They left their players high and dry.
Injured? On your own,
Players came back to the hotel from practice w/their shit in the lobby and no fare home.
2 players' credit cards have been hit for $ 2500 from that same hotel.
They left their players high and dry.
Injured? On your own,
Players came back to the hotel from practice w/their shit in the lobby and no fare home.
2 players' credit cards have been hit for $ 2500 from that same hotel.
San Francisco crowned the ‘world’s best’ city to live: survey
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/...o-live-survey/
from Dave Meltzer, mostly via the Sports Business Journal.
"Sports Business Journal reported this week that before their first and only season started, that Charlie Ebersol had approached Vince McMahon to look for a merger and McMahon turned him down. The big story of the AAF is that they simply didn’t have the money to do the league, unlike McMahon who has invested several hundred million dollars. They made the decision to rush into the league immediately because they wanted to beat McMahon to the punch when they realized Vince was going to run against them after he decided to do the league after turning down a $50 million offer from them for the rights to the XFL name. How they expected to pay $50 million to use a failed name when they had no money to start the league is beyond me.
According to the story, the AAF was already out of money by mid-December, while having plans to start the league in February. At that point, Reggie Fowler invested $28 million, which was enough to start the season, but when they started, they only had enough money for one week of the season. According to Alex Fairly, who they contracted about insurance, he got the exact amount of capital they had at the start of the season and said it wasn’t even five percent of what they needed to do a season. Tom Dundon then bought the league after the first week since they were out of money, and, with losses of about $10 million per week, after he’d lost $70 million, shut the league down. With them generating very little revenue, Dundon didn’t see anything changing,. Fairly, who now works for the XFL, noted that the XFL has liability insurance and workmen’s compensation, which the AAF didn’t have the money to afford. Fairly said AAF rushed into the league without having the money because of the feeling they had to beat McMahon to the punch. The AAF averaged 556,000 viewers per game, although that number skews high because of the strong first week. It’s logical to assume the XFL will have a big first week and then its numbers depend on what stations it’s on, but getting television itself doesn’t appear to be that difficult since the AAF got CBS, TNT and the NFL Network, the latter of which the XFL almost surely won’t get.
The AAF officially filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing $11.3 million in assets and owing $48.3 million, to Tom Dundon shut it down while leaving $48.3 million in outstanding debt. We were told the players were paid until the last week, but a lot of the vendors hadn’t been paid. The league’s account had $536,160.88 in it when the league was shut down. Those who started the league were against closing it down, but they had lot control to Dundon, who had pledged a $250 million investment to gain control, but obviously gave it up long before losing that kind of money, feeling it was a money pit and there was no turnaround looming."
Curse of the Kap, he could have turned that ship around, wait he could have bought that ship and killed two birds with one stone.
Player/Owner
Think of the African American progress train he missed.
If anything, the AAF shows how dumb generational wealth can be. Imagine Charlie Ebersol going to Vince McMahon and offering him $50 million just for the XFL name, before any of this got off the ground, without even enough money to play into week 2. Had he spent the $50 mil on those 3 letters, they wouldn't have even had a first week, and by asking for the naming rights, he woke up Vince to the idea that a second league was possibly profitable this time, so he created his own future competition (had the league lived long enough to compete).
This is a fun read. Recommended.
Inside the short, unhappy life of the Alliance of American Football
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...rican-football
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