The AAF reportedly isn't going to make it through its first season
Last week, Alliance of American Football principal investor Tom Dundon told USA Today he would have to consider folding the first-year league if the NFL - specifically its players' union - didn't allow its practice squad players to play in the fledgling pro-football outfit next season.
With no sign that the NFL or the NFLPA will agree to any sort of player-sharing agreement, that time apparently has come. Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio and the Action Network's Darren Rovell both reported the AAF will suspend operations Tuesday afternoon with two weeks remaining in its inaugural regular season schedule.
ESPN's Michael Rothstein reported the league was scheduled to hold a call with all players and staff at 1 p.m. Eastern time.
"The league won't be folding, yet. But it seems to be moving in that direction," Florio wrote.
Dundon, owner of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, stepped in to pledge a needed $250 million to the AAF in February after its first weekend of games in exchange for being named chairman of the AAF board of directors. Reports had surfaced that AAF teams struggled to pay their players after the initial contests, though Dundon denied that the league was in danger of becoming insolvent.
According to Rovell, Dundon will lose $70 million of that investment, adding that he made the decision to suspend operations "against the wishes of league co-founders Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian." According to Florio, the league needed $20 million to get through the end of the season.
Week 9 of the 10-week AAF season was shaping up to be a key moment for the league, and not simply because of jockeying for playoff position. Saturday's game between Memphis and San Antonio was scheduled to be broadcast by CBS as a lead-in to its NCAA Final Four coverage, and a solid TV rating on the national network could have been a sign that interest remained in the league.
Most AAF games have been televised by TNT, NFL Network or the CBS Sports Network cable channel or streamed on B/R Live. And while early ratings were impressive - the first two AAF games, broadcast by CBS on Feb. 9, drew 3.25 million viewers, more than an NBA game airing on ABC at the same time - those numbers have declined as the season has progressed. Only 340,000 people watched a March 23 game between Orlando and Atlanta on TNT, and the games broadcast by NFL Network that same weekend (one of them featuring former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel) drew fewer than 300,000 viewers.
The NFLPA reportedly was worried that sharing players with the AAF would violate the NFL's collective bargaining agreement, specifically restrictions on mandatory offseason workouts. The union also was concerned about the financial ramifications for a player who suffers a serious injury while playing for an AAF team.
Initially envisioned as a development league that eventually could position itself as something of a minor league to the NFL, the AAF generated a sizable amount of interest early thanks in part to novel rule tweaks that did away with kickoffs and onside kicks. But according to Rovell, Dundon tried to speed up the league's growth and work out an official agreement with the NFL after his $250 million pledge, which gave him sizable say over league operations, including the decision about whether to continue playing.