Alliance of American Football (AAF) Debut
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:56 pm    Post subject: Alliance of American Football (AAF) Debut

I have watched one game, and there clearly is a problem that has to be overcome if this league has any chance at sticking. The 65% empty stadium atmosphere will not work....it just will not if the AAF hopes to be a mass consumed entertainment product. Orlando played @ Spectrum Stadium, which is UCF's home field and smaller than a NFL stadium, but it still looked like maybe 10-15,000 may have been in attendance (and that is probably generous). I recall the XFL initially had decent attendance, then it plummeted, so I hope the AAF has a strategy to slowly build attendance. Fans watching TV and streams will need that crowd noise or it begins to feel like watching a scrimmage game.

As far as the product on the field. It thought it was solid. Guys were flying around and making plays. It was legitimate football with mostly guys people have never heard of previously. I was surprised to see Starter made the uniforms....mostly because I was unaware Starter was still in business.

We know there have been countless market studies, and they all have suggested there is a market for "sub elite" professional football, especially in the offseason.....but I am not convinced the AAF will be able to find success in that theoretical market.
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:47 pm    Post subject:

I watched it for the curiosity factor. The atmosphere does kinda suck since they are playing in huge stadiums and theres no way they can fill them. They should be playing in MLS stadiums or college stadiums that fit around 30k people. That being said most of the teams are not located in NFL cities so there is an enthusiastic fanbase....I was watching the San Antonio vs San Diego game and the fans were really enthusiastic.
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 10:46 pm    Post subject:

lakersken80 wrote:
I watched it for the curiosity factor. The atmosphere does kinda suck since they are playing in huge stadiums and theres no way they can fill them. They should be playing in MLS stadiums or college stadiums that fit around 30k people. That being said most of the teams are not located in NFL cities so there is an enthusiastic fanbase....I was watching the San Antonio vs San Diego game and the fans were really enthusiastic.


was there a decent crowd at that game? I guess to be fair, we have had on and off rain drizzle most of the day in Orlando, and that may have kept many people away.
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dont_be_a_wuss
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 11:32 pm    Post subject:

is this the league where instead of a kickoff, they get a 4th and 10?
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 7:38 am    Post subject:

adkindo wrote:
lakersken80 wrote:
I watched it for the curiosity factor. The atmosphere does kinda suck since they are playing in huge stadiums and theres no way they can fill them. They should be playing in MLS stadiums or college stadiums that fit around 30k people. That being said most of the teams are not located in NFL cities so there is an enthusiastic fanbase....I was watching the San Antonio vs San Diego game and the fans were really enthusiastic.


was there a decent crowd at that game? I guess to be fair, we have had on and off rain drizzle most of the day in Orlando, and that may have kept many people away.


CBS said it was around 25k-30k in attendance in San Antonio in the Alamodome. That place seats about 72k. It probably works in San Antonio because they only have the Spurs and no NFL or MLB team. In a city like Atlanta I'm not sure how the crowd will work since people don't even show up unless you are winning like the MLS team not that mention that city already has an NFL team along with NBA and MLB.
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Freddie Buckets
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 7:35 pm    Post subject:

dont_be_a_wuss wrote:
is this the league where instead of a kickoff, they get a 4th and 10?


there are no kickoffs and every drive starts at 25.

since there are no kickoffs, instead of an inside, the team gets 4 and 12th to convert to get possession.
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 7:59 pm    Post subject:

The NFL doesn't have a financial investment with this league, but they are showing the games on NFL Network and theres a ton of ex-NFL players and coaches associated with the day to day operations of it. Plus I believe players can move up to the NFL so in reality its more of a development league for them. I can see them testing ideas in this league to see if it might have a future in the NFL.
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dont_be_a_wuss
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 10:02 pm    Post subject:

Freddie Buckets wrote:
dont_be_a_wuss wrote:
is this the league where instead of a kickoff, they get a 4th and 10?


there are no kickoffs and every drive starts at 25.

since there are no kickoffs, instead of an inside, the team gets 4 and 12th to convert to get possession.


Nice, thanks. I think I like that idea more than the kickoff. I didnt even know the league was starting. I will try to watch next week.
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PHILosophize
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:50 am    Post subject:

was there some sort of draft to determine the rosters for the teams or how did that work?
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:10 am    Post subject:

PHILosophize wrote:
was there some sort of draft to determine the rosters for the teams or how did that work?


Yeah, they showed it on CBS Sports Network or something....I guess its up on youtube.
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:14 am    Post subject:

PHILosophize wrote:
was there some sort of draft to determine the rosters for the teams or how did that work?


it was kind of weird....only QB's were drafted....then players were allocated based on where they played college, NFL, etc. Here is a tweet and article that explains.

https://twitter.com/TheAAF/status/1017401274101166085

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2808143-alliance-of-american-football-draft-2018-full-list-of-picks-and-reaction
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:27 am    Post subject:

lakersken80 wrote:
The NFL doesn't have a financial investment with this league, but they are showing the games on NFL Network and theres a ton of ex-NFL players and coaches associated with the day to day operations of it. Plus I believe players can move up to the NFL so in reality its more of a development league for them. I can see them testing ideas in this league to see if it might have a future in the NFL.


it is kind of a redevelopment league since all player have to have NFL/CFL experience.....which makes me wonder if they will ever expand that to guys who have not played professional football....i.e. they kid the got in trouble early in college, flunked out, etc.
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 1:44 pm    Post subject:

Watching the San Antonio game here, seems like that is one of the cities to embrace this new league, they have much better attendance than other cities with an AAF team. Probably around 20-25k. I wonder how San Diego will take to their team....I don't expect it to be that good since its still not an NFL team.
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 2:03 pm    Post subject:

lakersken80 wrote:
Watching the San Antonio game here, seems like that is one of the cities to embrace this new league, they have much better attendance than other cities with an AAF team. Probably around 20-25k. I wonder how San Diego will take to their team....I don't expect it to be that good since its still not an NFL team.


#51 Garvin...LB for Orlando is my guy. It is weird how one team scores, and they immediately walk back down to the other side of the field and the other team gets the ball....no kickoff, no commercial break, etc.
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 2:09 pm    Post subject:

From what I read they aren't getting a rights fees from the networks so they are able to show these games without a commercial break. They are also able to experiment with rules changes different from the NFL. This makes the games much faster than a normal NFL game which is at least 3 hours long compared to the AAF product which is 2.5 hours or less.
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 7:35 pm    Post subject:

San Antonio could not stop that Orlando offense!
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 8:04 pm    Post subject:

Not much fans showed up for the San Diego Fleet game....can't blame them though, it was cold and miserable. San Diego did win their first game against an awful Atlanta team.
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 8:12 pm    Post subject:

lakersken80 wrote:
Not much fans showed up for the San Diego Fleet game....can't blame them though, it was cold and miserable. San Diego did win their first game against an awful Atlanta team.


I think I watched that Atlanta team last week against Orlando....I thought Orlando was unstoppable after that game....but then San Antonio gave them everything they could handle...so yeah, Atlanta must just be bad.
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Steve007
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 1:27 am    Post subject:

lakersken80 wrote:
Not much fans showed up for the San Diego Fleet game....can't blame them though, it was cold and miserable. San Diego did win their first game against an awful Atlanta team.


No wonder the crowd sounded weak in the moments that I watched. College and the NFL have much better crowds and when the crowd is boring it’s harder for me to get into it.
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 9:31 am    Post subject:

Steve007 wrote:
lakersken80 wrote:
Not much fans showed up for the San Diego Fleet game....can't blame them though, it was cold and miserable. San Diego did win their first game against an awful Atlanta team.


No wonder the crowd sounded weak in the moments that I watched. College and the NFL have much better crowds and when the crowd is boring it’s harder for me to get into it.


I know what you mean....I am hoping they have solid strategy for slowly building up attendance....because the whole I can hear the coaches talking and they are not screaming thing does not work for me. Like lk80 said, San Antonio seemed to have a solid crowd.

I went to ticketmaster and it appears admission for upper deck seat start at about $20ish.....and lower bowl seats go from $60ish to over $100. That is not bad compared to the NFL, but I think still a little too high. Maybe the worse seats should be around $10 to just get people in the stadium.
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 11:41 am    Post subject:

I'm thinking something like the Fargodome in North Dakota would probably be a perfect venue for a league like the AAF. It fits about 20k fans, its indoor and would be pretty loud and be a unique atmosphere. San Antonio works because its in the middle of football fanatic Texas and its not exposed to the elements, which would probably deter a lot of casual fans from attending a game in an upstart league like this.
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 5:08 pm    Post subject:

lakersken80 wrote:
I'm thinking something like the Fargodome in North Dakota would probably be a perfect venue for a league like the AAF. It fits about 20k fans, its indoor and would be pretty loud and be a unique atmosphere. San Antonio works because its in the middle of football fanatic Texas and its not exposed to the elements, which would probably deter a lot of casual fans from attending a game in an upstart league like this.


you or someone may have already mentioned...but what about MLS Stadiums? I think the Orlando team would have been much better @ Orlando City Stadium. First, it is very new and nice....sits downtown and has a capacity of 25K. The field they are playing on is Spectrum Stadium, which is too big (45K) and sits in the middle of a massive college campus that is 20 minutes outside the city.
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 5:48 pm    Post subject:

MLS stadiums would work but most of the cities in the AAF aren't located in MLS cities. Also I know the Chargers paid to resod the turf in order to use the stadium where the LA Galaxy plays so the soccer stadium pitch is returned to good condition when they switch over to a soccer match. I know the XFL LA franchise is going to use that field as well and I don't think they have the budget to do the same thing as the Chargers, so we'll see how that arrangement works out in the future.
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 9:59 am    Post subject:

Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon invests $250M in AAF

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Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon made a $250 million investment in the upstart Alliance of American Football and will become the league's new chairman.


LINK

The Athletic reported they almost missed payroll last week! Not a good look for the 2nd week of your organizations existence.
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lakersken80
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:26 am    Post subject:

The problem is attendance. That is pretty much the only way the league makes money is for people to show up to the games.
Other than the San Antonio franchise the attendance for the other games have been weak at best.
The league isn't taking any money from the TV networks for TV rights since they looked at past leagues and realized they lose money, so they don't want any risk. The networks are doing them a favor by broadcasting the games.
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