The Alliance of American Football has suspended operations at least temporarily, and “probably indefinitely”, CBS Sports reported Tuesday afternoon.
The league’s owners have a conference call scheduled for later in the afternoon to further discuss plans.
As FBSchedules reported days ago, at the root of the stalemate is the NFL Players’ Association’s apparent lack of willingness to allocate players to the league. AAF majority owner Tom Dundon outlined the issue in comments to USA Today.
“If the players union is not going to give us young players, we can’t be a development league,” said Dundon, who in February committed to invest $250 million into the league. “We are looking at our options, one of which is discontinuing the league.”
The league is currently in the eighth week of its inaugural season.
CBS adds in its report that Dundon is not acting in accordance with those with whom he is working. Darren Rovell adds this regarding that point:
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
More detail will be provided as it is made available.
Looks like Mr. Dundon uncommitted his money to the AAF! Not sure I really understand the logic.
It seems Tom Dundon just wanted ownership of the gambling app that the AAF was developing. That app, with more and more states legalizing sportsbooks, could end up being worth much more than $70 million.
A 70M App? You can program one heck of an app for less than $70M.
The app is very close to allowing real-time wagering, which opens up the ability for multiple betting opportunities during sporting events. The gaming industry would pay multiples more than $70 million to purchase/license this app if everything works out as planned.