Menu
Leagues and Governing Bodies

As season ends, leaner AFL sees promise in ’17

The Arena Football League heads to its championship game later this week with TV ratings and attendance on the upswing and buy-in from Washington Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, but also lawsuits and numerous federal labor complaints filed against the league.

The AFL emerged from bankruptcy proceedings in 2010 and has struggled to return to the success of its salad days. The future looked so bright that the NFL in 1999 took an option to buy equity in the sport, though owners ultimately voted it down. Now, under Commissioner Scott Butera, who assumed the post in 2014, the AFL is preparing to borrow seven figures to invest in marketing and promotion.

“People who know the Arena Football League really enjoy it. We just need to get more.”
Scott Butera
Commissioner, AFL
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
“People who know the Arena Football League really enjoy it. We just need to get more,” he said. “That is part of next year’s mission.”

Butera spearheaded the shaving of underperforming clubs from the league, which fielded only eight teams this year.

But the league has received a significant boost with the investment from Leonsis, whose Washington Valor will begin play next season at the Verizon Center.

Butera, who was chief executive officer of Foxwoods Resort Casino before taking the AFL commissioner job in September 2014, said attendance was up 10 percent this season, or about 800 a game, which computes to about 8,800 a game (Butera declined to disclose an attendance average). Sponsors Geico and Uber are on board, and Butera said several more are in the works.

The AFL hired Chicago-based Property Consulting Group to advise on sponsorships.

While those are promising signs, there are clouds too. Former commissioner Jerry Kurz and TV consultant Neal Pilson, who has worked with the league since 1995, last month sued the AFL for nonpayment, alleging the league is close to insolvency. Butera denied the league is about to shut down.

And the league has a troubled relationship with its union, the AFL Players Association, which has filed 33 National Labor Relations Board complaints since 2011, or an average of one every two months. Most have been sent to arbitration by NLRB administrators as required under the league’s collective-bargaining agreement.

Four were filed this year. One filed Feb. 4, for example, and obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, said, “AF1 failed to bargain with [the] Union over the adverse effect of their decision to unilaterally implement rules that prohibits members of the Las Vegas Outlaws to earn wages they rightfully qualified for.”

Another one, filed May 5 and also obtained through a FOIA request, said, “AF1 has a history of violating union member rights under the NLRA [National Labor Relations Act]. AF1 has denied members and nonmembers the right to freely associate.”

Two NLRB complaints were filed just last month.

Ivan Soto, the executive director of the AFL players union, wrote in an email, “Until the AFL recognizes the players as true partners and respects them by ceasing the league’s and their managers’ unilateral actions which affect player wages, hours and working conditions there will unfortunately continue to be voluminous labor charges, job actions and legal actions.”

The collective-bargaining agreement with the players extends one more season. Talks to renew are underway, said Butera, who expressed confidence over a new contract.

ESPN is televising Friday’s ArenaBowl in Phoenix, where the Arizona Rattlers will play the Philadelphia Soul. This year, the teams played a 16-game schedule. ESPN televised 11 games, including three postseason games. CBS Sports Network carried 17 regular-season games.

The AFL does not receive a rights fee but oversees the production of the games in cooperation with the networks.

CBS Sports Network ratings are not tracked by Nielsen, but the regular-season games televised on ESPN2 drew an average of 164,000 viewers. Most of those games aired Saturday and Sunday evenings, though two were Sunday night games and one was on a Friday night.

Butera said ratings rose around the same as attendance, which would mean 10 percent.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/08/22/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/AFL.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/08/22/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/AFL.aspx

CLOSE