Death of the Alliance of American Football

[walkerws]

With the draft in Vegas, that might have had an impact as well. The first few years should have been at the top seeds anyway, in my opinion. Long term, if they become the official feeder league, I could see this as a Sunday game to close out the draft festivities. 

[Sykotyk]

The problem is, same as the AFL had, you'd need to book eight stadiums for the same day because the CBS broadcast is already set. This is what necessitates the neutral site booked in advance. But they don't want to favor one of the two teams if the host makes it. So it's elsewhere. 

 

As for the Star, it's because Jerry Jones has tried to find anything to play there. Frisco ISD already plays their 8 teams there and Toyota Stadium, and many playoff games there. A couple years ago the Geico Bowl was there. 

 

It's a great venue, just small. 

[Cosmic]

Maybe the Frisco thing is a trial balloon for one of the (probably should be) relocated franchises? Although, a 12,000 seat stadium is aiming pretty low, even for the AAF. Maybe Jerry just gave them free rent for one game.

[Sykotyk]

Just now, Cosmic said:

Maybe the Frisco thing is a trial balloon for one of the (probably should be) relocated franchises? Although, a 12,000 seat stadium is aiming pretty low, even for the AAF. Maybe Jerry just gave them free rent for one game.

Jerry Jones has at least shown some novelty for the AAF. Putting a team in Frisco and having him run/profit from it might work. Plus, I doubt he particularly likes the XFL setting up shop down the street from AT&T Stadium. 

[GDAWG]

4 minutes ago, Cosmic said:

Maybe the Frisco thing is a trial balloon for one of the (probably should be) relocated franchises? Although, a 12,000 seat stadium is aiming pretty low, even for the AAF. Maybe Jerry just gave them free rent for one game.

 

The last thing DFW needs is yet another pro sports team in an already oversaturated market.  We don't need anymore pro sports teams.  We have all of the Big 4, MLS, WNBA, 6 colleges, a bunch of high schools, an XFL team coming soon.  We don't need anymore teams.  Among the pro teams, the Big 4 get the most coverage, followed by FC Dallas, who get some coverage.  The WNBA team gets zero coverage in the local market.  Heck, when the WNBA Dallas Wings hired Brian Agler as their new coach, it got zero media coverage.  Instead, it was Cowboys, Rangers, Mavericks, Stars and a little blurb about FC Dallas.

 

We don't need anymore teams. 

[dfwabel]

3 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

AAF just moved the championship game from Las Vegas to Frisco, Texas. But please, continue to tell me how I shouldn't believe my lying eyes.

They had a two-year agreement with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.  I wonder how much it cost them (if anything) to break that contract.

[dfwabel]

51 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

I actually think this is a positive.  It shows a little more cooperation from the NFL.

It could also assist Vince with an anti-trust violation.

[Sec19Row53]

58 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

It could also assist Vince with an anti-trust violation.

Maybe the cooperation becomes an investment, in which case anti-trust (I believe) is out the window.

[dfwabel]

15 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Maybe the cooperation becomes an investment, in which case anti-trust (I believe) is out the window.

For now, Jerry is obviously looking at the tech side and possibly the gambling element.   But the gambling side has multiple issues:

 

AAF has investment MGM, while the NFL is with Caesars.  To make it, even more, murkier, the Cowboys have an agreement with the Chickasaw Nation's WinStar Casinos.

Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft also have equity in DraftKings.

[4_tattoos]

The move to Frisco was surprising given the fact they already announced Vegas earlier in the season. Guess I understand why it was chosen though. Just can't help but to think having it in San Antonio would have drawn well.

 

SN: Judging by complaints on the AAF's facebook page, many AAF fans already booked trips to Vegas for the championship. They're not too happy, but there's lots of other stuff they can do in Vegas. Not a total loss (unless they hit the casinos and lose badly).

[dfwabel]

32 minutes ago, 4_tattoos said:

The move to Frisco was surprising given the fact they already announced Vegas earlier in the season. Guess I understand why it was chosen though. Just can't help but to think having it in San Antonio would have drawn well.

 

SN: Judging by complaints on the AAF's facebook page, many AAF fans already booked trips to Vegas for the championship. They're not too happy, but there's lots of other stuff they can do in Vegas. Not a total loss (unless they hit the casinos and lose badly).

They still have appeared to break a contract.

 

Sam Boyd Stadium and Las Vegas host the Supercross Finale the weekend after and Canelo is fighting at T-Mobile Arena...I think they'll manage. 

 

There's no guarantee that San Antonio plays in it.  They have ticket refunds and there really is a likelihood that most people were flying into LAS on Southwest, but there is no change fee, and all of the eight AAF cities have nonstop flights to Love Field.  While Sam Boyd Stadium is a drive from The Strip, you only need a car to get there.   Frisco and Collin County is an outpost only accessible via car.  

[Pauly]

Wow. Don't know what to make of moving the title game unless the AAF realizes they would of only drawn 15,000 in Vegas so they made the move. For the AAF to survive they're going to need a cash infusion in year 2. Where that comes from is anyone's guess.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

("...would *OF * only drawn..."?!?!)

 

The game would have drawn nothing in Las Vegas. It would have been an embarrassment. The league is lucky to have been given a chance to get out of there and into a more appropriately sized stadium.

[dfwabel]

1 hour ago, Pauly said:

Wow. Don't know what to make of moving the title game unless the AAF realizes they would of only drawn 15,000 in Vegas so they made the move. For the AAF to survive they're going to need a cash infusion in year 2. Where that comes from is anyone's guess.

They fire two team execs and that apparently goes under your radar?  No comments from neither Ebersol nor Polian, two men who hired those cats

 

Dude, it's not the "Arab Spring", but this seems to be the "Dundon Spring".

 

EDIT:  I wouldn't be surprised that the Birmingham execs were fired/dismissed/asked to resign because of two stories in the last five days.

Story 1: Team President was interview by USA Today

Story 2: Iron VP of Marketing was the focus of Birmingham's WBHM

 

From the WBHM story:

Quote

It’s almost become a tradition for football fans in the Magic City. Every few years, yet another professional football league comes to Legion Field, with aspirations to bring some semblance of high-level gridiron action to The Old Gray Lady on Graymont.

 

“There’s a majority of people we’ve talked to who have lived in Birmingham through the last couple of professional teams that this (the AAF’s viability) is the first thing they want to know about, and we understand that,” Campbell said. “We think we’ve got a product on the field, and once they see that product, they will continue to come back. … A lot of folks are skeptical, but a lot are interested just because they love football. Birmingham’s one of the top-rated television markets for sports in the entire country.”

 

The Iron has done well in their first two games, both of which were played at Legion Field. A shutout over the Memphis Express in the inaugural game and a come-from-behind victory over the Salt Lake Stallions were both watched by crowds of just more than 17,000, though the accuracy of that number is in question. Team representatives have said that gate scanners failed to register many tickets and the likely crowd counts were estimated at 21,000 or more.

 

 

Failed scanners?  Those crowds looked more like they let anyone within 500 feet in to make the audience look as big as possible.

Quote

 

Campbell said that corporate sponsors are just now getting on board, mainly because of how quickly the Alliance has fired up. “We didn’t really begin operations until the fourth quarter (of 2018), and most businesses had already made their plans for the first and second quarters of this year.”

 

Again, as I said on the last page, why should a new City X have a different result if the local staff is not in the city attempting to get sponsors until the late fall or winter?   Ebersol named Birmingham as a city on June 4, 2018.

[dfwabel]

FYI, on March 20, 2018, Charlie Ebersol formally announced the AAF.

 

Wow, how much has changed. 

His Birmingham execs have been fired, Salt Lake, Birmingham, Tempe and Memphis cannot draw squat plus Buy 2...Get 2 is their latest ply to have folks attend spring football, an event which the market illustrates there is not a market for to cover expenses.  

[Red Wolf]

The AAF moving to the site of Conference USA's basketball tournament sure is something.

[MJWalker45]

18 hours ago, dfwabel said:

FYI, on March 20, 2018, Charlie Ebersol formally announced the AAF.

 

I'm actually surprised none of the teams took the designs used here for their own. Thank goodness the large logo on the front didn't happen.

20 hours ago, Pauly said:

Wow. Don't know what to make of moving the title game unless the AAF realizes they would of only drawn 15,000 in Vegas so they made the move. For the AAF to survive they're going to need a cash infusion in year 2. Where that comes from is anyone's guess.

 

21 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

The move to Frisco was surprising given the fact they already announced Vegas earlier in the season. Guess I understand why it was chosen though. Just can't help but to think having it in San Antonio would have drawn well.

 

SN: Judging by complaints on the AAF's facebook page, many AAF fans already booked trips to Vegas for the championship. They're not too happy, but there's lots of other stuff they can do in Vegas. Not a total loss (unless they hit the casinos and lose badly).

That's why you don't move a game unless the stadium has an issue that can't be corrected immediately. The cameramen have gotten pretty good at avoiding showing empty seats this year, just go ahead with the game in Las Vegas and call it a day. They needed to trust the fans to be willing to make the trip. Now the championship game will look like the NFL Europe games that used extremely small stadiums to look better on TV. 

 

On 3/20/2019 at 5:53 PM, walkerws said:

With the draft in Vegas, that might have had an impact as well. The first few years should have been at the top seeds anyway, in my opinion. Long term, if they become the official feeder league, I could see this as a Sunday game to close out the draft festivities. 

The draft is in Nashville this year, so no reason for that to affect this game. 

[NYC Cosmos]

17 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

I'm actually surprised none of the teams took the designs used here for their own. Thank goodness the large logo on the front didn't happen.

 

That's why you don't move a game unless the stadium has an issue that can't be corrected immediately. The cameramen have gotten pretty good at avoiding showing empty seats this year, just go ahead with the game in Las Vegas and call it a day. They needed to trust the fans to be willing to make the trip. Now the championship game will look like the NFL Europe games that used extremely small stadiums to look better on TV. 

 

The draft is in Nashville this year, so no reason for that to affect this game. 

Extremely small stadiums? I beg to differ. Look up the capacities for the stadia that Amsterdam, Frankfurt, the Rhein Fire, Koln and Hamburg played in. Berlin either began or ended with a smaller venue (I can't remember.)

[MJWalker45]

12 minutes ago, NYC Cosmos said:

Extremely small stadiums? I beg to differ. Look up the capacities for the stadia that Amsterdam, Frankfurt, the Rhein Fire, Koln and Hamburg played in. Berlin either began or ended with a smaller venue (I can't remember.)

Moreso London and Scotland who would rope off big sections and place everyone on one side, and Barcelona who went from Montjuic to Minestadi which has only 15,000 seats. The German clubs tended to have bigger audiences but that wasn't enough to keep the league running.

[4_tattoos]

6 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

Moreso London and Scotland who would rope off big sections and place everyone on one side, and Barcelona who went from Montjuic to Minestadi which has only 15,000 seats. The German clubs tended to have bigger audiences but that wasn't enough to keep the league running.

Not going to lie. Watching AAF has made me wonder how it would have turned out if NFL Europe was a stateside league instead of overseas. From my recollection most people were satisfied with the quality of play in NFL Europe. Would the football fans of San Antonio, Memphis, Birmingham, Orlando, etc have accepted official minor league status back then?