Death of the Alliance of American Football

[Gothamite]

38 minutes ago, hugevolsfan said:

I think what the AAF showed is that people will watch football especially if it is well coached with decent players & the XFL has started off with some good coaches & will probably poach a few from the AAF now. Networks are now paying stupid money for live entertainment so knowing Vince with all of his connections he will get a decent TV deal.

 

I wouldn’t discount how much of that audience was watching for the novelty.  Even the news that they were in danger of not making payroll until Dundon bought the league was good for boosting the curiosity watchers.  

 

Don’t forget that the XFL’s initial ratings were also pretty good before people realized what they were watching. 

[AgentColon2]

The world keeps chugging out spring leagues and the NFL keeps standing.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

42 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

I wouldn’t discount how much of that audience was watching for the novelty.  Even the news that they were in danger of not making payroll until Dundon bought the league was good for boosting the curiosity watchers.  

 

Don’t forget that the XFL’s initial ratings were also pretty good before people realized what they were watching. 

 

The XFL's ratings started out great, and then immediately plummetted. Whereas, the AAF's ratings started out modest, and remained steady.

 

This suggests that people were actually interested as sports fans. And there were plenty of compelling stories in the AAF: Trent Richardson, Luis Perez, Garrett Gilbert, Steve Spurrier.

 

Also, the AAF's broadcasts were uniformly excellent. Every announcing team had tremendous chemistry, and brought a great combination of informative analysis and entertaining anecdotes.

 

Also, the production was superb, featuring the introduction of innovative camera angles thanks to the sky cam. They also figured out a way to promote the continued watching of the screen during commercials, by splitting the screen and keeping one half of the screen on the field.

 

Finally, the AAF took on board an innovation created by the Arena Football League, in that it let the viewers in on the replay official's review and decision. (Though the Arena League had no separate replay official, but, rather, had the referee look at the replay and make a ruling.)

 

One thing that the XFL in 2001 and the AAF this year had in common is that the games got a lot better as the season went on. But, as noted, most of the XFL's initial viewers had already tuned out, and so never saw the improvement. At least the AAF's viewers got to experience the rise in quality of play, and got to enjoy several competitive and entertaining games.

 

It now remains to be seen whether this league will leave a legacy of rules reform in the NFL, just as did the USFL (the 2-point conversion) and the WFL (the goalposts in the back of the endzone) before it. One NFL team has already gone on record as being in favour of adopting the AAF's onside conversion in place of the onside kick.

[neo_prankster]

18 minutes ago, AgentColon2 said:

The world keeps chugging out spring leagues and the NFL keeps standing.

 

Yeah, but it's frustrating that nothing ever stays long enough to take the NFL down a peg or two. Something's gotta give!!!

[Red Comet]

5 minutes ago, neo_prankster said:

 

Yeah, but it's frustrating that nothing ever stays long enough to take the NFL down a peg or two. Something's gotta give!!!

 

Goodell is doing a good enough job by himself. 

[dfwabel]

7 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

The XFL's ratings started out great, and then immediately plummetted. Whereas, the AAF's ratings started out modest, and remained steady.

 

This suggests that people were actually interested as sports fans. And there were plenty of compelling stories in the AAF: Trent Richardson, Luis Perez, Garrett Gilbert, Steve Spurrier.

 

Also, the AAF's broadcasts were uniformly excellent. Every announcing team had tremendous chemistry, and brought a great combination of informative analysis and entertaining anecdotes.

 

 

You never watched a game called by Mark Malone.

 

As for the players, Trent Richardson averaged 2.9 YPC, Luiz Perez didn't throw a TD in his first 16 quarters, Gilbert was the best of all the offensive players since it seemed his WR could actually catch the ball.

[Red Comet]

12 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

The XFL's ratings started out great, and then immediately plummetted. Whereas, the AAF's ratings started out modest, and remained steady.

 

This suggests that people were actually interested as sports fans. And there were plenty of compelling stories in the AAF: Trent Richardson, Luis Perez, Garrett Gilbert, Steve Spurrier.

 

Also, the AAF's broadcasts were uniformly excellent. Every announcing team had tremendous chemistry, and brought a great combination of informative analysis and entertaining anecdotes.

 

Also, the production was superb, featuring the introduction of innovative camera angles thanks to the sky cam. They also figured out a way to promote the continued watching of the screen during commercials, by splitting the screen and keeping one half of the screen on the field.

 

Finally, the AAF took on board an innovation created by the Arena Football League, in that it let the viewers in on the replay official's review and decision. (Though the Arena League had no separate replay official, but, rather, had the referee look at the replay and make a ruling.)

 

One thing that the XFL in 2001 and the AAF this year had in common is that the games got a lot better as the season went on. But, as noted, most of the XFL's initial viewers had already tuned out, and so never saw the improvement. At least the AAF's viewers got to experience the rise in quality of play, and got to enjoy several competitive and entertaining games.

 

It now remains to be seen whether this league will leave a legacy of rules reform in the NFL, just as did the USFL (the 2-point conversion) and the WFL (the goalposts in the back of the endzone) before it. One NFL team has already gone on record as being in favour of adopting the AAF's onside conversion in place of the onside kick.

 

April Fool's Day was yesterday and I'd rather stab my ears with an ice pick versus hearing Adam Archuleta again.

[GDAWG]

the announcers were not great

[Red Wolf]

28 minutes ago, neo_prankster said:

 

Yeah, but it's frustrating that nothing ever stays long enough to take the NFL down a peg or two. Something's gotta give!!!

 

Something does give. Usually called things like the XFL, USFL, or AAF.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

14 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

You never watched a game called by Mark Malone.

 

12 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

April Fool's Day was yesterday and I'd rather stab my ears with an ice pick versus hearing Adam Archuleta again.

 

Both Malone and Archuleta did superb jobs. I particularly liked how Arch explained in detail every time he disagreed with an official's call.

 

But I was most impressed with the analysis from Maurice Jones-Drew and Marvin Lewis. Each of those guys was poised and smooth, and did a fine job of teaching. And when they were together, they had great chemistry, and added a lot of humour.

 

2 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

the announcers were not great

 

I disagree entirely. I would say that the standard of announcing on the AAF's games was nothing short of outstanding.

 

[IceCap]

35 minutes ago, neo_prankster said:

Yeah, but it's frustrating that nothing ever stays long enough to take the NFL down a peg or two. Something's gotta give!!!

Except the AAF never wanted to take the NFL down a peg. Even if it had succeeded in establishing itself? It was never going to challenge the NFL's dominance. Hell, the best-case scenario for the AAF was becoming a cog in the NFL's machine.

[PrimalCookie]

4 hours ago, neo_prankster said:

 

Would Orlando prefer if the Bucs pulled up stakes and moved to their town?

...no. It wouldn't be worth the hassle (especially because we just recently renovated the Citrus Bowl with taxpayer money, and Bucs would probably want a new stadium). Plus, people here are either implants from up north - with their own allegiances - or just bandwagon between the best of the Florida teams. Right now the city is majority Jaguars, but I guarantee that will change if/when the Bucs or Dolphins become the best team in the state.

[dfwabel]

FWIW, note this part of the message.

Quote

“As part of this process, we expect to keep a small staff on hand to seek new investment capital and restructure our business.”

 

[GDAWG]

 

[DCarp1231]

4 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

Came here to post this. Pathetic act from the league all around.

[Quillz]

4 hours ago, Pauly said:

If Dundon lost $70 million in 7 weeks just Wow.

Even Scott Storch (a musician turned slimy record producer) managed to go 3 months before blowing $70 million. But losing $10 milion a week... Is that a new record?

[Quillz]

2 hours ago, AgentColon2 said:

The world keeps chugging out spring leagues and the NFL keeps standing.

Which I think continues to prove despite all the "I hate the NFL" talk some people make, at the end of the day, it produces a product people want to watch. What's the point of even putting loyalty into something like the AAF or XFL when odds are it won't even make it past the first season?

[Cosmic]

12 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

Are any players actually traveling with the teams right now, though? If a player is playing for San Antonio, I wouldn't expect the team to pay for an airplane ticket from San Antonio to Idaho or wherever the guy is from. If the players were traveling for work and were left stranded, then that's extremely shameful. I was going to post yesterday that you can tell a lot about a company by the way it goes out of business. If they left players stranded, it's eerily reminiscent of the Arrow Trucking debacle that left hundreds of truckers stranded across the country right before Christmas.

[dfwabel]

3 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

But the assets of that LLC have to be disposed of properly.  He can’t hold on to things of value, like the app, if his LLC’s creditors are going unpaid.  

There are a few companies apart of this.

 

Legendary Field Exhibitions, LLC (d/b/a The Alliance of American Football, the league itself)

AAF Properties, LLC (That's the app and production, its "NFL Films" and "NFL Properties" so to speak

Ebersol Sports Media Group

 

Then there's anything which Dundon may have formed in the last seven weeks

[dfwabel]

20 minutes ago, Cosmic said:

Are any players actually traveling with the teams right now, though? If a player is playing for San Antonio, I wouldn't expect the team to pay for an airplane ticket from San Antonio to Idaho or wherever the guy is from. If the players were traveling for work and were left stranded, then that's extremely shameful. I was going to post yesterday that you can tell a lot about a company by the way it goes out of business. If they left players stranded, it's eerily reminiscent of the Arrow Trucking debacle that left hundreds of truckers stranded across the country right before Christmas.

 

They were flown to San Antonio* for training camps by the league, then flown to their respective cities from the joint training camp(s).

 

*-Those not within driving distance.