Vincent K. McMahon, Brian Woods and Charlie Ebersol lay the ground work for the Alliance of American Football, the newest professional football league.
Brian Woods Creates Initial Plan for Football League
April 17, 2014
Austin, TX - NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent indicated the need for a developmental football league, so immediately, Brian Woods, a sports lawyer and executive Director of the Medal of Honor Bowl, put together a business plan to build exactly that. He envisioned a six franchise developmental league associated with the National Football League.
On May 7, 2014, Woods announced the Fall Experimental Football League. The league would launch in October.
“Our long-term goal is to establish a partnership with the NFL and we feel we can do that on many platforms. It would give them a way to work with younger players that they don't currently have. We can help them train prospective officials and coaches, just like the NBA does with the NBA Developmental League. We can be a testing ground for proposed rules, too!”
On August 20, 2014, Woods announced that the league would consist of just four teams due to money constraints.
Vincent K. McMahon Enters the Fold
September 5, 2014
Stamford, CT - McMahon approached Woods with an offer to fund this new football project. However, there would have to be drastic changes to the initial plan. McMahon's vision had the football league playing in the spring, and it wasn't going to be a developmental league for the NFL.
McMahon convinced Woods to delay the launch until February of 2016 so they could set this league up the right way. Learning from his failed XFL experiment back in 2001, McMahon knew a successful league would take time. McMahon set out to find other investors, and the first call he made was to former XFL business partner, Dick Ebersol.
The former NBC executive and XFL co-founder wasn't interested, but his son, Charlie Ebersol was. McMahon, Ebersol and Woods sought to focus first on creating a solid football product that would attract fans. They knew they needed experienced football players, coaches and executives to help prepare the league for launch.
Alliance of American Football is Announced to the World
March 20, 2015
Stamford, CT - The trio held a press conference to announce the Alliance of American Football(AAF) to the world. McMahon announced the new league, a league completely independent of the established NFL, would be
“tasked with reimagining the game of football. This sport has become stale, but that won't be the case any longer in February of 2016.”
McMahon announced that the league would initially be operated as a dual entity, with all teams owned and operated by the league under the corporate names, Alpha Entertainment LLC (McMahon), and Legendary Field Exhibitions LLC (Ebersol). The two ownership groups have already committed 600 million dollars to the new league, enough to finance the league, according to McMahon, for it's first five seasons. The league does plan to move towards the franchise model starting in year two or three when more investors and team owners join the fray.
Ebersol, then took the stage and spent a considerable amount of time outlining the major tenets of the new league.
-- An 8 team league to play a ten game season starting in February, concluding with an AAF Championship game for the 2016 season
-- Teams, along with their coaching staffs, venues, and identities will be announced over the next few months, with all teams expected to have full operations ready to go for ticket sales by July, and a player draft in October.
-- Each team will be allowed to negotiate a contract with a Quarterback for up to $1M prior to the initial AAF draft to help with promotion for the league. Non-QB player salaries are expected to estimate around $75,000. Each team's General Manager would be in charge of a $3M salary cap and 40 man roster.
-- The AAF is open to allowing collegiate underclassmen to sign and enter the AAF draft.
-- The AAF has already hired several members of it's football operations team, including the league's Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Luck, Director of Football Operations, Bill Polian, Senior Vice President of Football Operations, J.K. McKay, League President and Chief Operations Officer, Jeffery Pollack, Head of Business Operation, Tom Veit, and Director of Officiating, Mike Pereira.
-- Former NFL players Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu, Jared Allen and Justin Tuck were named as the Board of Advisors for Player Relations and Football Development.
-- Brian Woods would serve as the Director of Player Scouting and Director of League Development, while also being named as League Co-Founder.
-- The league has sent solicitations to thirty metropolitan areas as potential locations for a team.
-- The AAF explicitly wants to avoid any "minor league" developmental partnership with the NFL or any other league, as not to lose control of it's personnel decisions.
Woods, then steps forward to the microphone.
“To ensure professional-level football at launch, we're setting out to hire coaches, and general managers with professional football coaching and championship experience. You won't be disappointed with our choices.”