Major League Football


Major League Football is a proposed professional American football league consisting of teams that are all league-owned. Major League Football, Inc., is a publicly traded company.
The league "will operate at a level well under what the AAF, and XFL were".

League history

Major League Football was founded in December 2014 with the intention of a being a spring football league in an attempt to fill the void left by minor or development football leagues such as the World Football League, the United States Football League, the XFL and United Football League, and the then current Fall Experimental Football League. The league looked to establish teams in unrecognized U.S. markets such as Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; Las Vegas, Nevada; Orlando, Florida; Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; and San Antonio, Texas. It also planned to develop a non-conflicting and competitive league to the National Football League and other sports leagues in the United States and expand the media platform. The league named former NFL player Wes Chandler as its first president.
The MLFB is a single-entity business model where the league owns and operates all of the teams with franchises in cities that are absent of NFL or Major League Baseball teams. The MLFB's goal is to have franchises be individual owner and operated by 2019 or 2020. Average attendance is expected to be between 12,500 and 15,000 fans by the end of the first season and run from April to July.
The MLFB originally planned on having its inaugural season in spring 2016. In January 2016, the MLFB held a draft for eight teams based on territory. However, in February 2016, a major financial backer of the league backed out of a $20 million commitment putting the league's first season in jeopardy. The league continued to push forward in an attempt to start games in April 2016, but the league was unable to come up with the needed financials in order to operate a full season. On March 31, the league announced that the first season would be postponed and 2016 would be considered a "developmental" year. However, by June 2016, the league would miss at least four months of rent payments on its headquarters in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, and eviction papers were served for non-payment of rent beginning in March 2016.
In early 2017, the league registered websites for some of their teams that listed eight teams in the league: Alabama Airbourne, Arkansas Attack, Florida Fusion, Ohio Union, Oklahoma Nation, Oregon Crash, Texas Independence, and Virginia Armada.
In mid-2017, the league operations were taken over by Jerry C. Craig and a new group of directors based out of Huntington Beach, California. However, by October 2017, Craig apparently had failed to follow through with a purchase agreement and the general counsel resigned. On October 14, Craig also vacated his position as CEO and Director leaving the publicly traded company without management. Craig then went on to announce he was starting another league, with proposed start in spring 2018, called the Professional Football League. His new league also stated they would start with eight cities and listed several of the general managers and coaches associated with the MLFB as part of the new league. Craig also clarified the PFL is a privately held entity and has no official association with the publicly traded MLFB.
On April 25, 2018, MLFB filed a Form 10-K with the intent to restart the league with an abbreviated 2018 season beginning in June or July prior to fully launching in March 2019. However, the start date was postponed every time the company filed a quarterly financial report. By July 2019, the league stated it was planning a 2020 start with six teams and that it had agreed to purchase most of the equipment from the recently defunct Alliance of American Football. The AAF equipment had been bought by former Arena Football League commissioner Jerry Kurz in a bankruptcy auction earlier that month.
In January 2020, CEO Frank Murtha stated that the MLFB is "a developmental showcase league, with games in May and June in six midsize cities - Little Rock, Arkansas; Norfolk, Virginia; Canton, Ohio; and so on - that aren't served by the NFL or, for that matter, Major League Baseball" and said that the annual operating budget will be in the "ballpark of $30 million" as a single entity. The centralized all-players training camp is scheduled for April in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, where the league is headquartered.

Rules differences

The rules of the MLFB are basically the same as the NFL with a few differences such as:
While currently unannounced, the MLFB has filed trademarks for ten regional teams and have held a territorial draft for eight teams in which coaches draft based on region. The reported names are:
On January 12, 2016, MLFB announced a two-year television deal with the American Sports Network.