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Death of the Alliance of American Football


LAWeaver

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4 hours ago, WideRight said:

Really hoping today's Birmingham announcement is Identity (Name, Colors, Logo) and not something ho hum like a lease agreement.   4;30 CDT is the magic hour.  Fingers crossed.  I love most of Bosack's work so I have high hopes for B'Ham and the whole AAF. 

I'm still betting it's just signing Trent Richardson

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2 hours ago, NYC Cosmos said:

Gotham:  The Big A was discussed. This is way back when Cuomo Sr. was governor and the racetrack was falling apart.

 

It was discussed and discarded decades ago.  Because nobody was actually serious about it, for all the reasons we’ve discussed. 

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9 hours ago, dfwabel said:

I'm still betting it's just signing Trent Richardson

 

Wait... the AAF's big announcement in Birmingham was about Trent Richardson?

 

Trent "I couldn't cut it as a Cleveland :censored:ing Brown" Richardson?

 

Trent "Indianapolis is still kicking its own ass for trading for me" Richardson?

 

Oh... wow, is THIS going to be a league to keep an eye out for, because if you blink you're gonna miss it.

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I think the Alliance is trying to get us hyped for the name/logo/uniform reveals. We all got excited because we thought that they were going to do that yesterday. And many of us, I'm sure, tuned in to see the announcement. That's what they want. They are teasing us so that they can get the numbers and by the time they are ready to unveil "the good stuff", more people will be interested in it. So this is really just a marking tactic to get more people interested until they get the uniforms ready.

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Just now, CrimsonBull9584 said:

I think the Alliance is trying to get us hyped for the name/logo/uniform reveals. We all got excited because we thought that they were going to do that yesterday. And many of us, I'm sure, tuned in to see the announcement. That's what they want. They are teasing us so that they can get the numbers and by the time they are ready to unveil "the good stuff", more people will be interested in it. So this is really just a marking tactic to get more people interested until they get the uniforms ready.

 

And every time they do this, what they don't realize is that all they're actually accomplishing is pissing off the few people who actually care in the first place.

 

I always thought Dick Ebersol was an idiot as a television executive.  In many respects he drove NBC right into the toilet.  Time is proving that the apple that is Charlie didn't fall far from the tree at all.

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35 minutes ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

I think the Alliance is trying to get us hyped for the name/logo/uniform reveals. We all got excited because we thought that they were going to do that yesterday. And many of us, I'm sure, tuned in to see the announcement. That's what they want. They are teasing us so that they can get the numbers and by the time they are ready to unveil "the good stuff", more people will be interested in it. So this is really just a marking tactic to get more people interested until they get the uniforms ready.

As it was a news release from the city and NOT from the league, why would one be foolish enough to believe that this group, which really hasn't done much w/o the use of Twitter or Instragram would announce a single team name? That's f'n naive.

 

Numbers for what? Social media? The press conference was carried by one local affiliate via Facebook and was on the ESPN crawler. That's traction.

 

Today, August 30, is the day people stop caring less and less about AAF because actual football starts on TV. NCAA games start in full tonight.

 

Heck, they don't possess a full sales staff anywhere yet.

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20 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

Heck, they don't possess a full sales staff anywhere yet.

 

I'm in college athletics and a member of some organizations. And what I can tell you is that most of the jobs for the Alliance are being posted/offered directly to those in the industry right now, via those industry organizations. My understanding is that they want to get experienced people in from the professional groups first before offering to the "public". That may not be the case, but based on what I've been observing and hearing, I think thats what they are wanting to do.

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And to the previous points. I think that, rather than give us all the information at once and the we forget about the league for the next few months, the league wants us to be on the edge of our seat waiting for new information. That way they will keep us interested as the season goes on.

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5 minutes ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

And to the previous points. I think that, rather than give us all the information at once and the we forget about the league for the next few months, the league wants us to be on the edge of our seat waiting for new information. That way they will keep us interested as the season goes on.

They're already forgotten by the masses.

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19 minutes ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

I'm in college athletics and a member of some organizations. And what I can tell you is that most of the jobs for the Alliance are being posted/offered directly to those in the industry right now, via those industry organizations. My understanding is that they want to get experienced people in from the professional groups first before offering to the "public". That may not be the case, but based on what I've been observing and hearing, I think thats what they are wanting to do.

I can't blame them for that, but the fact that these positions aren't filled yet is telling.  It says that those who should know best to jump onto a boat before it shoves off are staying on the pier rather than jumping on board.

 

The only types new leagues attract are the young, hungry types that get a little experience under their belt which ultimately is applied to the benefit of someone like the NFL or one of its teams.  The USFL was staffed with lots of kids with drive and ambition, and when handed the ball they ran with it.  But experienced business people with football experience by and large didn't want any part of them.

 

15 minutes ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

And to the previous points. I think that, rather than give us all the information at once and the we forget about the league for the next few months, the league wants us to be on the edge of our seat waiting for new information. That way they will keep us interested as the season goes on.

That strategy is failing except for those of us who follow sports as a business.  That strategy is not selling tickets (which I notice they still aren't doing beyond collecting $50 deposits in each market), and it's certainly not generating revenue by selling team-branded merch.

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17 minutes ago, Mac the Knife said:

I can't blame them for that, but the fact that these positions aren't filled yet is telling.  It says that those who should know best to jump onto a boat before it shoves off are staying on the pier rather than jumping on board.

 

The only types new leagues attract are the young, hungry types that get a little experience under their belt which ultimately is applied to the benefit of someone like the NFL or one of its teams.  The USFL was staffed with lots of kids with drive and ambition, and when handed the ball they ran with it.  But experienced business people with football experience by and large didn't want any part of them.

 

That strategy is failing except for those of us who follow sports as a business.  That strategy is not selling tickets (which I notice they still aren't doing beyond collecting $50 deposits in each market), and it's certainly not generating revenue by selling team-branded merch.

They did not have team presidents until this week. The guy for Orlando was hired very recently since five weeks ago he was interviewing for the AD job at Northwest Missouri State.

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I think what the league is doing is insane. I think the USFL did things right...at the beginning. They hired coaches who had been successful in their leagues and college – Jauch and Campbell in the CFL, of course George Allen, Chuck Fairbanks, John Ralston, Red Miller. They had some great identities – the Oakland Invaders are still my favorite logo of all time. And they were pioneers. But then they got completely stupid – signing college and NFL stars, expanding by 6 teams, firing coaches in midseason. Had they shortened the schedule and stuck to the original plan, I think they would have lasted. The WLAF was a s**t show from the beginning. They wanted teams in Mexico and Italy. True story. Tex Schramm visited Milan to meet the Minister of Sport, and the Minister kept Schramm waiting 2 days to meet. The Mexico team was going to be in Monterrey, not Mexico City. They thought having a team closer to the border would make a rivalry with San Antonio that much more. They also considered Memphis. The league, via the NFL wanted a team so badly in Montreal, that they gave some beer executive at Molson a very, very generous loan – I think it was 20 years with a balloon payment at the end. The scheduling was a joke. Frankfurt was on the road 4 straight weeks and the final leg of the trip was in Sacramento. Sacramento to Frankfurt is like a 12-hour flight. To make matters worse, the league promoted itself in Europe as NFL football. 

 

The way things are going in the AAFL, I don't think they have a chance. And if SLC is called the buzz r whatever the name is, bee-related I assume, I much fear the Steeler throwbacks will be recycled.

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I feel like Buzz isnt an option in Salt Lake.  The AAA team tried that in the 90s and were called the Buzz until 2000 when Gerogia Tech filed a trademark dilution lawsuit on them.  The team became the Bees in 2001.

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2 hours ago, NYC Cosmos said:

The way things are going in the AAFL, I don't think they have a chance. And if SLC is called the buzz r whatever the name is, bee-related I assume, I much fear the Steeler throwbacks will be recycled.

 

First, I do think that the Alliance has a chance and will make it at least two seasons. Maybe we are reading different reports or interviews or whatever, but I hear nothing but good things about this league and I'm super excited.

 

My thought is, wether its the Swarm, Buzz, or whatever, the SLC team will likely have colors that will neither conflict with the local NCAA teams and colors that would not be traditional for the logo. What I mean is that SCL will not be blue nor red, as not to conflict with the big three in Utah (Utah, Utah State, and BYU). So something like green, purple, or orange may be likely (with apologies to Weber State and Utah Valley). Along with that, they won't go a "traditional" black and yellow color scheme, as that would be too obvious and predictable. Plus, they would want to avoid the obvious comparisons to Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech. When I was in semi-pro, there was a team from Columbus called the Ohio Swarm. Their colors were black and purple. So something like that would be more likely, at least from where I'm sitting.

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Hmmm......interesting. I was thinking yellow/black. Don't get me wrong. I hope the league thrives. I would also hope they have a roster spot for an international layer. NFL Europe got it right. The rule was every other series you had to have a national in the game. 

 

As far as team names go, I like what they did in India. The Dehli Defenders had a great helmet and color combo. A couple of years ago, this is going back like 7 years. Team Mexico had an awesome green and red helmet. In the Philippines a couple of teams are called Warriors or Datu. The Datu was the leader of the tribe. The Datu logo was taken from the Great Lapu Lapu of Cebu, who supposedly killed Magellan. It is an interesting choice, noting it kinda, sorta, looks like Washington's. 

 

I would hope SLC's logo paid tribute to its' heritage in some ways and I mean that by the westward movement towards the west coast. It could be railroad-related like the golden spikes. 

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9 hours ago, AstroBull21 said:

I feel like Buzz isnt an option in Salt Lake.  The AAA team tried that in the 90s and were called the Buzz until 2000 when Gerogia Tech filed a trademark dilution lawsuit on them.  The team became the Bees in 2001.

 

Actually...the Buzz first became the Stingers in 2001, then became the Bees in 2006.

 

Speaking of which, I don't think Stingers is a bad name...for a football team. I'd go either Amber/Black/[Insert contrasting third color here] or Amber/Dark Gray/[Insert Color Here] where "amber" is the darker, slightly redder, shade of yellow the Utah Jazz wear, or even Black (or Dark Gray)/Creamsicle Orange/Red, as I really like that color scheme as well.

 

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10 hours ago, dfwabel said:

They did not have team presidents until this week. The guy for Orlando was hired very recently since five weeks ago he was interviewing for the AD job at Northwest Missouri State.

They didn't name them until this week.  That's not a problem.  The guy who got the gig for Orlando?  That's not an evident problem.

The problems are (i) that teams shouldn't have presidents if you're a "single entity" league; you divide operational responsibility, and keep things at a collective level even at the highest level of a team's operations, and (ii) these guys should've been doing their responsibilities, under whatever title, before the cities were even announced - not just now settling into them.

 

9 hours ago, NYC Cosmos said:

I think what the league is doing is insane. I think the USFL did things right...at the beginning. They hired coaches who had been successful in their leagues and college – Jauch and Campbell in the CFL, of course George Allen, Chuck Fairbanks, John Ralston, Red Miller. They had some great identities – the Oakland Invaders are still my favorite logo of all time. And they were pioneers. But then they got completely stupid – signing college and NFL stars, expanding by 6 teams, firing coaches in midseason. Had they shortened the schedule and stuck to the original plan, I think they would have lasted.

Well, as someone who's studied the USFL as a business case history for over 30 years, you'd have to define "at the beginning" a little clearer for me to agree with you entirely.  David Dixon put an exceptional plan together.  He brought on John Ralston as a consultant and left a lot of the football operations matters to him to sell to potential investors.  He then put together an exceptionally strong group of well-heeled ownership groups in the various markets.  If that is where you draw the line at "the beginning?"  I'll agree wholeheartedly.  From that point forward however, "doing things right" gets ever increasingly hard to define. 

 

Dixon made a near-fatal mistake almost from the beginning by not having franchisees with stadium leases in hand before being awarded the franchise; a factor that burned the USFL in San Diego not once, but twice in successive years.  It resulted in Tad Taube and Jim Joseph going from partners in Oakland to Taube in Oakland and Joseph in Los Angeles, then from Taube in Oakland, Harmon and Davis going from Denver to Los Angeles, and Joseph in Phoenix within the space of a week - all the while during which Ted Diethrich, who lived in Phoenix, agreed to back the Chicago franchise because Dixon told him Phoenix wasn't ready as a USFL market.

 

They did exceptionally well at marketing their product before it took the field.  They set expectations at just the right level going in (unlike the XFL), and people responded.  But honestly by that point, the ship was already somewhat headed toward the rocks.  Original owners were cashing out, new owners who weren't fully aware of let alone on board with the concept of riding things out and building the league over time; and then, of course, came Donny and Mr. Dynamite.

 

Had they stuck to David Dixon's original plan, they'd have had a chance.  A real chance - but not a slam dunk.  What it'd be today is anyone's guess; perhaps merged with the CFL, perhaps playing as the "NFL Summer League," or still its own independent circuit.  We'll never know, but it's fun to speculate about.

 

7 hours ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

First, I do think that the Alliance has a chance and will make it at least two seasons.

Read that sentence.  I point it out not as a knock on you Bull, but to put forth a point.

 

That sentence, right there, tells you where the level of excitement about the AAF is in the overall consciousness of America's football fans.  Not "it's gonna be great," or "they're well heeled financially so they're gonna succeed because they'll be willing to take the financial hits to build the brand," but "...has a chance and will make it at least two seasons."  That's not a high bar to clear, fellas.  And not a ringing endorsement.  Would you invest in a product where your potential client base expressed that attitude?

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