Alliance of American Football co-founder Bill Polian said Wednesday there are no plans to expand beyond the league’s original eight teams heading into the 2020 season.
There are also no plans, at this point, to relocate any franchises after this inaugural season.
“Expansion I don’t think is on the front burner,” Polian said. “We still have lots of work that we need to do to solidify our league and solidify ourselves in the local markets. So I don’t think expansion is a high priority item at this time.
“We haven’t even really given a thought to relocation, because we really don’t have a firm handle because of the untoward weather that’s affected the Southeast. We don’t really have a handle on what many of the markets are really like when you got a nice day and temperatures are in the 50s or 60s. So that’s an incomplete picture at this point in time.”
Expansion became more of a topic after the league was sued last month, and the lawsuit revealed a proposed business plan with potential expansion cities. At least for now, though, there are no plans to grow the league or to move any of the teams from their current locations.
In some stadium lease contracts reviewed by ESPN, the AAF and cities agreed to three-year leases for various venues. There are buyouts in the contracts if the league needed to escape the agreement. The agreement with Atlanta, for example, goes through May 2021.
Some franchises, like Orlando and San Antonio, have had success with attendance. Others, like Arizona and Atlanta, have struggled. Television ratings have also remained somewhat consistent throughout the first half of the season, including an estimated 409,000 people watching Saturday night’s Orlando-Salt Lake game, according to ShowBuzz Daily. Sunday night’s Atlanta-Arizona game on NFL Network drew an estimated 450,000 viewers.
Polian said the AAF is starting to plan for recruiting and signings for the 2020 season. He also expects some AAF players to be signed by NFL teams at the conclusion of the season.
As for quarterback Johnny Manziel, who was released by the CFL in late February, Polian said there have been “feelers” placed with people close to him and that the league has completed about 50 percent of its “due diligence” on the quarterback.
He also said the $250 million investment in the league by Tom Dundon last month has given “long-term” stability to the AAF.