The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that the Arena Football League is "closing in on a new collective bargaining agreement with its players union. The new deal, expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, is likely to cut the players' share of revenues substantially. But without the change, owners were not willing to revive the operation."

The AFL canceled the 2009 season back in December because of financial issues and at the time, there was talk about moving single-entity ownership structure -- where one investor group would own the league and all its teams. If the Wall Street Journal report is correct, the league looks like it will be able to hang on without such a draconian move.

The Kansas City Star reports that the Arena Football League will cancel its 2009 season. Pete Likens, the director of communications for the Kansas City Brigade, told the newspaper that the players union agreed to the move last night and the owners will hold a final vote later today: "It's pretty much a done deal to suspend the 2009 season and work toward a single entity-league. We plan to start up again in 2010."

In 2006, the league sold a stake to ESPN and hoped that the increased television time would put it on solid financial footing, but clearly that didn't happen. The AFL had reportedly been working on a deal to sell a 40% stake to a private equity firm back in October in exchange for $100 million, but that didn't happen. The league has been without a commissioner since July.

The league has apparently decided that its survival will depend on a transition to a single-entity ownership structure, where a small group of investors own the league as a whole. Currently, the league is operated similar to the way the NFL is, with individual franchisees owning each team.

Bored NFL fans will now have to find something more productive to do with their summers.