The Alliance of American Football, while it has not officially folded but suspended operations, is closer to becoming another failed spring football league looking to fill the void during the NFL offseason.
Their mission, like the other spring leagues, was to help develop players and give them another place to play football. The AAF could soon join the USFL, FXFL, WFL, and UFL as failed football leagues. But why does this keep happening? The answers are time, money, and patience.
Year after year, someone announces a new spring football league is launching, but the new league doesn’t last a year because they are continually losing money due to poor planning and not being patient enough to plan correctly.
The only spring leagues that have worked and are currently still playing are the Arena/Indoor Football leagues. Some of these leagues have been around for over ten years, but they too have had trouble keeping teams in the league.
Some fold during the season and others fold after one year. So how can future leagues learn from the mistakes of others? The next league up is the revival of the XFL which launches next year.
Vince McMahon is once again giving the XFL another shot in hopes of captivating the diehard fans giving them a league to watch during the NFL offseason. But, did he learn anything from his first stint when the XFL played for one year in 2001?
The league didn’t feel like a football game but more of a wrestling show. A majority of fans were turned off by this and the league folded shortly after the Los Angeles Xtreme won the XFL championship over the San Francisco Demons. With the AAF possibly gone, could the XFL adopt some of the AAF rules?
McMahon himself stated that he wants to cut the game down to just two hours. The AAF rules could do just that if followed. The AAF rules are a thirty-five-second play clock, which is five seconds shorter than the NFL, and fewer commercial breaks.
What this does is keep the game moving, which by half-time had the game only going a little over an hour. By the time the games ended, some of them had only lasted a little over two hours total if there were no injuries.
With injuries, games were getting done in two and a half hours. In the coming months, the XFL will announce its television deal along with the name of its eight teams. Perhaps also their rules package for the game.
Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian had a great concept; their mistake was letting Tom Dundon into the league. Had they been patient enough, they could’ve found a better investor, someone who not only has money to spend on the league but also who is willing to be patient with his investment.
Because of allowing Dundon into the league, he suspended operations with just two weeks left in the AAF season. The AAF did release a statement on its website stating that “This is not the way we wanted it to end, but we are also committed to working on solutions for all outstanding issues to the best of our ability.” Will the AAF be back for year two, only time will tell?
There will come a time one day when a spring football league will thrive and stay for the long haul. But if people continue to show no patience, are not willing to wait to see how it plays out and of course, have the money to do this.
Future spring leagues need to learn from these past leagues’ mistakes if they want to prevent the same fate. The AAF was fun while it lasted and now it’s just a memory.
