A sign of life?

Well, Well, Well. What do you know. I headed over to the AAFL site on a lark and the site looks shiney and new. Maybe this league will get off the ground after all. There is some language on the site that play will begin in 2010. I'll try to track down some info.

Bummer of a Day

The stock market is down. Gas costs $3.45/Gallon. The NBA playoffs are the only semi-watchable thing on TV. We should be two games into the AAFL season and talking about the upcoming game with Team Tennessee.

I popped over to the AAFL site and they have removed links to the team pages. The forums are down as well. They have made some changes and it looks like they are trying to get things together for 2009. In the new 'About the AAFL' section it is confirmed that the TV/Radio deal was with NFL Network and Sirus.

2009

The AAFL has decided to delay their season until 2009. They are trying to sound up beat about it, but lets be frank...this sucks.

ALL AMERICAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE® POSTPONES INAUGURAL SEASON UNTIL 2009

For Immediate Release
March 13, 2008

ATLANTA, GA – The All American Football League (AAFL) announced today the postponement of its inaugural season until 2009. The League will continue to build upon the foundation that has been established, and will continue to discuss opportunities with potential investors.

AAFL sponsors have committed to remain on board for the 2009 season. Currently, the League has corporate partnerships with New Balance, Baden Sports and Rogers Athletic. Also still in place for the 2009 season are a national radio partnership with Touchdown Radio & SportsDay Productions, and an internet broadcast partnership with PlayOn! Sports, a division of Turner Broadcasting.

“We are so very fortunate to have built partnerships with companies who are partners in the truest sense of the word,” said Keenan Davis, AAFL VP of League Operations and COO. “We sincerely appreciate their support as we progress toward our new goal of a 2009 inaugural season.”

All fans who have purchased tickets to 2008 AAFL games will receive a full refund. Credit cards will be credited and any checks received will be returned.

Additional details regarding the AAFL’s postponement are forthcoming.

I'll keep you up to date on any big news that comes up. Team Texas isn't dead yet, but they are on life support. Hopefully we'll soon be covering the 2009 season and not writing an obituary.

TV deal announced to lure investors

CBS 42 has an update on the AAFL Situation

The AAFL is finalizing major national television and radio deals this week, which should be welcome news to interested financial partners. Terms of this agreement require the official announcement is to be made by the broadcast entities and is contingent on the league locating an additional investor(s). The league announced last week that it was actively seeking additional funding to counter the negative repercussions of the liquidity crisis in the asset-backed financial markets, which have seriously affected the League’s majority owner' ability to personally finance the League.

This national TV agreement will guarantee that the following 21 (of this season’s 32 games) will be broadcast in HD by a well-known prestigious national network.

Now rumor has it that the network is the NFL network. I sure hope this stirs up some investors quickly. Lets be honest. Things are still grim. Maybe they can get their hands on some of that 200 Billion the Fed is going to be loaning out.

AAFL still shooting for 2008

It looks like they may delay camp for a little while to finalize some things. I do hope things pan out for the AAFL:

Fox News - AAFL

Bad News for the AAFL

The bad economy seems to be hitting all sorts of areas these days:

ALL AMERICAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE® LOOKING FOR
NEW MAJORITY OWNER TO SALVAGE '08 SEASON

In an attempt to secure kickoff of its inaugural season as well as its long-term future and success, the All American Football League® has begun discussions to explore multiple financing options.

Since inception, the League's finances have been indirectly tied to the $300 billion federally guaranteed student loan asset backed securities market. In August, the sub prime mortgage crisis began spreading into other sectors such as municipal bonds and federally guaranteed student loans. The situation, which was considered to be temporary at the time, has continued to worsen.

Despite the fact that the Federal Reserve has repeatedly lowered interest rates during this financial crisis, their efforts have not yet restored liquidity in many asset backed markets, including municipal bonds and student loans.

The League held its inaugural draft in January, and the team rosters and staffs are all in place. All teams are scheduled to open training camp Wednesday if liquidity can be immediately restored.

Every effort is being made to insure that the '08 season will be played as planned, but this depends upon a locating new majority owner with the needed liquidity, which in turn depends upon the League being able to finalize a TV deal. Otherwise, the inaugural season will be postponed to '09.

If you have the big bucks...please contact the AAFL immediately.

Team Texas Practice Schedule

It looks like you'll be able to go check out Team Texas practices during the week if you would like:

Our regular season practices will be in Spring at a middle school facility up there. Those practices will be Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday we will practice at Rice Stadium. And on Saturday, we play.
We will have a map to our practice sites once we get them officially signed.

From Here

Team Texas Adds 10 in Supplemental Draft

Team Texas Supplemental Draft picks (by round)
1. Brandon Smith, CB – Cal State Sacramento
2. Jermaine Carpenter,WR – Pittsburgh (Kansas) State
3. Marcus Jasmin, DT – Texas A&M
4. Shawn Terry, WR – West Virginia
5. Quinton Smith, RB – Rice University
6. Kevin Garrett, DB – SMU
7. Nick Bunting, LB – Tulsa
8. Derrick Baker, WR – Norfolk State
9. Jake Arians, K – UAB
10. Chris Glenn, LB – William Jewel

AAFL Source has more on Team Texas' Draft.