AFL … DOESN’T Continue After All
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So … after I said the AFL would continue, and how glad I was for their choice to move on with the 2009 season … come to learn they have, in fact, suspended operations for the 2009 season.
Apparently, several teams (most of them) were going to opt out of the season anyway. I had no idea teams could do that. Maybe the Detroit Lions should consider opting out for the 2009 year. Anyway, they’re not going to play this year, so the Arena Football League will not have a season.
So, they want to reorganize during this time, and that’s fine. But what happens to their reorganized league when they don’t have any revenue generated from the season to operate with? Seems to me this is a recipe for failure, and I’m sorry to say the fate of the 21-year old league seems pretty hazy right now. I mean, if you’re not going to play, you can’t sell tickets and merchandise, right? And if you can’t sell tickets and merchandise you can generate revenue, right? And if you can’t generate revenue, you can’t do things like … oh, I don’t know … rent the hockey rink where you play. Pay your players, coaches, janitors and secretaries. Keep the lights on. Pay the rent on your operations facility. You know. Stuff like that.
So, at this point, do we get ready to bid farewell to what I understood to be a popular, increasingly visible semi-pro league?
I guess we’ll find out.
But as for not updating sooner …My bad. Sorry.
-JDT-
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This is going to make the CFL a more attractive league for players.
Think so? I guess it’s the only real alternative now, at least for next year, for players who don’t get to the NFL from college.
Maybe the new UFL can pick up some of the slack.
IF it stays solvent. I don’t remember when it’s coming online.
There’s a great article at this link discussing how Congress should bail out Lions fans – subtract the $917 million the team is worth from the $9 billion Ford is requesting.
Interesting. I don’t think Ford should be getting anything, but that’s me.
Looks like the CFL’s Grey Cup will have more relevance here in the US with the folding of the AFL? Or maybe it’s still just a footnote in Chris Berman’s plays of the week once a year. I dunno.
Just a footnote still. The CFL just becomes another recruiting/farm league — which it already is — but it only gains more relevance then.