AFL - Who is making money?

[Aaronhere]

I caught this in a July 13th story on Salt Lake being in the running for a franchise in the proposed United Football League:

According to the Reuters report, each owner will put up $60 million initially and should expect losses of $25 to $30 million a year for the first three seasons. The UFL is assuming a per-game attendance conservatively at 25,500. By comparison, the Utah Blaze franchise was bought for $18 million and drew a league high of 15,498 fans when it started play in 2006. It has yet to turn a profit, Garff said.

If Utah cannot make money with the best attendance in the league, who is making money in the AFL?

I found this from last year:
The Chicago Rush, the region's only reigning champion pro sports team, kicked off its season this month hungry for a second title-and its first profits. The local Arena Football League franchise has lost money in each of its six years of play, according to team President and General Manager Mike Polisky. But winning a league title may put the team in the black. Season ticket sales have increased more than a third since the Rush's ArenaBowl XX victory over the Orlando Predators in June, Mr. Polisky says, and this season they will take up more than 30% of the 16,000 seats at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont. Sponsorship revenue also has jumped.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-160953828.html

[Indoorfootballguy]

No one is in the AFL, that is why teams in the AFL are considering moving down to the af2, Georgia might be doing it this year

[jwalters]

Arena League teams have simply spent themeselves out of profitability. No matter what the level of play the AFL is never going to be any better received than as a niche sport. Hard to believe that Tampa once drew almost 30,000 to a game.

[Bruiser]

"Sponsorship revenue also has jumped"
This is where the money is for these teams.

They tried the more lucrative TV route for creating wealth
but it just doesnt translate well to the masses, so the AFL
can forget that pipedream. It will never become the cash
cow that they hoped for.

The dollars accumulated from ticket sales cannot sustain
these teams alone. Most of the AFL arenas hold under 20K.
Even those exaggerated 30K that Tampa published wouldn't
do it. That 30K would only generate about $4mil in revenue
(I'll pretend they actually sold those tix and didnt give half
of them away.) Even our pretend $4mil in tix sales is no
where near enough to maintain an AFL club in the black.

[cRUSHer]

To answer Aarons question about Utah.

Utah will run in the red till they recoup all the millions they
spent getting into the league in the first place.

Once that is done, perhaps they can break even
and then turn a profit if attendance and sponsorship
remain high.