Grrr I was hoping this one would work out, but it doesn’t look good.
The optimist in me says they always planned to lose a shitload of money and was banking (heh) on some investors coming in mid-season once they saw how the league looked/felt. That this was a planned effort all along. So I’m going to go with that for now.
Even if it takes them a whole season to lose a quarter billion, it’s still over (and there won’t be an XFL2, either). Where is the increased revenue going to come from to cover that kind of outlay?
Correct me if I’m wrong (and I probably am), but don’t most new businesses lose money in their first few years of existence?
Yeah now that I watched and enjoyed a game I want this league to work. I hope they don’t go bust the first year. 
Yes, but they can survive that if they have, and execute, a business plan for building their revenue to a net positive cash flow before the lenders pull the plug. If this league has such a plan, or that one is even possible, that is not evident.
It’s not uncommon, no. And, the AAF seems to be being run by people who understand the business, so, I would have to imagine that they expected to not be turning a profit right away.
But, what the Post article, and the last-minute addition of a major investor, both suggest is that their initial cash flow wound up being much lower than they had planned.
I think their timing was terrible, starting right after everyone’s appetite for football has been quenched, you’ve had a December of college bowl games, NFL playoffs and college championship in January, Super Bowl in February and then now you want to start play in a minor league? Look, I get that there are some who love football above all but a lot of sports fans are ready for a break.
I watched some of the Australian baseball league once January rolled around, I don’t want to see more baseball right after the World Series.
But when else would they have played? Since their intention is to be AAA NFL, they can’t play during the season (that takes out fall and winter) they also can’t play during training camp (that takes out the summer) the spring is their best bet.
Why wouldn’t weeknights during football season work? When you want some, and it’s a Tuesday or Wednesday, you’re SOL until Thursday Night Football, then Friday HS games and Saturday NCAA, etc. A football league that plays during football season might have a chance, but it just hasn’t been tried.
As it appears, from the little bit of reading that I’ve done, they’ve had several games already that have had poor attendance due, in part, to really lousy weather.
I suspect that they started their season immediately after the Suoer Bowl to take advantage of a (relatively) light sports calendar in February — start in March, and their first few weeks (when they are hoping to build a fan base) get buried by March Madness. An April start is up against the start of the MLB season, etc.
But, February suffers from often-lousy weather, even in the South, as well as Super Bowl hangover. There’s probably no ideal window for them.
League management calls the bailout an “investment” by Tom Dundon. Okay, it may be, but it’s speculative, and it must be a quarter billion he can afford to flush. Anyway, they can now meet payroll, which they couldn’t last week.
In other AAF news, the Orlando Apollos are moving their training site to Georgia due to workers’ comp laws. The league does not have insurance for it.
That sounds bad to me.
That would appear to be true. If the players are making $250,000 over three years, then the total league player payroll should only be about $4 million per game.
Me, a day ago:
I may have spoken too soon. 
My suspicion (I may well be wrong) is that, if they were to play in the fall, while, yes, they could stake out Tuesday or Wednesday as “AAF Night,” they’d also be fighting an uphill battle for attention from football fans at that time of year, who are already following their favorite NFL / college / high school teams at that point.
While it’s true that they wouldn’t necessarily be in direct competition for fan eyeballs on game nights if they played mid-week in the fall, part of their approach / proposition today seems to be providing a desired product (football games) at a time of year in which it isn’t otherwise available.
Sure, it’s possible that there simply is no market niche available for minor-league football above the beer league level. By now, we all ought to know there is none in spring or summer, so I was just suggesting the only one that hasn’t been tried yet.
Good Lord that sucks. The closest Georgia line to us is still like 3 or so hours away.
Hell, you know who the winner of this whole thing will end up being? Vince freakin McMahon. If he’s serious about the XFL then he is sitting back and realizing every mistake AAF is making. Not saying the XFL is going to fair any better, but good lord.
The story here for those who are curious
That’s way too much football. I’d never watch it. I barely watch college as it is, there’s plenty of NFL going on and I get burned out a bit. The AAF gives me a chance to watch football out of season, which is the main reason I watch it.
Will the AAF last more than one season?
Attendance has been close to 30K in San Antonio, 20K or close in Orlando, San Diego, and Birmingham, and in the 10K range elsewhere.