ORLANDO, Fla. _ Charlie Ebersol, the CEO and co-founder of the new Alliance of American Football, told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday his fledgling league was never in any serious financial jeopardy _ directly contradicting a report in the Athletic that said the Alliance needed to be financially bailed out by an emergency $250 million investment from Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon
Dundon was named the league's new chairman of the board of directors on Tuesday morning _ a few hours after The Athletic reported late Monday night that the league was "running short on cash" and needed an influx of money to avoid the possibility of being unable to make payroll.
Darren Rovell, the reputed sports business reporter for Action Network, tweeted out Tuesday, "The AAF missed payroll in Week 1. They told agents that it was a glitch with switching to a new administrator. They told players they would be paid by today."
In fact, league players, including those who play for the Orlando Apollos, were supposed to be paid on Friday and were paid on Tuesday.
Ebersol told the Sentinel that the league always had the money to meet payroll and has never been in any financial jeopardy. In fact, he said the league has received such positive reviews after only two weeks of its inaugural season that Dundon wanted to buy-in and become the league's biggest investor.
"I felt good last week; I'm euphoric this week," Ebersol said.
Said Dundon in a statement released by the AAF: "As a lifelong sports fan and entrepreneur, I've always valued the opportunities generated in the ecosystem of sports and entertainment. I'm impressed with The Alliance's stunning growth in-stadium and across TV, mobile and social media in just these first few weeks."
Said Ebersol to the Sentinel: "We are a start-up, and start-ups raise money in pieces _ there's a Series A piece, Series B, Series C, etc. After the success of the first week, we had a number of investors come to us and offer us all kinds of different investments. Tom Dundon showed up and said, 'Do you want to continue to raise Series B, Series C and Series D or do you want to raise Series Infinity right now and be taken care of from now on.' That was an offer I was not going to refuse."
Presumably addressing the Athletic's portrayal of Dundon's investment, Ebersol added: "How people interpret the relationship (with Dundon) and how quickly it came together is their business, but if I was going to describe to you my dream investor, I would have told you a 47-year-old football fan who has professional sports ownership experience and is self-made _ a man who went from zero to billions of dollars completely on his own work. That describes Tom Dundon."
