Alliance of American Football

[Ridgepole]

Orlando first city named to have a team. Spurier to be head coach.

 

[Mad Dog]

The track record of these upshot leagues is not all that great. I remember well, when living in Michigan in the mid 1970's, the old World Football League. The Detroit Wheels team was having trouble getting crowds big time in the large stadiums they were playing in . They had gotten to the point that they moved the team out to Ypsilanti. My brother and I, out of curiosity, drove up for a game. They ended up playing in a small high school stadium in Ypsilanti. The quality of the game was much less than a small college football game. And they had signed some big time players out of the NFL even......This new league won't even have any big names. I doubt it will last more than a year or two. These leagues usually give away a lot of free tickets in their first games to make it look like they're attracting interest and a crowd. Usually it's just a scam.

 

[JoeCamel]

The track record of these upshot leagues is not all that great. I remember well, when living in Michigan in the mid 1970's, the old World Football League. The Detroit Wheels team was having trouble getting crowds big time in the large stadiums they were playing in . They had gotten to the point that they moved the team out to Ypsilanti. My brother and I, out of curiosity, drove up for a game. They ended up playing in a small high school stadium in Ypsilanti. The quality of the game was much less than a small college football game. And they had signed some big time players out of the NFL even......This new league won't even have any big names. I doubt it will last more than a year or two. These leagues usually give away a lot of free tickets in their first games to make it look like they're attracting interest and a crowd. Usually it's just a scam.

When he's not playing baseball (badly) Tebow is looking for a job.......

 

[Disneyhead]

I hear Colin Kaepernick is available.

:bolt:

 

[Donald Razorduck]

There were many uccessful USFL
teams, they listened to someone named Trump who basically ting to force the NFL to buy them out.

Quite Frankly the NFL should have started up a spring league.

God, how I wish the would double the size of the NFL and introduce a relegation/promotion system.

Look at the size of some markets withour a pro football team and lots of stadiums for rent on the cheap

If this gets off the ground, and there's Vince's second go at the XFL coming as well. Somebody thsee cities can build right sized stadiums in the future. Let's take Memphis, now dn need for the size of the Liberty Bowl. The U of M needs a viable partner to build a right sized stadium at 50,000 with the emphasis on value added seats and hopefully enclosed. Add in the growth of Soccer and you get three possible prime tenents, plus the Bowl game, a larger venue for the NCAA tourney bids and concerts.

 

[Nick]

There are many talented players who don't make the NFL so there is room for this type of league if they do it right. The personnel running the league and with Spurrier as a coach gives me a slight bit of hope and they have they common sense to not try to compete with the NFL, but to fill the gap once the season is over.

That said the only major football league to last along with the NFL has been the CFL. The CFL has sort of been the unofficial minor league for the NFL. A lot of players from the league go to the NFL or come from the NFL and play in the CFL to try to get noticed again by NFL teams. Johnny Manziel is a current example of a big name player that's trying to work his way back into the NFL by playing in the CFL.

I don't see this league being too successful.

 

[Legacy]

They better wear purple.

 

[Nick]

They better wear purple.

They will be playing in Spectrum Stadium and using some players from UCF (through scholarships) so I wouldn’t be surprised if they wear the Knights colors.

 

[Disneyhead]

Black jerseys, red pants, and yellow cleats would be perfect.

 

[Nick]

I'm fairly impressed that this league was able to get a contract with CBS/CBS Sports to air/stream games. I hadn't really thought about that before now. I also think that by playing at UCF, the attendance will probably do a lot better than if they played at Camping World. They have a ton of students right there that have (practically) walking distance access to the stadium and they will likely offer student discounts on what will already be fairly cheap tickets. Solid business plan to get butts in the seats.

 

[Mad Dog]

Black jerseys, red pants, and yellow cleats would be perfect.

I'm not using you to design my team's soccer uniforms. No way.

 

[SeventyOne]

They will be ... using some players from UCF (through scholarships)

Wait, what??? As a former NCAA athlete (really--fencing is a sport), that raises serious alarm bells.

Unless you mean a recruitment draft. Which would make sense--and if Orlando has access to all the FL schools, could make for a very watchable team of just-missed-the-NFL players.

ETA: looked around the interwebz, from what I gather, these will be scholarships for post-secondary education. In other words, players still giving up eligibility, will be paid, this is just sort of a bonus. And they are planning a regional draft. I imagine that gives Spurrier first dibs on UF and FSU players as well (maybe Miami, too, if this is the only Florida team).

I like the shortened games, not sold yet on lack of extra point and kick-off.

 

[Nick]

Wait, what??? As a former NCAA athlete (really--fencing is a sport), that raises serious alarm bells.

Unless you mean a recruitment draft. Which would make sense--and if Orlando has access to all the FL schools, could make for a very watchable team of just-missed-the-NFL players.

ETA: looked around the interwebz, from what I gather, these will be scholarships for post-secondary education. In other words, players still giving up eligibility, will be paid, this is just sort of a bonus. And they are planning a regional draft. I imagine that gives Spurrier first dibs on UF and FSU players as well (maybe Miami, too, if this is the only Florida team).

I like the shortened games, not sold yet on lack of extra point and kick-off.

I could be wrong. That’s one of the parts of it that doesn’t make sense to me so I’m probably conflating some of the actual facts.

 

[SeventyOne]

I could be wrong. That’s one of the parts of it that doesn’t make sense to me so I’m probably conflating some of the actual facts.

From what I read, it sounds like they are offering scholarships--just not traditional NCAA scholarships. Think of it like when your company offers to pay for your Masters. I assume the overall P.R. objective here is to show they care about their players, in the wake of the NFL's head trauma scandals.

Also the regional draft makes sense, a lot of start-up leagues have tried it. Rather than a traditional draft, each local team gets first dibs on any player of interest coming from a local college. The idea being if you have a team full of former Knights, Gators and Noles, local fans are more likely to care about the games than a mish-mash of guys from around the country.