Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

JWL wrote:If this league doesn't make it to a second season even with the NFL supporting it in some way, then I think the XFL has to be insanely creative rules-wise and/or play in the fall if they want to have a league that can last.

Yeah even though football is easily the most popular sport and has a huge number of fans at the same time though I don't think there is a whole lot of people that have a desire for football to last year round. I think most are ready for a break from the sport for awhile by the time the nfl and college seasons end. People are getting excited about March Madness, the NBA playoffs, and the start of the MLB season this time of year. They aren't getting excited over a pro football league that has players not good enough to play in the nfl and some who probably wouldn't even start for a top 20 college football team.

Mark L. Ford wrote:

TodMaher wrote: I'm not sure what people are expecting - a league full of Tom Bradys? It's a AAA minor league it's not the NFL. Unless you get a group of super rich people willing to risk real money (NFL-type money) on a rival league this is what you're going to get.

Incredibly, they found a super rich person willing to risk NFL-type money.

The MINIMUM NFL player salary cap is projected to be $187 per team in 2019. That $250 million is for eight teams - $33 million per - and its for other things besides player salaries and I doubt if he's going through much away every year.
Tom Brady makes $14 million a year - maybe the AAF can offer him $15?

Average game attendance started near 20,000 week 1 and now it’s down to less than 10,000.

https://www.nfldraftdiamonds.com/2019/0 ... ndance-15/

The attendance after Week 1 is understandable. What will be interesting is the attendance numbers late in the season when the weather is better.

JWL wrote:The attendance after Week 1 is understandable. What will be interesting is the attendance numbers late in the season when the weather is better.

We will have major league baseball starting up and March Madness will be going on. Outside of the people who strictly live and breathe football which form of sports entertainment do you think most will choose?

lastcat3 wrote:

JWL wrote:The attendance after Week 1 is understandable. What will be interesting is the attendance numbers late in the season when the weather is better.

We will have major league baseball starting up and March Madness will be going on. Outside of the people who strictly live and breathe football which form of sports entertainment do you think most will choose?

Well, to be fair only San Diego, Phoenix and Atlanta have MLB teams among the 8 AAF sites, but I don't think attendance or the tv ratings will improve. Remember the WLAF and the XFL: most of the players are unknown to the general public.

Looks like the league may be folding

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2 ... 287922002/


Same guy that gave the 250 million donation said that this very likely will be the only season the league plays unless the NFL starts loaning their young talent to them. And we know that isn't going to happen.

Think this is just a way to pass the blame of a failed project onto someone else. The league's ratings have declined enough to where they are now having to brag about beating out NIT games (a tournament that the only people that watch are the fans of the teams that are playing) and I'm sure attendance is continuing to decline as well.

lastcat3 wrote:Think this is just a way to pass the blame of a failed project onto someone else. The league's ratings have declined enough to where they are now having to brag about beating out NIT games (a tournament that the only people that watch are the fans of the teams that are playing) and I'm sure attendance is continuing to decline as well.

I didn't even know the NIT still existed!

rhickok1109 wrote: I didn't even know the NIT still existed!

I'm surprised too, since it's for teams other than the 68 that got picked for March Madness-- the winner gets the right to say, "We were the 69th best in the nation!"

Sort of like an NFL team saying, "We snagged 4th place in our division!"