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The Arena Football League is close to bankruptcy; decision won’t affect solvent af2.
The Arena Football League is on the brink of folding and declaring bankruptcy, an inglorious end for the 22-year-old indoor league that has suffered through a year of turmoil.
James Guidry, the regional director of the AFL players association, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it “seems to be inevitable at this point” that the AFL will soon announce that it has ceased operations. Guidry, speaking by telephone, said the players association will accept the owners’ decision.
“We’re waiting to see if this decision has been finalized by the AFL,” Guidry said.
The AFL suspended play for the 2009 season, but some owners expressed hope that the league would return in some form in 2010.
David Baker abruptly resigned as league commissioner two days before the 2008 ArenaBowl championship game. Owners did not look for a replacement.
The Jon Bon Jovi-owned Philadelphia Soul, the last ArenaBowl champions, appear to have shut down. Their Web site only posts a simple message thanking fans for their support over the past five seasons. The Philadelphia Soul Charitable Foundation has been renamed the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation.
Bon Jovi did not immediately return a request for comment. Craig Spencer, another co-owner, declined comment and hung up when asked about the future of the league.
ESPN, which owns a small equity share in the league, said it is not involved in management of the AFL.
“This is entirely an internal AFL matter,” ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said. “Our telecast agreement with the league has been terminated.”
Soul wide receiver Chris Jackson said the demise of the league was not a surprise once owners could not agree on long-term structural improvements that would keep it profitable.
A disagreement among owners about whether to bring in a private equity firm to invest in the league appeared a major sticking point in December.
“We weren’t creating enough revenue. Salaries were going up and without revenue coming in, it was a bad business model,” Jackson said. “That’s one thing that they wanted to focus on and change some of those things. They tried. They tried to market the league as a whole instead of small franchises likes Grand Rapids vs. L.A. The owners knew there was too much money to be lost.”
The last update on the AFL’s Web site is an April release that said the league was finalizing a revitalized business model that would allow it to compete in 2010.
But the league’s owners did not agree on a plan that would allow them to commit to a 2010 season and beyond. The Los Angeles Avengers dropped out of the league in April. The New Orleans VooDoo, owned by Saints owner Tom Benson, shut down last year.
“I knew it wasn’t going to come back, especially the way we as players wanted it to come back,” Jackson said.
The AFL’s offshoot, known as af2, played this season and is in the midst of the ArenaCup playoffs. The AFL owns 50.1 percent of the af2. If the AFL goes under, it won’t greatly affect the minor-league version because the af2 is solvent, self-funded and they pay its bills, Iowa Barnstormers co-owner Jeff Lamberti said.
One of the af2’s most popular players is former New York Giants quarterback Jared Lorenzen, who has led the Kentucky Horsemen to a playoff run.
“That’s terrible. That’s just tough when you’re in af2 and see your big brother go under,” Lorenzed said.
The af2 executive committee has been working on contingency plans ever since the AFL announced it was suspending its season last year. Possible new plans range from combining af2 and defunct AFL teams to create a revamped league, or perhaps a new league with two tiers much like AFL/AF2 with a different economic model — or just leave the af2 as is with a new name.
“That would be awesome (for the leagues to combine),” Lorenzen added. “That also opens up all the AFL guys to come back. That would be great I would love a chance to play with some of the AFL guys.”
Lamberti knows the af2 is financially sound.
Poineers host Kentucky Saturday
While the AFL is close to seizing operation, the af2 appears to still be running smoothly.
One case will be evident Saturday at the Wachovia Arena when the top-seeded Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers host the No. 5 seed Kentucky Horsemen in an American Conference playoff semifinal matchup beginning at 7:05 p.m. The winner advances to the conference finals next weekend and the right to play in ArenaCup X in Las Vegas on Aug. 22.