AFL bought NFLE righs

[rams80]

I'd rather the AFL address issues that are more closer to home, such as the instability in Las Vegas, and the massive amount of red ink that other AFL teams seem to be swimming in.

[fkaKrock5cent]

I'd rather the AFL address issues that are more closer to home, such as the instability in Las Vegas, and the massive amount of red ink that other AFL teams seem to be swimming in.

hopefuly this "excitement" will help out the regular afl.

[BB61]

International expansion? Does this mean AFL Europe? Or does this mean Berlin @ Philadelphia and Grand Rapids @ London?

The first one is a great idea. The second one is good -- but it's also expensive. You would have to think that one of the problems that plagued the WLAF was travel costs (even with a ten game schedule -- this is 16 games). I'm all behind Baker doing this, but not until the league is ready to do so. Maybe by 2012 they will be.

The fact that the league is going to hang on to Baker for the next few years is great for all of the "John Elway will ruin things as commissioner" talk. It'll be interesting to see what he does if this happens.

[Mac the Knife]

Well, an article in this week's on-line edition of Sports Business Journal reports that the Arena Football League is set to sign David Baker to a six-year extension as commissioner, with international expansion a key component of the league's growth plan over the next three to five years.

Amongst the info revealed in the article:

* "Much of the contract discussions between the commissioner and the league centered on the AFL's new business plan, with the international component pushed by Baker."

* "Baker said the league has had preliminary discussions with what he characterized as some 'high profile' partners, but he refused to disclose any potential investors."

* "An industry source said league TV partner ESPN, which also holds an equity stake in the AFL, has been involved in preliminary talks about a possible ownership stake in the international growth."

* " 'The strategy is to be [overseas] within the next three to five years,' Baker said."

* "London and Berlin are two potential expansion sites... AEG will have new arenas in both cities, but Baker would not comment on any relationship between the league and AEG."

* " 'We'd also like to get into Mexico,' he said. 'We are in a good position where within the next five years we will definitely have more than one team on international soil.' "

It will very interesting to see where all of this goes. On the one hand, Baker is the person who is really pushing the international expansion idea, a concept that the AFL's owners have yet to officially approve. On the other hand, Baker was apparently very up-front about his desire to pursue international AFL expansion during contract extension negotiations and the owners brought him back... seemingly indicating that they're on-board with the effort.

http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/index...uestTimeout=900

I have a different take on this, specifically that the AFL is a dying product that's trying to hold on by going into markets where it hasn't already been exposed, in hopes that it'll catch on.

Let's look at the AFL's history. Granted its been around for 21 years, but that's not due to franchise stability. It's due to an ongoing, ABA-like nomadic existence - just on a larger scale and without an intent to defraud. The number of cities that at one point or another have had AFL teams is now in the dozens. Expansion every few years at $12 million a crack has kept the coffers from going empty, while a few franchises die every now and then when the losses mount to a point where the team's owners realize that the AFL just isn't as financially viable as they were led to believe.

Having burned through millions and still needing cash to keep things afloat, they then launch AF2, the premise being that it was bringing a minor league equivalent of Arena Football. AF2 was reportedly going to have 100 franchises by this time, but the powers that be in the AFL front office couldn't sell that many - those Americans who would invest in Arena Football as a business were starting to get wise.

So now, it's Europe. Another opportunity for the AFL to keep itself afloat on a wave of expansion fees, paid by poor bastards who don't realize what they're getting themselves into. After Europe it'll be the Pacific Rim... or Russia... or Mars. Who knows.

Sadly, I love the AFL as a game. As a business however, the AFL leaves much to be desired.

[rams80]

I have a different take on this, specifically that the AFL is a dying product that's trying to hold on by going into markets where it hasn't already been exposed, in hopes that it'll catch on.

Let's look at the AFL's history. Granted its been around for 21 years, but that's not due to franchise stability. It's due to an ongoing, ABA-like nomadic existence - just on a larger scale and without an intent to defraud. The number of cities that at one point or another have had AFL teams is now in the dozens. Expansion every few years at $12 million a crack has kept the coffers from going empty, while a few franchises die every now and then when the losses mount to a point where the team's owners realize that the AFL just isn't as financially viable as they were led to believe.

Having burned through millions and still needing cash to keep things afloat, they then launch AF2, the premise being that it was bringing a minor league equivalent of Arena Football. AF2 was reportedly going to have 100 franchises by this time, but the powers that be in the AFL front office couldn't sell that many - those Americans who would invest in Arena Football as a business were starting to get wise.

So now, it's Europe. Another opportunity for the AFL to keep itself afloat on a wave of expansion fees, paid by poor bastards who don't realize what they're getting themselves into. After Europe it'll be the Pacific Rim... or Russia... or Mars. Who knows.

Sadly, I love the AFL as a game. As a business however, the AFL leaves much to be desired.

I have a slightly different take than your take, specifically regards into the af2. The af2's stated purpose as a developmental league is but a secondary or even tertiary goal. It's primary purpose was to jack in needed expansion fees and assorted other franchise fees in order to add capital to the AFL's coffers. It's secondary, and (unacknowledged) purpose was to drive the Indoor Football leagues that were starting to be set up out of business. For example, the IFL had had a reasonably successful first season before the af2 started, while the initial af2 was heavily made up teams from a proposed XFL. In the years subsequent to that, the af2 has cherry picked the best teams and markets from the other leagues in the hope that they would fold, or even gotten teams in other leagues kicked out of their building (Corpus Christi); however once said team joins...they are on there own, the af2 and AFL could care less about what happened (see also, Fort Wayne Fusion). There actually is a reasonable amount of demand in this country for people to own teams, it's just that many owners don't like the loss of autonomy and the rather expensive price structure of the af2. That's why the af2 doesn't have 50 teams, let alone 100.

But yes, Europe is pretty much a desperate attempt to get several juicy $20 million expansion fees jacked into the league coffers.

[Mac the Knife]

I have a slightly different take than your take, specifically regards into the af2. The af2's stated purpose as a developmental league is but a secondary or even tertiary goal. It's primary purpose was to jack in needed expansion fees and assorted other franchise fees in order to add capital to the AFL's coffers. It's secondary, and (unacknowledged) purpose was to drive the Indoor Football leagues that were starting to be set up out of business. For example, the IFL had had a reasonably successful first season before the af2 started, while the initial af2 was heavily made up teams from a proposed XFL. In the years subsequent to that, the af2 has cherry picked the best teams and markets from the other leagues in the hope that they would fold, or even gotten teams in other leagues kicked out of their building (Corpus Christi); however once said team joins...they are on there own, the af2 and AFL could care less about what happened (see also, Fort Wayne Fusion). There actually is a reasonable amount of demand in this country for people to own teams, it's just that many owners don't like the loss of autonomy and the rather expensive price structure of the af2. That's why the af2 doesn't have 50 teams, let alone 100.

But yes, Europe is pretty much a desperate attempt to get several juicy $20 million expansion fees jacked into the league coffers.

True on all points. AF2 was set up in part to maintain the AFL organization's stranglehold on indoor football, which is all well and good I suppose. The AFL collects an annual fee from each AF2 team, which adds a combined $1-2 million.

There's definitely demand for indoor football, and I've historically supported it when teams have been in my area. Unfortunately though the AFL has taken a slower, more methodical slant on the ABA plan; it's just been so slow that most haven't caught on. Just as unfortunate is that the AFL, flush with expansion fees, has overspent itself in most markets, causing teams to fail.

[illwauk]

I do think that arena football makes more sense than 11 man football overseas.

I agree. If indoor soccer has caught on much quicker than the outdoor game in the States, then it'll probably hold true for football in Europe.