Another Spring Football Next Year

[jerrym]

Charlie Ebersol, a league founder discusses what went wrong with the league below. Of course, it had nothing to do with him, according to himself.

Ebersol talked to John Ourand of SBJ, and among the excerpts of a story set to publish Thursday was a quote that puts a different spin on the AAF’s financial failures. He said the league thought it had a sound financial footing going into its inaugural season, but he blamed a primary investor for not living up to agreements.

“We raised over $170 million in the second quarter of last year,” Ebersol told Ourand of SBJ. “We ultimately raised well over $200 million before the launch of the football league. When it became clear that our primary investor was either not able to, or not performing in line with the signed contracts which had been vetted by multiple banks, ... we went out to the market after the success of the first weekend and offered to let other people buy in. Ultimately Tom made an offer to buy in."

That would be Tom Dundon, the owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. Dundon promised up to $250 million when the league had financial issues, due to Ebersol’s claim that an original and unnamed primary investor didn’t come through, and Dundon became the league’s chairman of its board of directors. For whatever reason, Dundon pulled the plug fairly quickly, complaining that the NFLPA wouldn’t allow the AAF to use some players and be the NFL’s developmental league.

"I know everyone has conspiracy theories,” Ebersol told SBJ. “But, unfortunately, this may have just died because the main investor and the founders had different visions of what the company was supposed to be. ... Our long-term vision for building something slowly and getting enterprise value was not aligned with [Dundon’s] vision of how he saw the league.”

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/aaf...142124572.html

[gilthethrill]

Charlie Ebersol, a league founder discusses what went wrong with the league below. Of course, it had nothing to do with him, according to himself.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/aaf...142124572.html

Reading stories about the league left players and office staff high and dry. Now the Alliance are holding players hostage not allowing them to sign in Canada. After all this Ebersol is still wealthy. Cry me a river.