Arena Football League relaunching with 16 teams in 2024

[GKJ]

 

[famicommander]

What's the over/under on this league actually completing a full season? And if so how many teams fold mid-season? Even the IFL looks more professional than this crap.

A few teams that may have ambitions of joining the IFL or the NAL in the future might stick it out. Everybody else is going to fold up shop in short order.

 

[Mightygoose]

This looks like the dusk before the dusk.

Gotta feel for the players and staff who fell for this what's looking like a scam dressed in nostalgia.

 

[joelef]

what an absolute joke.

 

[GindyDraws]

This looks like the dusk before the dusk.

Gotta feel for the players and staff who fell for this what's looking like a scam dressed in nostalgia.

I am not surprised about these teams being the ones having no money whatsoever. Georgia had no cash for home games so they would effectively be a traveling team and we're forced to travel across the country to Oregon, Louisiana is a tire fire, and Minnesota expected Hutton to come by with cash directly and he never did.

 

[famicommander]

8 teams or more could fold as soon as tomorrow, the NFL Network deal is dead (the AFL was supposed to pay 1.5 million dollars for the airtime and simply didn't), players aren't getting paid, several of the venues don't have the proper boards or nets.

Scam from the outset.

 

[GindyDraws]

As it stands, the AFL was always in the possession of Cryptobros (in this case, HUMBL) and Lee Hutton was the figurehead who thought that the money would come immediately and pay for everything at once.

 

[GindyDraws]

And as of today, a lawsuit by another indoor league has forced West Texas from playing while insolvency has shut down a bunch of other teams.

 

[Takuto Maruki]

As it stands, the AFL was always in the possession of Cryptobros (in this case, HUMBL) and Lee Hutton was the figurehead who thought that the money would come immediately and pay for everything at once.

Lee Hutton sounds familiar. Was he apart of the AAFL? Or am I just mixing up Tom Dundon?

 

[Mightygoose]

Week 3 to begin and now they're down to 14...or is it 13



The Arenabowl will just be handed out to anyone still operating by then.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Week 3 to begin and now they're down to 14...or is it 13



The Arenabowl will just be handed out to anyone still operating by then.

Wasn't this the franchise originally owned by Bon Jovi?

 

[GindyDraws]

Wasn't this the franchise originally owned by Bon Jovi?

And Ron Jaworski.

But now it's staffed with semi pro players that aren't even paid.

 

[Mightygoose]

Down to 12 teams...I believe.

The Minnesota Myth... we're barley that.

Arena Football League's Minnesota Myth, once coached by Rickey Foggie, shut down after two games

Minnesota Myth coach Rickey Foggie resigned last week, and now the team has ceased operations completely.

m.startribune.com

 

[Reality Check]

The arena league was cool back in the late 80's-early 90's. But it serves no purpose now as the NFL itself has turned into the arena league.

 

[Takuto Maruki]

So, I've been watching some IFL games since they appeared on my recommendations on Youtube over the holiday weekend, and truth be told it's been an entertaining experience. Sure, maybe the overall moment to moment action isn't the greatest, but considering the clown shoes effort of AFL 3.0, it's certainly a lot more stable, and truth be told, the IFL at least has no delusions of grandeur of what it is, and what it's ultimate goals are.

Suffice to say, that leads to this video:

And specifically this comment:



And the more I think about it, the more I feel like the broad strokes of that comment feels like the ultimate end game for the AFL 3.0, and any new arena football league that starts up in the ashes of it.

We're in the boom period of sports gambling in the US, and more and more state governments approve it believing that there is basically no drawback to it much like taxing cigarettes and alcohol (completely ignoring the ticking timebomb of gambling addictions and lack of substantial support in general to combat this problem that has already reared its head in the UK with gambling addiction rates, and that will crop up as citizens have less buying power and less outlooks for steady employment) gives a lot of leagues, and especially these fly by night operations the supposed golden ticket to profitability considering how much money is placed on football in general, even during offseason. The route to potentially being a spring competitor, or even an official minor league to the NFL has closed with the UFL, and really, it was closed for a long time considering how often leagues rammed their heads against the wall trying to make spring football a thing when it wasn't really, and that's compounded ten fold by the NCAA effectively dropping the façade of student-athletes in CFB and acknowledging the mini-NFL it fully morphed into.

I guess what makes this feel like a useless endeavor is...what's the overall endgame when that tap can run dry at any moment, and your goal of endless new leagues and trying to wedge into communities is done? Again, at the very least the IFL is able to be honest with itself and have no delusions of grandeur about what it is as a sports league, and as an effective inheritor of the AFL 2.0's overall work and legacy.