AAFL – Other American Football League
With the growing anticipation surrounding the new AAFL, is the United States ready for another football league? Tea All American football league he thinks so.
What is?
Football by any other name. The AAFL hopes to attract soccer fans who need an outlet for professional soccer in the NFL offseason.
What is the attraction?
In addition to a spring and early summer season, the AAFL is partnering with colleges known for soccer to attract college football fans in their offseason. This is critical to your approach because you intend to recruit players from those colleges. The idea is that if you followed a player’s college career closely and are now playing for the AAFL, you will want to pursue your professional career as well. Alumni of each university and the local fan base will be offered ticket packages and other benefits.
Where will the teams be located?
So far Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas.
Trials have already been conducted for Arkansas, Alabama, Florida and Michigan and depending on their source, some players have already been signed by teams. A regular season and playoff schedule are already in place, though again, depending on your source, not all venues for the games have been finalized. Sites expected to host at least one game include Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL, War Memorial Field in Little Rock, AR, and Ford Field in Detroit, MI.
Is there anyone you know associated with the league?
Although the league commissioner and operations executives have yet to be hired, the chairman of the Board of Managers is Cedric Dempsey, former president of the NCAA. There is also representation from former university presidents and university system presidents, as well as Jack Lengyel, better known as the character played by Matthew McConaughey in We Are Marshall.
Wait, no football in the NFL offseason?
Arena League Football (AFL) runs from March to June. NFL Europe has retired. The Canadian Football League (CFL) runs roughly from late June through November.
It will work?
Many leagues have passed. The problem is that it costs a lot to run and maintain a soccer league. There are player and executive salaries, stadium leases, and television contracts just for starters. The AAFL is a for-profit league and if it can’t operate for profit, it won’t stay around for long. It is worth noting that the AAFL will not benefit from concession sales as some professional teams do to increase their profits because the concessions at the games will be operated by and for the host stadium. For what it’s worth, the beer won’t be available.
Another hurdle the league faces is keeping costs down for fans. Ticket prices for professional sports are a big detour, and the AAFL will have to find a way to keep ticket prices affordable and attractive. Ticket prices have been announced to be around $ 13 and there will be a huge push for locals to buy “memberships”, giving them special perks like VIP parking and special out-of-town game screenings.
The AAFL has said it will televise the games nationally, but there is national television coverage and then there is national television. Ask the NHL who is actually buried on Versus, a channel most people have never heard of.
The league can get a big boost if the quality of the game is high. So you have a good chance of getting through the first season.
The real question is whether the AAFL model can work by staying local, and if it even needs the support of a national fan base. And you might also wonder, why bother at all? Is there really a void in the football world that a new league serves? The AAFL thinks so. If not, it will be just another soccer league that comes and goes in the blink of an eye.