Personally, I don't think the Blaze (or the new AFL1) will make it through the season.

They have indicated that they will be playing at the E-Center, but there is no deal in place with them. I just don't see it happening on time.

I can understand why you might think that the Blaze will not last, but why do you not think that the AF1 will not last? They must have some money when they spent $6.1 million for the rights to the AFL assets. Are you saying that the individual teams probably will not make it even if the league does?

They won't last because they are still trying to run their league like it is the NFL. Only 2 teams even end the year in the black, and that was when they had big town teams. Now they are stressing the medium sized markets with Major League spending and will put them in the hole as well. There is a reason San Jose is in the AIFA and why 32 teams showed up to the AFL/af2/AF1 meetings and only 16 teams stepped up to play and even more have folded/changed leagues sense. Their business model is a joke and is made for the league itself to make money not the teams. That is why the league could spend 6.1M because the rich get richer and they don't care about what happens to the teams as long as the league gets their royalties, naming rights, marketing rights, franchise rights etc. and all that has to be paid to them setting each team over a quarter of a mill in the hole before they even pay their staff yet alone sign players. The Fake Blaze are in over their heads is all im saying and would have made more sense to stay in a lower league and build a reputation and fan base instead of jumping station to station and starting from scratch and in the red even more than before

I believe it was Donald Trump who coined the phrase OPM (Other Peoples Money). I did a little poking around, and it seems like the money that this new wannabe league is throwing around is from a "group of investors", meaning that the coaches and more well off players that were out of a job when the AFL folded have talked their wealthy friends into gambling on a new league.

They have no shot of succeeding! As soon as they fail at getting a decent TV deal, and the season starts off with low attendance numbers, the investors will get nervous and run for the hills. If you have been around indoor football, then you can probably list a dozen now defunct leagues that folded after (or during) their first season.

As far as the Blaze, if they actually do make the move to the E-Center, maybe they will have a shot. After the AFL1 folds, they can come back to the AIFA and probably run the table. Assuming they don't go broke first.

Isn't the team fee to get into the AF1 at $300,000? If so, where did the Blaze get that kind of money after playing in the AIFA?

The Blaze were one of the teams in the original AFL that were a success. They lead the league in attendance. They weren't great statistically, but they made money. The Thunder changing their name to the Blaze was a great business decision. The move to the E-Center could be a good decision as well. If they can average just half of what the original Blaze averaged attendance wise, they will have 8000 fans. Moving to SLC is a great move as well. Utah a dumb law that alcohol can not be sold on state run facilities, hence when they were the Thunder they had ZERO alcohol sales. The only problem is that this is not going to be even close to the same product that the original Blaze were and that will drive fans away.

Why no alchohol? Is that from the Morman influence on the state?

From what I understand, the new Blaze/Thunder will be playing at Energy Solutions at least for this year. In my humble opinion, this is the nail in the coffin for them.

At the E-Center they could drop ticket prices to a reasonable figure and fill the place. There are just too many crummy seats at the Delta Center (old name).

As far as why I think the new AF1 league is doomed. Pretty much all the teams are newly funded. New investors will press for immediate results. Those results just won't be there for a couple seasons. There won't be a lucrative TV deal (hopefully there will be at least some TV). Former sponsors will be reluctant to pony up the cash for a league that was so hastily organized. The lack of top name talent will hurt season ticket sales. The best a team can hope for is to break even in the first year of a new venture like this.

The good news is that the AIFA can scoop up the talent as the teams fold.

Word is that the league has already lined up 6-8 new teams for next season with possibly a north and south division on the west coast. That is just talk now and whether these teams step up to the plate next year is a whole different thing. And if the league doesn't lose 5 or 6 teams like it normally does.