The Alliance of American Football received a $250 million investment from Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon.
According to a report from The Athletic, the cash infusion was very much needed as the upstart league had trouble making payroll in its second week. Per the report:
According to the sources, there was one enormous problem, one that became obvious even before the AAF’s second weekend (Feb. 16-17) of games: The league was running short on cash, and quickly. Without new investors, there was a good chance it was going to miss payroll last Friday.
“Without a new, nine-figure investor, nobody is sure what would have happened,” one source said. “You can always tell people their checks are going to be a little late, but how many are going to show up on the weekend for games when they don’t see anything hit their bank accounts on Friday?”
Speaking to ESPN, AAF co-founder Charlie Ebersol denied the report. The AAF debuted to strong ratings in its first week, averaging 3.25 million viewers for their two games on CBS.
“This has been an extraordinary undertaking for us,” Ebersol said. “It’s a giant challenge and opportunity, and as a startup you are constantly looking for some peace of mind. When we got out of the first week of games, we saw there was so much interest from investors, and if we had one person who could take care of us for a very long time, that would be great.”
Dundon, a Dallas billionaire, has owned the Hurricanes since January 2018. He will become the new chairman of the Alliance. In a statement, he said he was impressed with the AAF’s “stunning” growth early on.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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