Ted Leonsis is betting that the Arena Football League is ready to take its place in the sports landscape, and he was welcomed into the fold Wednesday by league officials and some of his fellow owners, including Gene Simmons of the legendary rock band Kiss.
The still-unnamed team owned by Leonsis will begin playing at Verizon Center in spring 2017. It has yet to choose a logo, mascot or players, but Leonsis, who owns the Monumental Sports & Entertainment, said arena football has the speed and excitement to appeal to younger “gamer” generations.
Simmons, who owns the aptly named Los Angeles KISS, as well as former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Ron Jaworksi, a co-owner of the Philadelphia Soul, were in town to welcome Leonsis during an announcement at Verizon Center.
The AFL was founded in 1987, but has struggled to become profitable. In 2009, the organization declared bankruptcy and canceled its season that year before reforming in 2010. In 2015, the New Orleans VooDoo and Las Vegas Outlaws closed down and the Spokane Shock left the league. The 2016 season has an eight-team league playing 16 games each.
Monumental declined to disclose financial details of the deal. I've reached out to the Arena Football League for more insight on the terms under which new franchises and owners are brought into the fold.
Leonsis is taking a long view financially.
“I think it’s a growth stock,” Leonsis said. “I feel very very comfortable that there is lots of upside in the AFL.”
Arena Football League teams play eight to a side on a padded surface 85 feet wide and 50 yards long, with 8-yard end zones. The games are tremendously fast-paced and high-scoring.
Leonsis and his fellow arena league owners are no doubt buoyed by the popularity of football in the U.S. The National Football League rakes in billions in profits annually, and college football arguably has more fans than any other American sports league.
The Washington Commandos were an inaugural member of the original Arena Football League in 1987. The team averaged 11,000 fans per game in its first year at the Capital Centre in Landover, but folded after the 1990 season.
Helping Leonsis is that the owner of the Washington Wizards, Capital and Mystics already has all the sports infrastructure in place — from venues and training facilities to ticket sales, operations and support staff — to make an AFL team work.
“It makes it a lot easier and a lot higher level of potential success because you just take the franchise and plug it into the platform,” Leonsis said.
Jaworksi said the league’s financial performance had been uneven but that Scott Butera, who was named commissioner in September 2014, has stabilized the league.
“Quite honestly, the business model has been uneven. But the business model has been fixed,” Jaworski said.
The Philadelphia Soul, Jaworksi said, has had profitable seasons and unprofitable seasons.
“We knew it was going to be a long-term investment. We believe our investment will pay dividends down the road,” Jaworksi said.
The ever-quotable Simmons nearly stole the show from Leonsis Wednesday, introducing himself as “the man in the band with the long tongue” before tipping his head to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and addressing her as “your honor.” He called arena football a 21st century pop culture spin on the game — and it's cheaper than the NFL, with $99 buying you a season ticket to games as well as in-your-face antics Simmons helped pioneer.
“We are in competition with TV and the gaming world and everything else that’s around young people," Simmons said. "The NFL is doing a great job but there is no reason why we can't take a big slice of that."
Simmons said the Los Angeles KISS is not yet profitable, but he likened it to a time when people tried to warn him away from putting on makeup and forming a band. Look how that turned out.
"It could turn around in a year," Simmons said of the AFL. "Anything can be profitable or at a loss depending on how you run your business. And we have to do a better job."
