COLUMBUS, Ohio - The local business operations for the Columbus Destroyers and the other five Arena Football League teams have been suspended by the league.
The news about the local operations being suspended was first reported by the newspaper Albany Times-Union. The league champions, the Empire, play in Albany.
According to the Times-Union report, league commissioner Randall Boe said, “We haven't made a decision on whether to completely suspend operations. That’s a decision that will probably be made in the next several weeks. We do know, under any set of circumstances, we will not be continuing to operate business operation units in our local markets."
The league released the following statement:
Earlier today, the Arena Football League was forced to make the difficult, but necessary decision to close our team services and business operations units in our local markets.
These closures have resulted in the elimination of various staff positions, and is a direct consequence of the current financial constraints facing the AFL, which include extensive legacy liabilities and a recent multimillion-dollar litigation filed against the League by an insurance carrier that provided coverage for the AFL between 2009 and 2012. Those liabilities, which are all related to prior League operations, severely constrain the League’s ability to expand and operate.
The financial challenges we are now dealing with do not, however, reflect the determined efforts of our current shareholders to maintain the viability of the AFL. Our shareholders have made significant investments to restructure and re-launch the AFL and make it successful. Additionally, they have continued to work actively with the League office to grow the sport in their respective markets. Every touchdown celebrated and every ArenaBowl trophy ever hoisted can be credited to their efforts and to our incredibly loyal and growing fanbase.
The AFL is innovative, brave and fun. Our teams push barriers and continually experiment with dynamic ways to engage fans, creating some of the most memorable live action sports experiences.
We would like to thank our employees for their tremendous service during their time with the AFL and we value the important role they played in being our front-line ambassadors for the sport.
Looking forward, the AFL will continue to push ahead with efforts to identify solutions to address the aforementioned financial constraints. We have not yet made the final determination that it will be necessary to suspend all League operations, but we expect that decision to be made within the next few weeks. Should we not be able to move forward, we will issue information about all applicable refunds at that time. We are exploring every possible avenue to continue bringing AFL football to our fans, including further evolutions to the current business model, and are engaging with prospective investors and supporters who are interested in seeing the League continue to grow.
The Times-Union reported team employees will be paid for two weeks and that Boe said, "No one's quitting yet," in terms of the future of the league.
Boe also told the newspaper the league is looking at the possibility of being a traveling league saying, "We have been evaluating that as a potential model to go forward and keep the league alive. I hesitate to say that we have a sense that that is likely to be successful. It’s the thing that we're looking at. We really don't see an alternative to that.”
The Destroyers' return to Columbus was announced earlier this year.
At the time of the announcement, Boe said, “Columbus was a very successful AFL organization in the past, with its incredibly strong market. Judging by the enthusiasm we’ve seen since over the last several weeks, their future is looking incredibly bright. The fans are excited to have an AFL team back in Columbus – it’s going to be a great season for Arena Football.”
The team finished 1-11 in the 2019 season.
