Wall Street Hits Main Street at the Football Stadium

We have heard all the stories about how problems on Wall Street is having a negative effect on the neighborhoods we live in. Just today, that story hit a little close to home. There has been a great deal of local excitement about Team Texas of the All American Football League. Recently, I interviewed several of its players and it appeared they had developed a substantive league that could become quite successful.

It was going to have decent (but not outrageous) salaries (up to $100,000 a year). It included players you could be proud of -- you had to be a college graduate to play on a team. In many respects, it was like "graduate school" for college football. You know how successful college football has been.

On March 13th, the league released the following statement:

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."

This story came from the Canadian Press:

The league's chief executive officer, Marcus Katz, said economic conditions forced the decision to scrap plans for this year.

"I invested 29 million dollars in cash to roll out the operations of the league," Katz said, adding he was owed "a lot more money" by a student loan company.

"When I told the board I would subsidize the league, that was before the bond market collapsed," Katz said.

Wall Street has not hit our neighborhoods and Main Street, but even our local football stadium.

I liked the concept and hope it is able to make a come back.

Here is a recent interview I had with Mike Pede of the league.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

The All American Football League: A Novel Approach to Pro Sports

On Tuesday of this week's Houston Business Show I interviewed Mike Pede of the All American Football League. Any regular listener of my show or reader of this blog knows that I'm a big fan of sports and to those teams that are aspiring to attract fans against the very competitive major leagues.

The problem with most of these leagues is that they either pretend to be on the same tier as the major teams, play the same time of the year as when they play, or don't offer any unique features to make fans interested. I think that the new All American Football League may have addressed these issues effectively:

* The season begins right after the NFL season ends. Soon enough where people are still thinking about football, late enough not to interfere with the "big boys."

* You actually have to be a college graduate to participate in this league. Being educated is one of the elements to being a good example. This is a positive for young fans.

* The salaries will attract higher quality people, but people who are still hungry. Each team will have six players who make $100,000 a year and around 40 who will make $50,000. This is similar to the Arena Football League.

* They give a great "college feel" that provides an excellent -- and unique -- niche. They plan on only operating in college stadiums (Houston's team will play at Rice University's stadium). In fact, they go to great lengths to align players to teams that are close to where they went to school.

All in all, it is too early to say whether this approach is going to work, but I'm optimistic. I love sports and particularly those teams filled with hungry players that desire to take it to the next level. It will be interesting to see how this new league matures.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.