Death of the Alliance of American Football

[WideRight]

2 hours ago, DG_Now said:

 

Not to mention ATL UTD is drawing 40,000-70,000 a game in the nice stadium. AAF ATL will look small-time in comparison.

Also, @WideRight you need to modify your signature. It's currently a giant photobucket image right now.

DG Now.  I am not seeing what you are seeing.  I updated my signature a few days ago and I see that image.  It is an image from Imgur, not Photobucket, so I am not sure why others would be seeing an older photobucket image.   Moderators?  Any thoughts?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

2 hours ago, WideRight said:

DG Now.  I am not seeing what you are seeing.  I updated my signature a few days ago and I see that image.  It is an image from Imgur, not Photobucket, so I am not sure why others would be seeing an older photobucket image.   Moderators?  Any thoughts?

 

[TBGKon]

10 hours ago, WideRight said:

DG Now.  I am not seeing what you are seeing.  I updated my signature a few days ago and I see that image.  It is an image from Imgur, not Photobucket, so I am not sure why others would be seeing an older photobucket image.   Moderators?  Any thoughts?

Double check your signature settings, it took a few cycles of removing the hyperlink on mine before the change finally stuck.

[Mac the Knife]

Atlanta is now official.

 

Head Coach?  Brad Childress.

Offensive Coordinator?  Michael Vick.

 

I suspect the team name won't reference dogs in some manner...

[CrimsonBull9584]

If you read the Alliance's official bio on Vick, along with the Atlanta Journal-Consitutions's reporting, nowhere does it mention Vick's jail time. To me, that just seems like a bit of relevant information that we, the fans, should know. Sure you can argue that we should already know it, but the official bio has a gap between 2001 and 2009 for Vick and to me that's like having a text book about German history and there is a gap between 1938 and 1945. You know what happened, you just think that the should acknowledge it. 

[smzimbabwe]

 

[TBGKon]

Is it me or does this AAF seem pretty organized and that maybe the XFL jumped the gun to be "first" and haven't done much since?

 

AAF really seems to have football minds at the helm and involved. 

 

One thought I had, might it be possible for the AAF to stick to a regional approach to start, much like the NBADL did in early days by starting in the Southeast US and then expand/relocate out from there.

[Mac the Knife]

7 minutes ago, AstroBull21 said:

Is it me or does this AAF seem pretty organized and that maybe the XFL jumped the gun to be "first" and haven't done much since?

 

AAF really seems to have football minds at the helm and involved. 

 

One thought I had, might it be possible for the AAF to stick to a regional approach to start, much like the NBADL did in early days by starting in the Southeast US and then expand/relocate out from there.

 

Maybe.  I honestly think that the Vince McMahon/DICK (which I use in a perjorative, because he is one) Ebersol "30 for 30" conversation got way more detailed than was depicted.  I think DICK and Charlie realized that Vince was getting a real itch to do a new iteration of the XFL, but that in doing so Vince revealed too much - particularly the kind of timeline he'd employ if he had it to do over again.  Once they got Vince's ideas, they decided to run with it, full throttle, in essence getting the drop on him.

 

AAF has football minds, which is great if you have the financial backing to go along with it.  Charlie Ebersol has claimed that the AAF's backers are envisioning a 7-10 year timeline.  Bill Polian, who allegedly was in on the ground floor of this thing, has publicly said they've enough capital to go 3 years, maybe 4.  In truth, I don't think either is right.  I'm just not sure which is the more wrong.  Venture capitalists understand that you take financial hits in the early going, but if those hits are too hard, too fast; if their "burn rate" is much higher than anticipated?  They'll pull out faster than a prom date without a condom.

 

XFL meanwhile appears to be doing nothing, but it's more likely that they're simply saying nothing, having learned the lessons of 2000-2001 and taking a diametrically opposite approach.  I see some "indicator cities" as to which way things will lean in "AAF vs. XFL" (viz., Austin, Oakland, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Diego) - cities where if you see one league entering several of those markets, it'll hurt the other.  But I think both leagues could co-exist and operate in 16 markets with spring football fairly easily...

 

Imagine AAF in Atlanta, Birmingham, Miami, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, St. Louis and San Antonio.  And XFL in Austin, Columbus, Memphis, New York, Oakland, Portland, San Diego and Toronto.  Each one is at least plausible as a market, with no head-to-head overlap and proven fan bases thanks either to the NFL, CFL, USFL, UFL or NCAA.

[JagAaron33]

Atlanta is officially an AAF location.  They will play at GSU stadium, formerly Turner Field.

 

https://aaf.com/atlantaalliance

 

Head coach Brad Childress, Offensive Coordinator Michael Vick.

[BengalErnst]

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/23313208/michael-vick-offensive-coordinator-alliance-american-football

 

Michael Vick named Offensive Coordinator for the real Alliance league with Brad Childress as the Head Coach

[WideRight]

4 hours ago, Mac the Knife said:

 

Maybe.  I honestly think that the Vince McMahon/DICK (which I use in a perjorative, because he is one) Ebersol "30 for 30" conversation got way more detailed than was depicted.  I think DICK and Charlie realized that Vince was getting a real itch to do a new iteration of the XFL, but that in doing so Vince revealed too much - particularly the kind of timeline he'd employ if he had it to do over again.  Once they got Vince's ideas, they decided to run with it, full throttle, in essence getting the drop on him.

 

AAF has football minds, which is great if you have the financial backing to go along with it.  Charlie Ebersol has claimed that the AAF's backers are envisioning a 7-10 year timeline.  Bill Polian, who allegedly was in on the ground floor of this thing, has publicly said they've enough capital to go 3 years, maybe 4.  In truth, I don't think either is right.  I'm just not sure which is the more wrong.  Venture capitalists understand that you take financial hits in the early going, but if those hits are too hard, too fast; if their "burn rate" is much higher than anticipated?  They'll pull out faster than a prom date without a condom.

 

XFL meanwhile appears to be doing nothing, but it's more likely that they're simply saying nothing, having learned the lessons of 2000-2001 and taking a diametrically opposite approach.  I see some "indicator cities" as to which way things will lean in "AAF vs. XFL" (viz., Austin, Oakland, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Diego) - cities where if you see one league entering several of those markets, it'll hurt the other.  But I think both leagues could co-exist and operate in 16 markets with spring football fairly easily...

 

Imagine AAF in Atlanta, Birmingham, Miami, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, St. Louis and San Antonio.  And XFL in Austin, Columbus, Memphis, New York, Oakland, Portland, San Diego and Toronto.  Each one is at least plausible as a market, with no head-to-head overlap and proven fan bases thanks either to the NFL, CFL, USFL, UFL or NCAA.

 

The only thing that sticks out to me, if it is accurate, is that Ebersol and Polian both have said that they have been building this for 2 years, not thrown together after the XFL announced.  I suspect that they have stadium agreements already in place, as well as other staff for each franchise, but they are trying to make a splash with each announcement, Spurrier splash in Orlando, Vick splash in Atlanta.  I would not be surprised if they felt that Rick Neuheisel was not enough of a name to roll out their SoCal team so they are trying to bring in a big NFL name to try to boost the impact of that city announcement.  

[WideRight]

54 minutes ago, BengalErnst said:

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/23313208/michael-vick-offensive-coordinator-alliance-american-football

 

Michael Vick named Offensive Coordinator for the real Alliance league with Brad Childress as the Head Coach

 

That just feels like a gimmick to me.  You don't put a guy with zero coaching background in as an OC (of course, you also don't put a guy with zero government experience as President, but hey, we did.)   I suspect Childress will be the real OC in addition to HC, and Vick will be gone by the end of season one.  They just needed something to get a lot of attention in Atlanta.  Just watch, they will reveal a team in Dallas and name Dez Bryant head coach. 

[dfwabel]

30 minutes ago, WideRight said:

 

The only thing that sticks out to me, if it is accurate, is that Ebersol and Polian both have said that they have been building this for 2 years, not thrown together after the XFL announced.  I suspect that they have stadium agreements already in place, as well as other staff for each franchise, but they are trying to make a splash with each announcement, Spurrier splash in Orlando, Vick splash in Atlanta.  I would not be surprised if they felt that Rick Neuheisel was not enough of a name to roll out their SoCal team so they are trying to bring in a big NFL name to try to boost the impact of that city announcement.  

If Polian and Ebersol had two years of planning, they'd be smart enough not to say that most seats between the 20's would be $35 as they've gone on record. In addition, both wouldn't have stuck their necks out on talking about affordable concession prices as that is not within their control.  Case in point, Georgia State stadium has their Dining Services as the concessionaire, so while their prices are of some value ($2 Coke, $3 water, $6 Bud Light), they won't really make revenue rather, they'll get a credit if thresholds are met. It's  still a gate driven business and since CBSSN isn't a part of Neilsen, it's harder to determine how many households watch you.

[BengalErnst]

52 minutes ago, WideRight said:

 

That just feels like a gimmick to me.  You don't put a guy with zero coaching background in as an OC (of course, you also don't put a guy with zero government experience as President, but hey, we did.)   I suspect Childress will be the real OC in addition to HC, and Vick will be gone by the end of season one.  They just needed something to get a lot of attention in Atlanta.  Just watch, they will reveal a team in Dallas and name Dez Bryant head coach. 

I completely agree, and from reading that article I already believe that Vick is the OC merely by title and purely for name recognition. He won’t be anything more than a practice consultant 

[Mac the Knife]

6 hours ago, WideRight said:

 

The only thing that sticks out to me, if it is accurate, is that Ebersol and Polian both have said that they have been building this for 2 years, not thrown together after the XFL announced.  I suspect that they have stadium agreements already in place, as well as other staff for each franchise, but they are trying to make a splash with each announcement, Spurrier splash in Orlando, Vick splash in Atlanta.  I would not be surprised if they felt that Rick Neuheisel was not enough of a name to roll out their SoCal team so they are trying to bring in a big NFL name to try to boost the impact of that city announcement.  

 

No matter how long they've been planning, they damned well had better have their stadium leases in place and key personnel ready to roll (if not already rolling behind the scenes) behind each market.  They're making huge mistakes doing this 'roll out' of theirs, whether that's the case or not though, particularly when you're less than one year from the day your teams take the field.

 

The biggest mistake of this 'roll out,' announcing cities one at a time, is that with each one they are making the window to sell tickets shorter.  If for instance an AAF team is going into San Antonio and it's to be announced in May, that's an entire month of lost time in lining up local corporate sponsors, selling tickets, and doing all the things behind the scenes you need to do in order to start generating revenue right out of the gate.  And if the only people they have in place in these cities are the head coaches and other 'football names?'  They're going to find themselves behind the proverbial 8-ball in fairly short order.  No matter how centralized your overall operations are, your teams are - at minimum - going to need boots on the ground, selling your product, hard, on day one.  And with each day that 'day one' gets pushed back, it makes it harder for those people to maximize their efforts.

 

If they know their remaining six cities?  They need to announce them.  Tomorrow.  If they don't have at least a skeletal front office staff already in place in each of those eight markets, they need to get one there.  Between now and tomorrow.  Dragging these announcements out for effect seems like a good idea, but if they don't have their **** already together in these markets, ready to start selling tickets, sponsorships and the like?  They're already in trouble and don't realize it.

 

6 hours ago, dfwabel said:

If Polian and Ebersol had two years of planning, they'd be smart enough not to say that most seats between the 20's would be $35 as they've gone on record. In addition, both wouldn't have stuck their necks out on talking about affordable concession prices as that is not within their control.  Case in point, Georgia State stadium has their Dining Services as the concessionaire, so while their prices are of some value ($2 Coke, $3 water, $6 Bud Light), they won't really make revenue rather, they'll get a credit if thresholds are met. It's  still a gate driven business and since CBSSN isn't a part of Neilsen, it's harder to determine how many households watch you.

 

Not necessarily.  Where within these market cities they're placing these teams is important.  They've deliberately picked comparatively smaller to mid-size stadia that are relatively new, but also relatively unoccupied and not in demand.  "Second stadia" within a city.  In Atlanta you think of whatever they replaced the Georgia Dome with (can't think of who they corporate whored the name out to off the top of my head).  In Orlando you think of the Citrus Bowl.  They chose neither, and probably for good reason - because the operators of those stadia were willing to negotiate deals that made their parameters possible.  They might not make a dime on concessions at Georgia State, for example, but they'll be able to hit that $35 price point with ease... and that will draw fans that the Falcons have economically long left behind.

 

It's a sound strategy actually.  I'm not sure it'll work, but it I were developing a new pro football league, how they're addressing securing leases for stadia is pretty much exactly how I'd do it.

[C-Squared]

14 hours ago, JagAaron33 said:

Atlanta is officially an AAF location.  They will play at GSU stadium, formerly Turner Field.

 

https://aaf.com/atlantaalliance

 

Head coach Brad Childress, Offensive Coordinator Michael Vick.

 

A player who famously ignored his coaches becoming one himself... a bold strategy, Cotton.

[Sykotyk]

They're not really 'secondary' stadiums. UCF's stadium is brand new. The Citrus Bowl, which now only hosts a few bowl games and some HS games has nothing else going on now that Orlando City has their stadium and UCF has their stadium. The better deal, probably would've been at the Citrus Bowl. Plus, talk from Orlando City fans was the great thing about the Citrus Bowl was the open tailgate lots meant a great time to hang out before and after games. Unlike the new stadium just a few blocks away.

 

What type of tailgating does UCF"s stadium afford?

 

As for Atlanta. The biggest complaint about the old Turner Field is that it's not near the train lines. I was in Atlanta once and went to a Braves game there. You had to transfer to a bus and go through the underground to get to a shuttle that takes you to the stadium. Playing at Georgia Tech's stadium further uptown probably would do better, as shown by Atlanta United's huge opening showing drew a crowd there.

 

Georgia State Stadium is a quick hack job of Turner FIeld, and though you can 'call it new'... it's not. But, it is smaller than GT and much cheaper and less 'competitive' than playing at the giant metal sphincter.

 

For those saying the AAF is well heeled and been working for years on it. It comes off as shoddy. Just announce all the teams NOW if they really know them. Because you have less than a year before your first TITLE GAME and you only have two cities announced. This is XFL 1.0 failure. So you have flashy coaches. Doesn't mean crap if you're trying to arrange everything in just a few months.

 

They've also chosen a few odd choices. AUFC is brand new and drawing huge numbers in an amazing stadium. Instead, they're going to a compete for the sports dollar in a stadium far from downtown not on a train line, that probably won't be running game-day shuttles, etc. They go to Orlando, to the university rather than the easily accessible with ginormous parking lots even if it is a bit oversized. Maybe they could tap into the fan support you saw with Orlando City before moving to their new stadium that lacks tailgating.

 

 

[BBTV]

On 4/25/2018 at 11:29 AM, CrimsonBull9584 said:

If you read the Alliance's official bio on Vick, along with the Atlanta Journal-Consitutions's reporting, nowhere does it mention Vick's jail time. To me, that just seems like a bit of relevant information that we, the fans, should know. Sure you can argue that we should already know it, but the official bio has a gap between 2001 and 2009 for Vick and to me that's like having a text book about German history and there is a gap between 1938 and 1945. You know what happened, you just think that the should acknowledge it. 

 

German history is real, a Vick bio is marketing.  Not sure why they would even think about mentioning it.  Sports in general isn't serious or "real" in the way history is, and shouldn't be thought of in the same way.  That being said, it strikes me as odd that he'd come back to Atlanta - wasn't he pretty much hated there after all that?

 

16 hours ago, C-Squared said:

A player who famously ignored his coaches becoming one himself... a bold strategy, Cotton.

 

He as totally fine in Philadelphia.  The only advice I recall him ignoring was to slide rather than take hits.  Never struck me as the type to coach though.

[Gothamite]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

German history is real, a Vick bio is marketing.  Not sure why they would even think about mentioning it.  

 

The team, maybe not.  But the press?  They really should.  If he was brought in for his Atlanta history, and it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t, then the press shouldn’t gloss over the most important parts of that history. 

[BBTV]

9 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

The team, maybe not.  But the press?  They really should.  If he was brought in for his Atlanta history, and it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t, then the press shouldn’t gloss over the most important parts of that history. 

 

Im referring to the team’s release. As an independent body, the media can report whatever they think is relevant. I don’t blame the team at all for only mentioning his accomplishments and leaving out info that could impact their ability to attract fans.