Wednesday, December 10, 2008

AFL survives. For now. Maybe.

There is still no schedule -- nor an indication of when one might be released -- but the 16 AFL owners voted tonight to soldier on.

They are talking about making "long-term structural improvement(s)" to keep the league up and running. No details, of course, have been released, but for now the CFL can hold off on going to town on that all you can eat import buffet.

As someone that grew up with an illegal satellite beaming American sports programming into my home I've seen more than my share of arena football games. And, I still don't get it. But, no one wants to see a league fail, nor face up to what that might mean.

If it had folded it wouldn't have been the first pro league this year to throw the keys on the table either.

2 comments:

Andrew Bucholtz said...

Very interesting stuff, Duane. Apparently I jumped the gun. It's curious that an owner was willing to speak on the record about the season being dead if it wasn't, though, and this still doesn't sound all that hopeful, especially considering the lack of any schedule or dispersal draft.

Dennis Prouse said...

You may still be right, Andrew. Check out this adventure in double-speak:

“Despite rumors and reports to the contrary, the Arena Football League Board of Directors has not suspended the 2009 season at this time. The Board will continue to meet regularly to examine any and all long-term structural improvement options for the AFL.”

Translation - "We are still in deep fa-ha, but we are going to go cap in hand to the NFL and the networks before we turn out the lights for good." This league will survive if the NFL thinks it should. If the NFL doesn't share that view, it will die, plain and simple.