Subprime claims a new victim: football?

Posted Mar 6th 2008 4:14PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Business of Sports

Hoping to capitalize on the shuttering of NFL Europe, the All American Football League is scheduled to kickoff its inaugural season on April 12 ... or, it was.

In a statement on the league's website, the AAFL stated the following:

Since inception, the League's finances have been indirectly tied to the $300 billion federally guaranteed student loan asset backed securities market. [...] 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 [...] Otherwise, the inaugural season will be postponed to '09.

Eek. Is there no end to the reach of subprime's wretched tentacles? Is nothing sacred? Not even football? The league was set to pay its players an average of $100,000 for year-round players, and $50,000 for part-timers. The goal is/was to attract the best non-NFL players in the world, but instability could make that tough. In addition, the league has not yet secured a TV deal -- which could also be made difficult by the uncertainty.

Maybe we can get Ben Bernanke on this one. If we're going to help people stay in homes they shouldn't have bought in the first place, then Uncle Sam should definitely intervene to give football fans something better than Arena Football during the long off-season.

Tags: AAFL, Football, Subprime