attendance and in terms of rental cost, then there's no reason to rule out Brooklyn.  The FXFL's Brooklyn Bolts played a couple of seasons at the Brooklyn Cyclones' ballpark; and the Cosmos played soccer there last year.

[MJWalker45]

7 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

Huh? The Meadowlands?  Of course not.  I am saying that a team in either one of those new leagues would want to play at Red Bulls Stadium.

But, if they choose to aim lower in terms of attendance and in terms of rental cost, then there's no reason to rule out Brooklyn.  The FXFL's Brooklyn Bolts played a couple of seasons at the Brooklyn Cyclones' ballpark; and the Cosmos played soccer there last year.

Since Brooklyn is turf it could work since they'd need to add seats to the other side of the field to make it worth their while. Otherwise it's not worth it to put a team there simply to have a team in New York. 

[Gothamite]

16 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

Since Brooklyn is turf it could work since they'd need to add seats to the other side of the field to make it worth their while. Otherwise it's not worth it to put a team there simply to have a team in New York. 

 

That ballpark seats 7,000 now, with another 2K standing - does anyone think the AAF will draw more than that?

[MJWalker45]

Isn't there threshold starting at 15,000? No matter where they play in New York in February 7000 would be a best case number for an unproven league.

[Mac the Knife]

The New York metropolitan area has 20+ million people living in it.  The original XFL team drew somewhere around 25,000.  If you can't attract 10,000 or more in that market to an event of any sort, you shouldn't be in the realm of sports.

[JH42XCC]

How about Michie Stadium in West Point? It's 43 miles North of Times Square (as the crow flies) and has a capacity of almost 40,000 seats.