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Post by endo on Feb 9, 2019 20:37:43 GMT -5
New football league started by Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian officially starts tonight with two games taking place and coming a year before Vince McMahon's revamped XFL is set to start again. Right now the league consists of 8 teams in two conferences. Eastern Conference Atlanta Legends Atlanta, Georgia Georgia State Stadium Coach: Kevin Coyle Birmingham Iron Birmingham, Alabama Legion Field Coach: Tim Lewis Memphis Express Memphis, Tennessee Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Coach: Mike Singletary Orlando Apollos Orlando, Florida Spectrum Stadium Coach: Steve Spurrier Western Conference Arizona Hotshots Tempe, Arizona Sun Devil Stadium Coach: Rick Neuheisel Salt Lake Stallions Salt Lake City, Utah Rice–Eccles Stadium Coach: Dennis Erickson San Antonio Commanders San Antonio, Texas Alamodome Coach: Mike Riley San Diego Fleet San Diego, California SDCCU Stadium Coach: Mike Martz All teams are coached by former NFL coaches, assistant coaches or players and feature players that were cut or didn't stay with NFL teams and players that weren't drafted into the NFL. Lots of big NFL names involved in this. The teams will play a 10 game season with the championship game being held in April. Tonight's game is on CBS, with other games being shown on NFL Network among other channels. You can also watch the various games live on their website. aaf.com/Will it take off? Hard to say. But for people that want to keep watching football after the NFL season ends, it's at least an alternative. Gonna watch tonight to get a feel for it, and I hope it does well. Venues already set for all of the games this season, but we'll have to see if it gets brought back for a second one.
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Post by NDX on Feb 10, 2019 1:31:14 GMT -5
Wow, NFL network is supporting this? I wouldn't have expected that.
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Post by endo on Feb 10, 2019 11:44:55 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't get that either Scott. Unless the NFL has some kind of stake in this, you'd think they would want nothing to do with any kind of competition, even if they do run on different schedules.
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Post by NDX on Feb 10, 2019 15:09:07 GMT -5
Maybe they see this as a way to expand their product as well and keep football relevant longer throughout the year.
Me, I see people getting burnt out on the sport fast.
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Post by endo on Feb 10, 2019 18:29:25 GMT -5
Well, this only goes until April. NFL starts again in late August with the pre-season. So a few months in between. But, yeah, it's a lot of football. It did do decent ratings last night actually beating out the NBA, so people seem to want it. We'll see at the end of the season.
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Post by endo on Mar 30, 2019 9:42:05 GMT -5
The thing that hurts this league is it's availability. It's not on network TV but on pay channels. Unless you're already subscribed to a channel it's on, you're not going to subscribe just to see a 10 week long season. At least, I wouldn't.
Some of the games are available on their website, but I'm not one that can sit and watch a whole game online, I'm always wanting to browse.
Two weeks left in the season, so we'll see how the entire season did numbers wise with ratings and if it will be coming back next year, especially given that the XFL starts again next year and will be broadcast on network TV.
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Post by endo on Apr 2, 2019 13:35:28 GMT -5
And here we go... "AAF suspending operations in anticipation of folding... The Alliance of American Football is suspending football operations on Tuesday, sources told ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio. The league reportedly won't be folding, but it's "heading that way." Majority owner Tom Dundon said last week the AAF could only continue with the cooperation of the NFL and its players' association."
Looking like they won't even make it to the championship game, much less next season.
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Post by NDX on Apr 3, 2019 6:01:51 GMT -5
That's sad. I see the XFL going the same way.
Again.
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Post by endo on Apr 3, 2019 12:16:35 GMT -5
Probably right, but I think Vince will have a better shot at success. He's done it once and knows now what worked and what didn't, he has one of the biggest advertising platforms out there, and he has a lot more money to invest than the AAF owners did so he'll probably have broadcast TV help that AAF didn't. I don't see it being a long term success and if Vince is seeing a loss, he'll end it for sure, but I'm interested in seeing the product he puts out this time around.
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