Apparently the AAF is losing about $10 million a week. The NFL Player's Association is barring a deal between the NFL and AAF to have practice squad players play in that league. According to multiple sources, the AAF may only last another week or two.
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No one is going to stick around losing that kind of money weekly. Hope they can get things worked out. I enjoy watching them
Crap - looks like the league is toast.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2829155-aaf-reportedly-set-to-suspend-operations-league-heading-toward-folding
They had better ratings compared to the NHL.
Poorly managed. Shocker with Polian running a lot of it.
I guess my feeling is that this is more disappointing than anything - but this is they way of the world in 2019. We see it all the time.
Now I am not a gambling man, so I wouldn't know about the exact inner workings of this. But, it was rumored that the AAF had introduced some cutting edge gambling technology. Supposedly, that is why Tom Dundon bought into the league and became the majority owner. Once he had acquired the technology, he folded the league.
Was it morally right? Absolutely not. But it sure was legally right. A lot of very good people with outstanding work ethics lost their jobs because of one man's greed.
But this type of business practice is hardly new. It happened to Akron's largest employer in the early 1980s when Sir James Goldsmith purchased enough of a stock in Goodyear to begin liquidating assets of the company. It forced the remaining shareholders to sell off yet more assets just to amass enough capital to buy out Goldsmith and make him go away. But Goodyear had absorbed some major body blows in the process and the company was left in a much weakened state.
We see this tactic in the banking industry all the time. You want to know how to increase marketshare in 2019? Just buy out your competition. Then you consolidate operations, limit your coverage areas and lay off tons of people. But you know they will come back to you because you're the only game in town.
Another application of one of Murphy's Laws: He who has the gold makes the rules.