SALT LAKE CITY — On a day better suited to downhill skiing than down-and-outs, the Salt Lake Stallions of the Alliance of American Football made their home debut on Saturday.
It was yet another venture into a market ever-ready for the next big thing.
Will the AAF thrive? Will the Stallions go on to become a community treasure?
Utah's entire sports history says no.
Everybody in a uniform on Saturday said yes.
I'll give the Stallions this: Anybody's football is better than college spring football.
So here come the Stallions. May their success render college spring games irrelevant — as if they weren't already. There are few things less interesting than an offseason preview in college football. Top players regularly sit out for precautionary measures. Then comes the annual game, which consists of a few boilerplate plays, some goofy scoring formulas and and a lot of stops and starts.
Given the state's history, odds of the Stallions and their league surviving aren't great, no matter who's backing it, with whatever money. Of all the teams in startup leagues that have come through Utah, none has survived. The Utah Warriors pro rugby team is just a year old. Major League Soccer was already a decade old when it added Real Salt Lake. The Utah Starzz lasted five money-losing years before the WNBA team relocated to San Antonio.
Practically everyone left before they could unpack.
Remember the Utah Rattlers? Maybe not. The Utah Saints? They folded the same year they began. Ike Austin, the former Jazz player, coached the Utah Snowbears of the "new" ABA. They made it through a season before hibernating.
Other names to forget: Blitzz (soccer), Freezz (soccer), Catzz (football), Blaze (football), Predators (volleyball), Stingers (volleyball), Lions (ultimate disc), Rollerbees (inline hockey), Prospectors (basketball), Argonauts (football), Screaming Eagles (football)... and numerous other hopefuls.
In an attempt to connect, some teams in the last century claimed insider names like Mormons, Elders and Saints — all of them baseball and all history.
No word on whether they played on Sundays.
The Stallions arrived at Rice-Eccles with two games already behind them, both losses. The first ominous note for the league came via a report in The Athletic that said the AAF was about to miss payroll after just two weekends. League officials disputed that. Regardless, the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes pumped $250 million into the coffers. CEO Charlie Ebersol denied there was ever a financial crisis.
Maybe the infusion of money was just a wonderful coincidence.
In any case, the few that did brave kickoff temperatures in the low 30s didn't seem to hate the product. How could they? Salt Lake won the game 23-15.
Arizona coach Rick Neuheisel went so far as to call it "a gorgeous day."
Stallions coach Dennis Erickson agreed.
"It was a beautiful day today," he said. "It was colder in Birmingham last week."
Maybe a win had something to do with it.
The product is what league promoters promised, many of the players local and some with NFL experience. The football was good quality: smart coaching, a professional-looking product and just two turnovers between them. In the days preceding the game, Erickson and players said the key to popularity and success will be winning. But that isn't the only key; otherwise those other Stallions — the ones from Birmingham of the long-ago USFL — would still be playing.
Predictably, few fans showed up live. Official attendance was 10,641, though actual numbers were maybe half that. Average attendance for the the original XFL averaged 23,410, if league figures are to believed — which they probably aren't. Either way, fans in the seats are one thing, TV ratings another. In the first two weeks, ratings were reportedly healthy.
If the league fails, it won't be for lack of effort, either on or off the field. Web-ready stats, check. Working press box, check. Public address and video board, check. Competent officials, check. Uniforms and quality of play, double-check.
Even the slogan was better than many professional teams, including the Jazz's "Team is Everything."
Stallions' slogan: "Full Steed Ahead."
Optimism was the mood of the day.
"It felt exactly like it did when I was playing in Mile High the last preseason game of 2017," said Arizona QB Trevor Knight.
That's a stretch. But better than spring football without a doubt.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2NrSQCQ
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