Death of the Alliance of American Football

[See Red]

9 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

The focus would've been on the attendance, or lack thereof.

 

You're probably right, but at least the attendance doesn't affect whether or not I'm going to watch these games from my couch and allow myself to get invested in this league (at least while it's on).  Teams trading FGs and throwing INTs every time they get in the red zone does.

[GDAWG]

Waits for local headlines in Phoenix tomorrow being "Hot Shots already play better football than the Cardinals"

[GDAWG]

There will likely be 1000 more Reddit posts on future AAF expansion tomorrow, all of them with asinine ideas like Milwaukee, West Virginia and Idaho. 

[Tracy Jordan]

So far it looks like San Antonio has the strongest fanbase as far attendance goes. We'll see how San Diego, Salt Lake, Memphis and Atlanta fare at home over the next few weeks.

[IceCap]

The quality of the play isn't great but...this is spring football. At the absolute most? It's only ever going to be a compliment to the NFL. Something to hold football fans over during the NFL offseason. And that's totally fine. If the AAF or XFL 2.0 or any of these other startups can make that a sustainable business model? All the power to them.

 

As fans though? No one can realistically expect NFL quality. Which, again, is fine. It doesn't have to be NFL-quality football if it's not aiming to replace the NFL. It just means that people will need to manage expectations.

 

Based off of what I've seen? The AAF is at a good starting point. Assuming the league can stay afloat? I can see the sloppiness getting cleaned up over time.

[Bmac]

How is the quality compared to college football?

[GDAWG]

The attendance for the next Arizona home game is going to be interesting seeing as how spring training is coming up soon. 

[MilSox]

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

There will likely be 1000 more Reddit posts on future AAF expansion tomorrow, all of them with asinine ideas like Milwaukee, West Virginia and Idaho. 

Why is Milwaukee "asinine" for a league like this?  They'd never compare to the Packers, but it's a market that tends to punch well above its weight in support relative to its size.  And even then it's bigger than a few that already have teams in this league.

[PrimalCookie]

5 hours ago, Bmac said:

How is the quality compared to college football?

It’s sloppy, but still very fun to watch IMO.

[Gothamite]

8 hours ago, Sykotyk said:

You equate 'good football' with competitive football. There is a difference. A 40-8 game can be 'good football'. And bad football can be highly competitive.

 

Oh, I fully understand the difference. 

 

The XFL was always bad football.   The “Big Game at the End” had the misfortune of being m both bad football and uncompetitive football, but that doesn’t mean the play in closer games was somehow good. 

[raysox]

6 hours ago, GDAWG said:

The attendance for the next Arizona home game is going to be interesting seeing as how spring training is coming up soon. 

Good point. I was thinking about the comment earlier about “if Arizona was prime time Saturday people would talk about the attendance”. But now I’m realizing it was a school night, which had to have dampened the crowd on campus.

[Skycast]

8 hours ago, GDAWG said:

The attendance for the next Arizona home game is going to be interesting seeing as how spring training is coming up soon. 

 

Out of town spring training crowds may actually be beneficial for attendance. Some may decide to give baseball viewing a break for a few hours and buy a relatively cheap ticket to a football game just out of a sports fan’s curiousity.

[Red Comet]

14 minutes ago, Skycast said:

 

Out of town spring training crowds may actually be beneficial for attendance. Some may decide to give baseball viewing a break for a few hours and buy a relatively cheap ticket to a football game just out of a sports fan’s curiousity.

 

11,751 was the attendance for last night's game against Salt Lake. They do have 3 home games in March (Atlanta, San Antonio and San Diego). So, maybe you have some Rangers/Astros or Padres fans that might come in. And maybe some people that just want to watch a blowout with the Legendarily Bad Atlanta squad.

[dfwabel]

1 hour ago, Skycast said:

 

Out of town spring training crowds may actually be beneficial for attendance. Some may decide to give baseball viewing a break for a few hours and buy a relatively cheap ticket to a football game just out of a sports fan’s curiousity.

Selling 100 more tickets isn't gonna help.

 

The team was announced in May 2018.  Their name was announced in mid-September, and schedule announced in October.  That should be ample time to sell more than 11,000 tickets.  San Antonio was named in June and had even less time, but former Vikings and Spurs owner Red McCombs bought tickets for active duty military families. 

 

Granted, other franchises were named even before them since they didn't roll out all cities at once.  It's clear that these are skeleton sales teams out there who were hired and started very late in the rollup to last weekend.

[GDAWG]

9 hours ago, NicDB said:

Why is Milwaukee "asinine" for a league like this?  They'd never compare to the Packers, but it's a market that tends to punch well above its weight in support relative to its size.  And even then it's bigger than a few that already have teams in this league.

 

I don't live in Milwaukee, so where would a Milwaukee AAF team play?  From everything I have read, the Brewers don't want football played at Miller Park, which automatically eliminates them.  Based on the current venues of the AAF, they are likely to want a stadium of at least 20,000.  Does Milwaukee have that stadium that isn't Miller Park?  The size of the city isn't an issue, it's the lack of a suitable venue and to me that eliminates Milwaukee from any future expansion. 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

 

While I appreciate the elimination of the kickoff in as a means to protect players' health, I wonder if keeping the kickoff only to open the halves might be worthwhile.  Having exactly two kickoffs per game would still be a big improvement over having one after every score.  It is weird to not be able to say "tonight's game kicks off at 8pm". (Though I suppose that saying that is technically still possible, as "to kick off" can be used as a synonym for "to begin", and we say that for an event that has no kickoffs, such as a concert or a party.)

 

In return, perhaps the punt could be eliminated.  On fourth down, teams would have to go for it or attempt a field goal.  (And no returning of short field goals; on any unsuccessful field goal the opposing team would take over at the line of scrimmage.)

[GFB]

Every sport has their “drop the puck / tip-off / first pitch at 7PM” slogan. You can easily replace “Kick-off” with “First Snap” and it sounds just fine. 

 

 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

4 minutes ago, GFB said:

Every sport has their “drop the puck / tip-off / first pitch at 7PM” slogan. You can easily replace “Kick-off” with “First Snap” and it sounds just fine. 

 

Logically I suppose you could.  But it would take a very long time before that turn of phrase would ever enter the language as a normal term.

[MJWalker45]

7 minutes ago, GFB said:

Every sport has their “drop the puck / tip-off / first pitch at 7PM” slogan. You can easily replace “Kick-off” with “First Snap” and it sounds just fine. 

 

 

This is what San Antonio did. Unfortunately I've been driving alone every time I pass the Alamodome so I can't get a picture. 

[GDAWG]

Due to geographical proximity, I am a fan of the San Antonio Commanders.  Also their GM is Daryl Johnston, who was highly underappreciated during his playing days.  He doesn't get enough credit for those Cowboys Super Bowl teams and played a significant role in Emmitt Smith's Hall of Fame career.