Now You Can Tell Your Friends You Were an Arena League Champion

Those who ran the Arena Football League (you remember that? It’s the one ESPN unsuccessfully tried to cram down our gullets) swear that it’s only in temporary limbo, and will resume what is no doubt its impending dominance of the sports landscape any year now.↵↵I don’t know, though. Color me skeptical about the prospect of a sports league’s reemergence when it is auctioning off such bedrock things as the intellectual rights to the league’s name, team names and logos, the league’s championship trophy, the entire field turf from one of the arenas, and basically anything that isn’t nailed down.↵

↵↵Those are the kind of things you need to operate any kind of sustainable sports league is all I’m saying. Not to mention the fact that there are a number of outstanding debts left to be settled to the original creditors.↵

↵↵⇥There is no minimum bid or value listed for the assets and all proceeds are earmarked for a wide-ranging list of AFL creditors, including Fifth Third Bank, the largest secured creditor, which is owed $7.7 million. Other nonsecured creditors include former rights holder NBC, which is owed $1.59 million. Former AFL Commissioner David Baker is owed $985,000. ↵⇥↵⇥Former TV rights holder and minority investor ESPN is owed $540,000 and the AFL Philadelphia Soul franchise, co-owned by Jon Bon Jovi, is due $219,250.↵⇥

↵↵↵The deadline for bids on the league is Nov. 20, with the auction scheduled for Nov. 25. A savvy investor in sports detritus could join the purchase of the AFL with the recently auctioned Pontaic Silverdome and have themselves a massive Thunderdome of incredibly mediocre football. ↵

↵↵Or you could just go to a UFL game.↵

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