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As you know, the AAF suspended football operations yesterday. According to Clay Travis, the AAF actually approached Vince McMahon about buying their league because of the lack of money for a second year. McMahon declined, finding they had nothing he didn’t already have to offer.

“The AAF folding is massively good news for the XFL. The AAF demonstrated there is high demand for spring football and the XFL has the financial clout to pull it off.”—@ClayTravis pic.twitter.com/kh0VPdVewm

— Outkick the Coverage (@Outkick) April 2, 2019

Ben Kercheval of CBS Sports is also reporting that the conversations with the AAF and the XFL actually go back to December of last year, prior to the AAF debut. It seems that the AAF hasn’t been as financially stable as they lead everyone to believe, which is very unfortunate for the players, coaches, employees and fans of the league.

More AAF fallout. I'm told by a source close to the situation that the AAF and XFL had multiple conversations about a merger. Those conversations included a meeting in December of last year, but that was not the first meeting. Those conversations were ongoing as well.

— Ben Kercheval (@BenKercheval) April 3, 2019

It’s also worth noting that since the AAF has folded there has been word that the XFL has spoken to the AAF about purchasing various assets. There is no specifics on what exactly they are looking to acquire, but I would think along the lines of technology and equipment, rather than names and logos.

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Yesterday Darren Rovell reported that Charlie Ebersol was being sued by former business partner Bob Vanech. XFL2k has obtained a copy of the lawsuit and have come across some interesting things of note.

The lawsuit claims that Bob Vanech and Charlie Ebersol collectively created the idea of XFL 2.0, which has become the Alliance of American Football (AAF). Vanech feels he is entitled to 50% of the AAF. The following should give some more clarity, directly from page two of the lawsuit:

1. This case is about the untold and complete story of how the Alliance of American Football (the “AAF”), a new professional football league, was conceived, founded, announced, and launched.

2. As early as May of 2017, Defendant Charles “Charlie” Ebersol (“Charlie Ebersol”) has been peddling a fictional tale regarding the genesis of the AAF that only a Hollywood storyteller could conceive. The truth is that Ebersol was one of two AAF co-founders that formed a joint venture or partnership agreement in furtherance of launching the AAF, and that he conspired with his father, Duncan “Dick” Ebersol, Keith Rabois, William “Bill” Polian, Thomas “Tom” Veit, and others, to co-opt and purloin fellow co-founder Robert Vanech’s 50% ownership interest and other rights and benefits through a series of deliberate, fraudulent, intentional, wrongful and deceptive acts, as well as oust him from the partnership/joint venture that became known as the AAF.

3. Plaintiff Robert Vanech (“Vanech”) is entitled to his 50% ownership interest in
Defendant Legendary Field Exhibitions LLC, d/b/a Alliance of American Football, a professional football league, that is now nearly three (3) weeks into its first season of games, and recently secured a $250,000,000 commitment in funding from businessman and owner of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, Thomas “Tom” Dundon, as a result, in part, of Vanech’s contributions to the business. Plaintiff is informed and believes that this further funding was structured in such a way as to grant Dundon and/or others equity in the AAF, which required Vanech’s consent given the 50/50 equity agreement Vanech had with Charlie Ebersol, as well as their agreement regarding how the business was to be structured and controlled. Vanech is further entitled to seek declaratory relief as to Defendant Ebersol Sports Media Group, Inc.’s role in any control or ownership of the AAF, which was born out of a joint venture or partnership agreement initially dubbed the secret code word for the business, “XFL 2.0,” then later “Project Phoenix.

In the filing, Vanech attached a copy of the AAF’s, then referred to as XFL 2.0, sales presentation that was to be used during pitches. The presentation outlines who they are, their corporate timeline, how they plan on acquiring the XFL rights from WWE, their original planned markets, their expansion plan, as well as some insight on how they wanted to distribute the games. I went through and pulled some notable slides which you can see below. If you would like to view the full filing, you can do so here.

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We reported earlier that the AAF almost missed payroll this week, initially blaming it on a technical glitch. Then today, it was announced that Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has made a $250 million investment in the league, which seems to be a bail out.

Charlie Ebersol, the CEO and co-founder of the new Alliance of American Football has been on damage control, telling numinous publications on Tuesday that the Alliance of American Football (AAF) was never in any serious financial jeopardy, contradicting a report in the Athletic that said the AAF needed to be bailed out by Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon.

“It was not urgency,” Ebersol told PFT by phone, explaining that the AAF has been structured like a tech startup, with multiples rounds of investments planned. Dundon decided to short-circuit the process.

“‘You can raise Series A, Series B, Series C, or you can raise Series Infinity right now,’” Dundon told Ebersol.

Ebersol opted to accept the offer from Dundon, who had been studying the AAF for the past year, and who decided to make his move after the league’s performance in its debut weekend.

It was the kind of payment that none of other investors were capable of making, and it makes Dundon the largest institutional investor in the league. He’ll instantly become chairman of the Board of Director. Ebersol will continue to run the business side of the AAF, Polian will run the football side of the AAF, and Dundon will remove the fundraising obligation from Ebersol’s plate.

I assumed we’d see something like this come from the league, and hopefully everything they’re saying is true. I enjoy football, and I don’t mind the XFL having extra competition if the AAF is still around this time next year.

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