ESPN Report Claims Difficult Working Conditions For Salt Lake Stallions

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – New details have emerged about the demise of the Alliance of American Football and the ones relating to the Salt Lake Stallions are nothing short of incredible.

In a longform exposé written by ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and Michael Rothstein, the “short, unhappy life” of the AAF was on full blast. In the article, the gritty details of the league’s failed attempts at securing long-term funding were revealed. In short, the league founder, Charlie Ebersol, had a really tough time making ends meet as some of his key investors came up short on their promises as expenses grew larger than expected.

The AAF folded in April, just six weeks into its first season, in a decision made the league’s majority owner, Tom Dundon, who also owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. According to Dundon and the article, the league was hemorrhaging around $70 million and was unable to make payroll for players and staff at the time of its folding.

#ReinDown | #FullSteedAhead pic.twitter.com/pEaA0jdZ9D

— Salt Lake Stallions (@aafstallions) April 3, 2019

Embedded in the ESPN article, which was written after 40-plus interviews with personnel from around the league, were some amazing stories about the Salt Lake Stallions.

It seems that of any team, the Stallions had the hardest time of all. Reportedly two of the team’s top executives met up to work out of a local McDonald’s due to not having proper office space even as the season drew just weeks away.

pic.twitter.com/GlP7SFk25y

— The Alliance (@TheAAF) April 6, 2019

Later on, the league was able to send some shipping containers to the team to serve as temporary offices for the football operations staff, outfitted with cubicles. However, the AAF sent fewer containers than needed, so it’s probably a safe assumption that working conditions were quite cramped.

At the time of the AAF’s suspension of operations on April 2, the Stallions had a 3-5 record.

The full article on ESPN is available here.