AAFL signs lease with Birmingham Legion Field

[Fran]

Football league signs Legion Field lease
Thursday, October 19, 2006
WILLIAM C. SINGLETON III
News staff writer
The Birmingham Park and Recreation Board Wednesday approved a stadium-use agreement for a football franchise to use Legion Field in the spring.

The All American Football League hopes to start a new spring league in April 2007. The league will require players to have graduated from college and will be built around college fan bases.

About five to seven home games would be played at Legion Field, said Melvin Miller, director of Birmingham Park and Recreation.

The agreement would be for five years. Miller said the park officials have been negotiating with the league for eight months. The league is trying to secure eight locations to host football games.

"We're moving ahead and hopefully they'll start their season in 2007," he said.

The AAFL would be just the latest outdoor professional football league to make a stop in Birmingham. Past leagues were the World Football League, World League of American Football, United States Football League, North American Football League, Canadian Football League and XFL.

[ChampionOfSteel]

I remember ESPN being all over the USFL's coverage during its early stages with pictures/diagrams of the teams uniforms etc.

I'm an avid viewer of ESPN. Haven't seen anything mentioned about this league so far as of October, 27, 2006 and I find that odd.

League still hasn't had 8 locations determined. Spring of 2007 is how far away? Postponed season is forthcoming?

I'm certainly for this league and intend to watch their games, but I question maybe the idea of this league carrying thru on its wishes is more like Amway than Microsoft...err, I mean MacIntosh?

[rams80]

It could also be because ESPN has the NFL MNF package now.

Ever hear of not biting the hand that feeds you?

[oregonbri]

In the days of the USFL, it and ESPN had a lot in common. Both were trying to gain a foothold and faced a decent amount of competition. Now, ESPN is a near-monopoly, and the NFL is a total monopoly. No way will an NFL competitor get coverage on ESPN.

[SignGuyDino]

Not to mention the NFL now has a foothold on all the major networks, even getting on the Fox regional stations will be hard. Yes, the NFL WAS guilty of antitrust violations against the USFL, but in this case, no network is going to go out of it's way to put in football, even if not in competition with the NFL. No collusion is necessary, the NFL doesn't HAVE to say a work for the networks not to want anyone else anyway.

Then you have other channels like "Versus." God. I'd much rather see McMahon bring back the XFL an put it solely on SciFi and CW.

The rentals I'm hearing on those stadiums are absurd given there's no way they'll fill 10% of the seats after 2 weeks.

[phydeaux72]

Maybe one of the ESPN affiliates could pick it up, like ESPN2 or ESPNU.