AAF failures proves again how vital stability at the top is

Another day, another upstart football league who could barely make it out of the gate. The AAF had so much promise, but like many others weren’t up to the task.

So that leaves the big question. Why? There are plenty of in-depth explanations that go into that. Money was probably part of it as is so often the case. However, there’s another simpler explanation that encompasses the matter. A lack of firm direction and commitment at the top. Look back over the previous notable new football leagues. The United Football League, the Extreme Football League, the United States Football League, and the World Football League.

All, like the Alliance of American Football, wanted to give fans an alternative to the NFL. Each of them ended up in miserable failure. The reason why is consistent. The men at the top had no stable vision for what they wanted their leagues to be.

The WFL practically gave away tickets to their early games in the 1970s and relocated teams midseason, taking huge blows to their credibility right out of the gate. Then there was the USFL. They had a good plan in place from a TV contract to playing in big markets and holding games in spring and summer. However, division at the top led to the league switching to a fall schedule in direct competition with the NFL after just two seasons. The end result was predictable.

The XFL? A massive misjudgment on the part of owner Vince McMahon to separate his league from his other enterprise of professional wrestling. People refused to take him or his brand of football seriously. So if he and his partner Dick Ebersol weren’t able to do it, why would anyone think Charlie Ebersol could do any better?

Sources: The AAF will suspend all football operations today. New owner Tom Dundon will lose approximately $70 million on his investment. Dundon makes decision against wishes of league co-founders Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 2, 2019

AAF may have had football guys in high places, except where it mattered most

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Ebersol is 36-years old. He has yet to create and run a company or TV program that found significant success in his professional career as a businessman. He’s don’t a few documentaries to critical acclaim but what about that would make people think he is cut out to own and run a professional sports league? Anybody with common sense could see that this wasn’t going to work from the start. Even with the steady advice of Bill Polian in his ear.

Polian is a tremendous football mind and Hall of Fame GM, but there are two sides to running a successful league. There’s the football and then there’s the business. Polian was meant to be the football guy, and he did his job. The AAF seemed to put a pretty good product on the field for its first official season. The problem is Ebersol was supposed to be the business guy.

The fact they had to seek out financial help from Tom Dundon before the first year was even over tells the entire story about how in over his head he likely became. Greater businessmen than him have tried and failed at this enterprise. He never had the far-reaching plan that could sustain it. Until another league comes around that is able to fulfill this vital part of the equation, the NFL will remain firmly in its iron throne.

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