Arena Football League reschedules draft, again...

[dfwabel]

Looks like things aren't as rosy as we were led to believe....

L.A. lost: AFL's Avengers fold after nine seasons

Going to be hard to bring the League back until they have a franchise in LA. They aren't the NFL.

Aw, man, that's disappointing. The Avengers never set the world on fire on the field, but they always came across as a professionally-run organization, and had surprisingly strong fan support - two essentials for a minor-league team, and, perhaps not coincidentally, two traits also found in New Orleans.

Perhaps the only AFL owners left for Kickoff 2010 will be ones with their heads in the clouds.

And now, a moment of silence, and Todd Marinovich.

You placed the photo of Todd, you should have placed a link to the story from Esquire.com too. It is pretty well written about Todd's problems and the backstory which most of us never knew.

As far as the Avengers, I think there will be at least 2 other teams deciding not to play in 2010 between now and Halloween.

[Brian in Boston]

Does it say anything about the NFLs hopes to get football back in LA when the arena team folds>? Or am I reading to much into that?

You are. The existence or lack thereof of the Avengers is independent of the NFL's designs on the market.

Avengers owner Casey Wasserman has made no secret of his desire to be part of an ownership group that successfully brings an NFL franchise to Los Angeles. In fact, he made his first foray into professional sports ownership via the Avengers so as to establish a presence on the ownership front of the Greater Los Angeles sports scene. The presence of NFL owners amongst the Arena Football League's ownership roster provided Mr. Wasserman with valuable opportunities to network with said gentlemen.

Further, Mr. Wasserman's marketing firm has been hired by the San Diego Chargers organization to help said NFL franchise increase its profile in the Los Angeles marketplace. The Spanos family would have you believe that said move is nothing more than an attempt to sell Los Angeles residents tickets to the games of a San Diego-based NFL franchise. Still, marketing efforts on behalf of the Chargers in Los Angeles could also be the initial step in a Spanos family effort to relocate their franchise to a new stadium in Greater LA... let's say, Ed Roski's proposed facility in City of Industry, California.

When the dust settles on the NFL's return to Los Angeles, whether via relocation or expansion, you can bet that Casey Wasserman will be involved in some way, shape or form. Unloading a franchise in the increasingly unstable Arena Football League would certainly allow Mr. Wasserman to focus his efforts - and resources - on playing a role in obtaining an NFL franchise for LA.

[Gothamite]

When the dust settles on the NFL's return to Los Angeles, whether via relocation or expansion, you can bet that Casey Wasserman will be involved in some way, shape or form. Unloading a franchise in the increasingly unstable Arena Football League would certainly allow Mr. Wasserman to focus his efforts - and resources - on playing a role in obtaining an NFL franchise for LA.

I'm not disagreeing. But at the moment, his decision to get out of the Arena League says more about the Arena League than it does any efforts to get an NFL team in Los Angeles.

[aerodynamix]

In the wake of all of this...I'm still pleased that the AF2's still running decently.

[Geoff]

Why wouldn't it be? It's a seperate legal entity and the AFL is only a part owner of the af2.

[aerodynamix]

Good deal. Plus, I believe the budget to run an AF2 franchise is much smaller than the big-league Arenaball team, isn't it?

[CubsFanBudMan]

I was really disappointed to see this (late). Although I was only in L.A. for the Avengers inaugural season, I got seventh row season tickets in the Staples Center really cheap and went to every game. I remained loyal even though I only saw them win one game ever, including three painful losses here in Chicago (one playoff, one record-setting).

I also went to many of my hometown Quad-City Steamwheelers games that year, which was also their first. I had waited so long hoping an AFL team would come, I really went out of my way to support the AF2 when it arrived in the QC, even though I had just moved away.

The funny thing is with the AFL gone this year I was looking at the Steamwheelers schedule to see where they traveled and several teams look like the ones from the AFL I loved -- before the rules changes, before the big-market push, etc. the $250 a game (!) -- and now the Steamwheelers are in it... along with Iowa, Albany, Milwaukee. So I made plans to see them play in Milwaukee in June just last week. Can't wait. Then I heard this.

I really hope the AFL makes it -- had the NFL deal gone through I think they would have. Now, as others have said, those owners look likely to bail. At one point the arena capacity and national ratings on NBC were comparable to the NHL (when it was admittedly down). I thought maybe they could carve out a bigger niche as a major-market minor sport, which seems to be what they wanted. But if not, I'm glad the AF2 remains stable... and possibly the true heir to the Arena League.

And next time I go to a Chicago Rush game I guess I can actually root for them. Sorry for the late vent, but when I heard the news I knew there was a core group of Arena fans here that would get it.

[dfwabel]

Possibly now looking at 2011. Ditka is also quoted in this Sun-Times story.

Chicago Rush Ownership Comments on League Status

Rush owner Alan Levin isn't just skeptical the AFL will resume for the 2010 season -- he's against it.

''It's too late to commit to a 2010 season because we don't have enough time to properly prepare,'' Levin said. ''Especially for my market. I have too much respect for a big, sophisticated market like Chicago. None of the teams have a staff or an office anymore. Nobody has any players or coaches under contract, and we don't even have an interim commissioner anymore. Our problems have started with bad leadership from the commissioner on down. Now, we're just a bunch of owners still working to develop a strong economic plan to attract investors and partners.

[Mac the Knife]

They're toast. Period.

[Bleujayone]

At this point I think it would make more business sense for the remaining AFL teams to merge into the AF2 rename that league the AFL and have the bigger market teams run on the smaller budgets that the AF2 already does.

Arena football is a niche sport. They are not a top tier sport even after 20 years. After this latest debacle its unlikely despite their best efforts to go big, they ever will. At best they are a distraction to pass time while waiting for other sports to get underway. They might have a few teams with a large following (such as Tamps, Orlando, and Arizona) but in the end they are always going to be second rate compared to other sports. The longer the stay out of the public eye, the harder it will be to return. Sports fans will fine other things to fill their time with, other sports, other leagues, and other forms of entertainment. And by the time the AFL comes back (if it ever does) there will be fewer people remaining to attract.

The sound you're hearing is the whimper the Arena Football League is going out on.

[CubsFanBudMan]

This is sad to read, but following up on my previous pro-af2 post and Bluejayone's idea, if longtime AFL markets like Orlando, Tampa Bay, Arizona, Grand Rapids and San Jose could find it in their hearts to believe in their fanbases' abilities to swallow a step down (like Iowa, Milwaukee and Albany) and merge with af2 (lower ticket prices would help), it really wouldn't look that much different than AFL circa 1998:

1998 AFL standings

For me, those were the good ol' days before the AFL tried to become major and switch to only big markets, pay millions in salaries, recruit NFL owners (or even become the rumored NFL Indoors), stopped players from playing both ways, shifted the entire schedule for TV, and sold their souls (ahem) to Jon Bon Jovi and John Elway.

A few more teams (and painfully low $200-250/week salaries), but it would be keeping the sport alive. Of course, the af2 is doing that right now, and maybe bringing those markets back in would just start the process all over again. There was a window in which it seemed arena football might become major -- and I've seen people argue on ESPN that at its peak it exceeded the NHL -- but that passed and I think it needs to go back to its roots if it wants to survive. The big markets are bailing... let them go. Forget TV contracts and focus on filling the arena as they have in the past. Embrace your place as a niche sport.

[BB61]

Y'know, I really don't care what shape or size the league comes back in. I just want to be able to go to Soul games again.

[DustDevil61]

Coming from a Blaze fan, it seems that David Baker knew what was coming and bailed. Franchise fee at $1.5 mil, payroll at $2 mil? No wonder so many teams, Utah included, haven't made any money, and may never will. Though nowhere as bad, Mr. Baker pulled a Joe Newman (ABA 2000) of sorts, getting rich off of franchise fees, regardless of what does (and does not) stick to the wall.

[Mac the Knife]

I don't think it was Baker's fault that the franchise fees and what-not escalated nearly as much as it was the owners themselves. As I said was the case here many times prior to them going under, the AFL's ownership was caught in a vicious cycle: teams lose money, vote to expand in order to bring in expansion money, then lose some more money. Profitability was always "just around the corner," but could never quite be achieved, and I predicted years ago that when the supply of suckers lined up to pay $12 million and up for an expansion franchise dried up, so would the AFL.

The AFL could have worked had some owners, somewhere (earlier, like around 1998-2003) along the line, decided that for the long-term viability of the sport they were going to take a short-term hit with regard to profitability and the value of their franchises. Instead they used expansion money to pay off losses, and rather than learn the lesson from that and make their operations run more efficiently, they simply continued the cycle.