The Arena Football League’s Board of Directors voted Sunday to cancel the 2009 season, pending approval from the players’ association.
The Arena Football League’s Board of Directors voted Sunday to cancel the 2009 season, pending approval from the players’ association.
The financial stability of the league has been under debate for several weeks now. AFL officials never released a 2009 schedule because of these concerns, and several owners questioned the feasibility of the league’s current business model, with one — Tom Benson of the New Orleans VooDoo — shutting down operations rather than proceed with another money-losing season.
It is rare for a sports league to suspend operations and then return; suspension is usually a prelude to dissolution. And that could very well happen with the AFL. Absent the sale of any equity in the league to an outside group — a move negotiated by league officials under Platinum Equity shut down discussions — it’s hard to say how a restructing could effectively happen. Owners say they want to review all spending by the league, but most teams are run on a shoestring, the league office isn’t that large, and players make little money when compared to NFL teams. The basic premise — that a team will play a limited season in a relatively small venue — may just be too flawed to be saved, and if that’s the case AFL may be dead forever.
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