MLN Sports Zone - Minor League Sports Magazine

AFL on NBC?
Network plans for Arena Football to be the new “Must-See-TV”

Jonathan Roybal
MinorLeagueNews.com

08.01.02. - Real fun. Real Close. Real Football…This is the Arena Football League’s motto. One thing is certain: the AFL is real close to becoming America’s fifth major sport.

This is what James F. Foster had in mind when he drew the outline of the “50 yard war” on the back of a manila envelope while attending an indoor soccer game back in 1981.

So you haven’t been exposed to much Arena Football? You will. The league has entered into a new, revolutionary profit- sharing venture with NBC that will give the league long sought-after network coverage.

The television deal is the first of its kind in sports. NBC will not be paying the AFL a licensing fee, as all other networks pay the various leagues for the rights to broadcast their games.

NBC recently lost the NBA to ABC, after the league turned down the network’s offer of 1.3 billion dollars a year for the next four years. NBC also lost the NFL to CBS in 1998.

"What's happened over the last several years is that the costs for those rights fees has spiraled out of control to the point where not only is it not possible to make any money or break even," said Kevin Sullivan, Vice President of Communications for NBC Sports, "but you go into it knowing you are going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars."

In the ground breaking AFL/NBC deal, the two entities will share in the profits and share in the growth. NBC gets a share of the Arena Football League's earnings, and the Arena Football League gets a share of NBC's earnings.

Details on the specific percentages haven’t been disclosed but this is how it basically breaks down: NBC uses advertising revenue to pay its expenses. After expenses, the AFL gets the first “chunk” of the profits. Then any remaining profit is split between the two. This middle "chunk" of money is a direct replacement for the license fee.

Using this model, the league’s revenue from the broadcasts of the games remains in line with what the network can make from actual advertising fees.

The profit-sharing nature of the deal also assures Arena Football that NBC will not be giving up on the AFL like they did the XFL after the unsuccessful league's first season.

NBC is in for two years, no questions asked, no minimum ratings required. If the ratings are poor, the AFL and NBC must find a way to boost them in their own best interest.

"This is the same promotion that created must-see TV on Thursday nights, as well as a lot of real creative things over the years," said Sullivan. "That promotional firepower, coupled with the strength of NBC as a network, number one in news, number one in primetime, number one in late night, and number one in the morning - will give the AFL prominent exposure."

Remember, even the XFL had a large opening night audience because of the way NBC promoted it.

The network has no plans though to market the AFL as they did the XFL. Gone are all the phony, WWF-style “sports entertainment” gimmicks.

Instead, the AFL will be promoted as a solid, professional product.

"People are familiar with our product," said Glenn Horine, Executive V.P. of Business Development for the Arena Football League. "We don't have to go to that extreme. We don't need to have any theatrics or anything like that."

NBC does not want to make the same mistake they made with the XFL; the actual football obviously did not live up to expectations created by all the hype.

"We think the AFL is a really good product that has been established for 16 years," said Sullivan. "We think it appeals to young fans, which is something that the advertisers like. You have a game with a ton of scoring, a game for two-and-a-half hours long, give or take a few minutes. It's a terrific product."

Although the deal with the AFL comes only one year after the disastrous foray into minor-league football by way of the XFL, NBC anticipates no backlash from the ridicule that the XFL endured.

"There's really nothing about this that's like the XFL," assured Sullivan. "With the XFL, we owned half the league - it was a startup. The AFL is an established product. I wouldn't make that comparison."

After the first two seasons, if NBC is happy with the arrangement, the deal can be renewed with the same conditions for another four years. Additionally, no other network can come in and outbid NBC.

NBC has the option to renew or cancel every four years, and the four-year renewal option goes on indefinitely.

Having a major network as a partner isn’t the only thing the AFL has going for it.

The NFL has been taking a bigger interest in the AFL over the last few years. An increasingly amount of NFL owners have been buying Arena Football teams lately.

Among them are Jerry Jones (Dallas) and William Clay Ford Jr. (Detroit). Next year, John Elway and Broncos owner Pat Bowlen will bring a team to Denver and Saints owner Tom Benson will own the New Orleans team.

In 2004, Daniel Snyder (Washington), Wayne Weaver (Jacksonville) and Bud Adams (Nashville) plan to join the AFL.

ESPN analyst and former NFL QB Ron Jaworski is leading a group that has plans to put a team in Philadelphia.

Other crossover owners include Jerry Colangelo (Phoenix Suns/Arizona Diamondbacks) and Charles Wang (New York Islanders).

Obviously, the new NBC deal has carried some influence in the NFL’s growing attraction with Arena Football.

"The thing that got us over the hump was the fact that NBC came aboard and is going to be a partner for at least two years and get the Arena League the exposure it needs,'' John Elway was recently quoted. "We knew the game had been underexposed. It's a fast-past game with a lot scoring. Having kids myself, I know you have to keep them entertained all the time. That's exactly what arena football does.''

In 1999, the NFL had purchased an exclusive option to acquire an equity interest, of up to 49.9%, in the AFL.

Though the option expired in March with no acquisition, the NFL, who still has marketing and officiating agreements with the AFL, is open to revisiting the issue sometime in the future.

Even though the outlook appears to be very bright for the AFL, along with progress comes change.

The biggest change it would seem is the switch from Arena Football being played during the spring/summer season (March – August) to a winter/spring (February – June) schedule.

This is an alteration that should not be taken lightly. For the past 16 years, the AFL has used its summer season as a major selling point. “Where else would people want to be than inside an air-conditioned arena during the dog days of summer?" league officials reasoned.

It gives the impression of being a NBC mandate in an attempt to garner some ratings for the all-important February “sweeps month”.

The league has also changed from a 14 game season with two preseason contests, to a 16 game season and no preseason contests.

Getting two extra weeks of regular-season football means two more weeks to attract viewers. Face it, if nobody watches NFL preseason, do you thing the AFL version will be more appealing?

A less significant problem that NBC and the AFL faced was the conflict with two major NBC Sports broadcasts: The PGA Tour’s Players` Championship and U.S. Open. NBC holds both important golf events in the highest regard.

The solution: AFL games played during the Players` Championship (March 30, 2003) will not be aired on NBC. This is the only AFL weekend that will go uncovered by the network.

Meanwhile, a league bye-week will be created between the last round of the playoffs and the ArenaBowl so that NBC can air the U.S. Open (June 15, 2003) in its entirety.

NBC and the AFL will also be facing the daunting task of having their playoffs compete with the NBA playoffs during May and June. Anyone that knows anything can tell you that going up against the Shaq-Daddy is never easy.

Despite these hurdles, it comes as no surprise that everyone affiliated with both the AFL and NBC have no doubts this venture will be a smashing success.

No one is anticipating having to pull out the personnel file of unemployed half-naked cheerleaders in a pathetic ploy to boost viewer ship.

After all, they are confident in one fact: Arena Football is very entertaining.

Whether the AFL and NBC can translate that fast-pace, hard hitting, high scoring entertainment into ratings week after week remains to be seen.