Totally agreed.
Also, a paragraph I’d missed the first time I’d read through the SI article:
“It may have been due diligence on the television front, however, that eventually helped inform Dundon’s decision to shut it all down before his investment reached nine figures. According to a high-level sports exec from one of the four major networks, Dundon called to ask about the Alliance’s TV future. What he learned: While it wouldn’t necessarily always be this way, the AAF would have to continue paying to be on the air for the foreseeable future.”
Read that one again: the AAF was on CBS, TNT, and the NFL Network, but they weren’t making any money from that – in fact, the league was apparently paying for that airtime. Doing so was clearly an investment in the league’s future, by generating visibility and accessibility, but it was also clearly an expense that Dundon decided was too much to continue to bear.