The Minnesota Mythos are scheduled to play the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul on Sunday night in Minneapolis. We place emphasis on being “on schedule.” Because even just a week into the restarted AFL's comeback season, there is little reason to believe this or any other game will take place.must return to challenger To find a rougher launch.
For example, the Billings Outlaws announced mid-week that they would not travel to Salem, Oregon, to play the Oregon Black Bears on Saturday night. Black Bears president Pat Johnson told The Defector that the matchup was called off after Billings players “insisted that our field is unsafe.” (Apparently, the opposition's concerns have to do with the Black Bears' use of something like a rodeo offense to mark the boundaries of an indoor arena.) On Thursday, the Rapid City Marshalls… The Black Bears released a statement accusing the league of “failing to meet its financial obligations.” This will likely cause instability across the new coalition and cause a “schedule change.” The next day, the Iowa Rampage owners announced on Facebook that the brand-new team would be “discontinued” after league officials did not honor preseason promises regarding uniforms, footballs, travel, network television exposure, and more. Stated. “And both Myth and Soul have already endured player revolts over working conditions and pay.” Shinhwa's management issued a statement on Instagram late last night, announcing online a player strike (for which they had not received their paychecks). Ticket holders were assured that they should still be at the Target Center. philadelphia inquirer The Soul's roster is so watered down that if the Myth Game were to be canceled, the players wearing the Soul uniform would actually be playing for a non-AFL team, the Dallas Falcons of the American Arena League. It was reported that he would become a member.
AFL's troubles began almost immediately after the 2023 return announcement, years after the last indoor league operation went bankrupt.Lee Hutton, the Minnesota lawyer who will serve as the new AFL commissioner (along with Mythic owner Diana Hutton), used TMZ to make his announcement. 16 city names He claimed it would be part of the AFL's 2024 restart. Hutton later also announced that AFL games would be shown on NFL Network throughout the season.
However, it has become clear that Hutton's promises do not always match reality. Local politicians, business leaders and arena operators in some of the AFL destination cities that Mr Hutton named last year have expressed their concerns about a new arena football franchise coming to their town soon. He said he doesn't know about it and even if the indoor team came, there would be nothing. Local people with deep pockets want to build and own buildings for play.
So when the league opened last week, most of the major markets that Hutton claimed would host an AFL team, including Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Austin and San Antonio, didn't have teams, but some like Council Bluffs had no teams. Franchises could be found in smaller towns. , Iowa, Rapid City, South Dakota, and amazingly, he has three different one-horse burgs in Kansas alone: Salina, Dodge City, and Park City.
Hutton did not respond to Defector's request for comment.
Contrary to Hutton's claims, NFL Network did not broadcast any opening weekend games. An NFL Network representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, said only that the channel “will not be broadcasting AFL games this season,” despite previously planning to do so. The representative did not provide further details about the cause of the deal collapse.
An official with the NFL, which owns the NFL Network, told The Defector that last weekend's AFL blackout occurred because “the AFL did not pay the production company” that was supposed to be in charge of the game. The source said network officials hope the AFL will resolve the payment situation so NFL Network can begin its AFL schedule in Week 2, with the remainder of the AFL season available to programmers throughout the spring. He added that he was looking forward to it. “When there was a bit of a lull.” But after further consideration of the opening weekend's abysmal response, the NFL decided the AFL would be too much of a strange sibling.
“It quickly became apparent that they had bigger issues with the league,” the source said, “so we thought it was best to terminate the contract.”
do not have everyone He laments the collapse of the AFL and NFL Network partnership with the launch of the new league. Take Pat Johnson, president of the Oregon Black Bears, for example. Mr. Johnson seemed sincere when he said he was glad his contract was terminated. To him, the arrangement reduced AFL match broadcasts to mere infomercials. something expensive.
“It was a bad deal for the league. A bad deal,” said Johnson, a former track and football star at the University of Oregon who played seven seasons in the NFL with Baltimore and Washington. “We pay the NFL $1.3 million a year for three years, but we don't get any advertising revenue from network broadcasts,” Johnson said. “You don't even get to own the finished product. Over three years, he's going to have a net operating loss of $4 million. I think it's in his best interest that that doesn't happen.”
Johnson was the only one still unconvinced that pastures were the future of the revamped league. Then again, Johnson only took the AFL job two weeks ago.
Anthony Rossi, who was listed on the AFL website as the league's president and CEO when the league's restart was first announced in February 2023, apparently had a falling out with Hutton. ing. Rossi was asked by Defector to comment on the current state of the AFL, but instead sent the following screenshot: Tweet he posted on Friday. In it, Rossi accused Hatton and other AFL officials of using trademarks associated with the league without permission.
“They signed [licensing] I agreed but didn't pay for it. That means they had no rights,” Rossi said in his post.
According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database, the rights to “Arena Football League” are currently owned by G6 Sports Group LLC, a corporation registered in Delaware. Mr. Rossi said he had a significant ownership interest in G6, but he declined to provide proof of that.
Mr Rossi says Mr Hatton has “lyed to fans, sponsors, partners and team owners” about his right to use AFL trademarks and continues to ignore requests from Mr Rossi and his partners regarding their use. said.
“Everyone involved in these lies will soon be held accountable,” he said at the end of his Twitter screed.
It sounds like a threat to take Hatton into a completely different arena: the legal arena.
