Several veteran sports media and finance executives are planning for the Spring League of American Football (SLAF) to begin play as early as 2018.
The group is led by longtime broadcast media executives Michael and Rex Lardner and longtime Madison Square Garden CFO Robert Pollichino. The structure of the league will divide the U.S. into exclusive territories based on competitive collegiate football rivalries. Players can compete only for the team in the territory where they played college football.
The announcement for SLAF followed a group commissioned research study by Beta Research Corporation, which showed fans have a high level of interest in the concept.
Some statistics from the research showed that 83 percent of men who watch TV sports (18 -34) would make every effort to watch SLAF, or be more likely to watch SLAF games, and 20 percent of those who do not stream programming through a service like Netflix or Amazon Prime would be very likely to subscribe to a streaming service if it was the only way to view a professional spring football game.
“Not only do the numbers make sense for the fans, the financial model shows it is a solid investment for the individual team-owners as well as the advertisers and league members,” Pollichino added. “Financially it works – yes. But for the fans it works as well. College players develop a strong following at their respective universities. We are capitalizing on that fan loyalty, by keeping players in the same region where they played college ball.”
SLAF plans to have 10 teams and a 10-game schedule, not including playoffs, and will pit players from the Texas/Southwest Region against players from the Florida/Southeast Region, as well as other geographic rivalries.
SLAF players can try out for the league when their college eligibility expires. The season will run from April through early July and will utilize a combination of NFL and NCAA football rules. The executive team is currently in negotiations with additional ownership groups and media partners.
