Death of the Alliance of American Football

[bosrs1]

4 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

 

Mfw I hear that the AAF didn't even make payroll the first week. I don't think Ebersol had $75,000,000 lined up in cash much less $750,000,000 for 5 years. Everything about this whole story is off.

 

You mean a fly by nigh minor league was mostly smoke and mirrors on the front side counting on some major quick success to help fund their long term? 

 

Not like that's ever happened before right?

[Red Comet]

28 minutes ago, bosrs1 said:

 

You mean a fly by nigh minor league was mostly smoke and mirrors on the front side counting on some major quick success to help fund their long term? 

 

Not like that's ever happened before right?

If anything, I think that they should open things up and let people buy the teams. One owner not making payroll is a localized embarrassment. The entire league not making payroll will kill it. There would need to be some serious vetting of owners, though. Not that I'd expect this league to be good at doing that, though.

 

Will say that Reddit's reaction is hilarious. It's not 4D chess to have someone swoop in with the money you need to run your league after two weeks, it's a sign that things have gone very wrong. At least have the money to run it for the whole year then have these big money types buy in. Same thing is happening, but because you've completed the season you at least look like you're getting the money because the investor sees a great product.

[dfwabel]

1 hour ago, bosrs1 said:

 

Hell I’m talking to AAF fans that refuse to believe it’s an emergency infusion of cash. They pooh pooh the whole missing payroll thing as irrelevant because “investment”.

3

Both of the AAF Reddits are more bullish than bearish on this news

 

Now, going back 18-24 hours, a few things come to mind in retrospect:

1-There are 400 players, but has an agent gone public with their players not getting paid?  Rovell says, "agents" in his Tweets, but has one gone on social media to state it or are they afraid not to have any team deal with their clients if they go public?

EDIT: Mike Florio was told about the checks last Friday.

 

2-Has a contracted player made a social media statement on not getting paid? While I don't follow any player in the league, one of them would have to go public, even if it was deleted minutes later. 

 

3- If they had issues in making payroll, what other expenses might they be delinquent on? Stadium rent? Office space? Any vendors? Most of those items are Net 30 day billing.

 

4-Here is Hour 1 of David Glenn's radio show today which is syndicated in the mid-Atlantic and based in Raleigh.  Around the NASCAR and UNC/Duke talk before tomorrow night's game, a portion of the first 30 minutes was about the investment, which Glenn mentioned Dundon is paying $250M but is not paying them in full just yet.  He also did the kitchy sports radio thing of fishing for callers who would like an AAF franchise in Raleigh. He also talked about how football is better rated than the NBA or NCAA regular season hoops.  Go to the 11:00 mark to have your ears bleed.

 

[See Red]

This is what I get for laughing at the kids who went to the Fire Festival.

 

I guess, on one hand, you don't become a billionaire by pissing away hundreds of millions of dollars but this doesn't look good.

 

[CrimsonBull9584]

If i wasn't so concerned about keeping my job right now I'd set you guys straight. Obviously I can't give you guys details about whats going on, but what I will say is that everyone is way off on what is really happening and that nothing is wrong. I can't believe people are running with this story and thinking all doom and gloom about the league without actually talking to AAF people for the official account. I can't wait until we get the facts out there to everyone and all this crazy speculation and nonsense can stop.

[Gothamite]

I’m sorry that your job is in jeopardy, I really am.   Nobody should have to live on that knife edge.

 

But on the other hand, if you expect us to believe that the reports are all “Fake News!” and that the league didn’t have trouble making payroll and that they haven’t suddenly opened themselves up to a huge investment, then you’re going to need to provide a lot of actual details, fast.

 

As part of the deal, Dundon is taking over as chairman in the league’s second week of games.  Ebersol and Co. essentially sold the league to him.  That screams emergency funds, not “healthy business model”.

[dfwabel]

The Orlando Sentinel has more Ebersol quotes, but since I am out of access this month, here are the key quotes from Mike Florio.

 

Quote

“It was not urgency,” Ebersol told PFT by phone, explaining that the AAF has been structured like a tech startup, with multiples rounds of investments planned. Dundon decided to short-circuit the process.

 

“‘You can raise Series A, Series B, Series C, or you can raise Series Infinity right now,'” Dundon told Ebersol.

 

 

More spin from CBSsports.com

Quote

"The two events are not related," one AAF GM said. "I've been told Tom Dundon reached out to be an investor earlier in the [last] week. We were made aware of the potential payroll issue early Friday morning. Every player in the Alliance was made aware of the issue and the expected resolution today [Tuesday]. We switched payroll companies late January/early February and there was a glitch with the transfer." 

 

Did they switch payroll companies weeks after hiring the majority of their employees?  It that normal?

If Dundon is this late to the party, he is in this just for the technology and the app to apply to his golf business. He wasn't able to see the app in real time until the league started playing games.

[bosrs1]

22 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

I’m sorry that your job is in jeopardy, I really am.   Nobody should have to live on that knife edge.

 

But on the other hand, if you expect us to believe that the reports are all “Fake News!” and that the league didn’t have trouble making payroll and that they haven’t suddenly opened themselves up to a huge investment, then you’re going to need to provide a lot of actual details, fast.

 

As part of the deal, Dundon is taking over as chairman in the league’s second week of games.  Ebersol and Co. essentially sold the league to him.  That screams emergency funds, not “healthy business model”.

 

Yeah it's pretty tone deaf if they didn't think this would take off as a negative once it was revealed. Should have been out in front of it with why suddenly getting $250 mil in investment along with reports of payroll problems was a good thing if it's in fact a good thing. In fact I'm shocked at the slow response for damage control once they realized the direction the narrative went if it's in fact a positive. 

[dfwabel]

Birmingham Iron GM Joe Pendry spoke with AL.com

 

Quote

Pendry said players are scheduled to be paid on the Friday after each game, but the league changed payroll companies last week. That change, he said, delayed players' weekly check until this week. That meant players were not paid last week -- the week after the first weekend of games and just before suiting up for Week 2.

Since banks were closed Monday for Presidents Day, Pendry said players received payments today. Players will presumably receive pay for Week 2 games on Friday as scheduled.

“It’s not to keep the league afloat,” Pendry said. “That’s not his reason. (Dundon) sees the future of the league. That’s his reason for being involved in it. That was not it at all, as far as him coming in to keep the league afloat. They’ve got other investors.”

"It means to us that we're glad we've got people interested to invest in what we've got going here, what we're doing for players and giving them another opportunity," Pendry said. "It's a new company that had a glitch in one area that simultaneously there happened to be a release coming out about a new investor. If either one of those would have been separate timing, they'd be nothing, but because they came out at the same time, it's a semi-story.

"For a Birmingham Iron fan, this is good, because we've got another investor."

 

 

[Red Comet]

33 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

Birmingham Iron GM Joe Pendry spoke with AL.com

 

 

 

After seeing that, I have to ask why they didn't lead off with the fact that they changed payroll companies to explain the payment issues. Or, could also be that the journalist who broke the story decided on a bit of "creative truthtelling" to make a routine situation look a lot more dire than it actually is. Could be both for all I know. I probably should wait 24 hours after a story breaks before having an opinion on it tbh.

[Gothamite]

1 hour ago, bosrs1 said:

Yeah it's pretty tone deaf if they didn't think this would take off as a negative once it was revealed. Should have been out in front of it with why suddenly getting $250 mil in investment along with reports of payroll problems was a good thing if it's in fact a good thing. In fact I'm shocked at the slow response for damage control once they realized the direction the narrative went if it's in fact a positive. 

 

They’re still not getting in front of it, if their own website is any indication.  Their own silence reinforces the initial impression, that selling the league to a new investor is a move both of desperation.

[Gothamite]

22 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

I have to ask why they didn't lead off with the fact that they changed payroll companies to explain the payment issues. 

 

Wonder if they didn’t settle on that explanation until after the fact.   The timing is certainly suspect - have they explained anywhere why they are switching payroll companies in the opening weeks of the season?

 

At the very least, the “glitch” alone is suspect.  Coinciding with the new principle investor, they’ll need more than mere assurances to dispel the reports of financial issues.

[dfwabel]

1 minute ago, Gothamite said:

 

Wonder if they didn’t settle on that explanation until after the fact.   The timing is certainly suspect - have they explained anywhere why they are switching payroll companies in the opening weeks of the season?

 

At the very least, the “glitch” alone is suspect.  Coinciding with the new principle investor, they’ll need more than mere assurances to dispel the reports of financial issues.

Switching payroll companies during a bank holiday on Monday seems sketchy at best and foolish at worse. 

 

USA Today's Dan Wolken wrote an opinion piece this morning.

Excerpts,some of which mirror the thoughts of many here:

Quote

Meanwhile, the announced paid attendance for Week 2 games was 17,319 in Birmingham, 11,980 in Memphis, 29,176 in San Antonio and 20,019 in San Diego. Those are not embarrassing numbers for minor-league football, which ironically explains why the long-term future of the league seems so in doubt.

If the AAF needed a big bailout to pay its bills despite decent attendance and a good first week television pop, what’s the threshold this thing needs to actually make the numbers work? 

Perhaps the AAF’s audience will grow as its first season continues, but common sense suggests it will fall off a bit as the novelty factor fades and attention turns to the NFL combine and the NCAA basketball tournament. 

Which is exactly why it’s so difficult to make a new football league work. There are millions upon millions of football fans in America, but the sports calendar has always given them plenty of options when the last touchdown for the season is scored. 

Dundon’s early financial rescue of the AAF is a big bet that football played by guys who aren’t quite good enough for the NFL isn’t merely going to sustain what it has done through two weeks but will actually grow while competing against far more established sports properties.

1

 

[Red Comet]

13 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

Wonder if they didn’t settle on that explanation until after the fact.   The timing is certainly suspect - have they explained anywhere why they are switching payroll companies in the opening weeks of the season?

 

At the very least, the “glitch” alone is suspect.  Coinciding with the new principle investor, they’ll need more than mere assurances to dispel the reports of financial issues.

 

Yeah, I'm probably thinking that the "change in payroll companies" is probably bull. Especially with the timing involved. But, I also want to see if there is any information that can explain this (I don't think there will be, but I want to at least see the AAF's explanation for almost running out of money after two :censored:ing weeks). @dfwabel raised a good point in that before the story broke no player, coach or agent had come out and said they weren't getting paid. I understand that there are NDAs in place for things like that, but there would be at least one idiot who breaks that, right? 

[See Red]

1 minute ago, Red Comet said:

 

Yeah, I'm probably thinking that the "change in payroll companies" is probably bull. Especially with the timing involved. But, I also want to see if there is any information that can explain this (I don't think there will be, but I want to at least see the AAF's explanation for almost running out of money after two :censored:ing weeks). @dfwabel raised a good point in that before the story broke no player, coach or agent had come out and said they weren't getting paid. I understand that there are NDAs in place for things like that, but there would be at least one idiot who breaks that, right? 

2

 

I would think so.  If nothing else, I'd have walked the :censored: out the second a guy got carted off the field on a stretcher in the Apollos game.

[CrimsonBull9584]

39 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

 

After seeing that, I have to ask why they didn't lead off with the fact that they changed payroll companies to explain the payment issues. Or, could also be that the journalist who broke the story decided on a bit of "creative truthtelling" to make a routine situation look a lot more dire than it actually is. Could be both for all I know. I probably should wait 24 hours after a story breaks before having an opinion on it tbh.

 

Exactly!

[monkeypower]

2 minutes ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

 

Exactly!

 

Like Gothamite already said, everything could be fine and dandy and whatever but right now, at the very least, the optics of the situation don't look good.

 

As far as I'm aware, and anybody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, the league has been silent on all this outside of announcing the Dundon money.

[dfwabel]

This afternoon, Tom Dundon was on Raleigh radio discussing his investment. The interview is 12 minutes long, with the first nine being about the AAF and the finish talking about the Hurricanes.

The questions were direct and his answers were pretty much the same. Dundon went through the chronology of his involvement. Dundon stated there were problems on the Wednesday after Week 1 and there were others they were talking to but did not have a "permanent solution" and he came in on Thursday with one.

 

Sorry for all those who are employed there, but Ebersol and Polian were very underfunded.

(He also sounds a lot like Mark Cuban)

[dfwabel]

Neuheisel thinks this was an XFL smear campaign.

 

 

 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

15 hours ago, Red Comet said:

I don't think it's the football either unless he's planning on using this team to get a soccer-specific stadium for this AAF team and MLS (and boy does that league have issues)...

 

MLS? The only "issues" that MLS has is deciding precisely from whom to accept hundreds of millions of dollars for expansion. That league is turning away ownership groups.

 

MLS is amongst the top ten leagues in world football in terms of revenue. And the values of MLS teams — that is to say: the values of investor-operator stakes in MLS — are skyrocketing, the highest-valued MLS teams having already surpassed the lowest-valued NHL clubs.

 

MLS has labour trouble on the horizon; but as far as financials, it is in excellent shape.