Virgil Williams buying Arena Football team
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by John Lombardo
Atlanta businessman Virgil Williams is putting the finishing touches on a $12 million deal to bring an Arena Football League team to Atlanta. It would be the highest amount ever paid for an indoor league franchise.
The deal to move the Nashville Kats franchise to Atlanta comes about a week after the AFL shuttered poorly performing teams in South Florida, Houston, Oklahoma City and Milwaukee.
Williams is a former owner of Georgia Trend magazine.
The relocation deal clears the way for Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams to buy an AFL expansion team in Nashville. The AFL's board of directors has already approved Adams' application for a team to play no later than the 2004 season.
League sources confirmed that the $12 million franchise fee is a new benchmark for teams that two years ago were selling for $8 million. Driving the franchise values is an option deal that would allow the NFL to buy up to 49 percent of the AFL. If consummated, that union would likely drive prices even higher. In the meantime, the AFL is offering NFL owners a deep discount on teams. The option expires in March.
The four markets abandoned by the league may not be permanently out of the AFL picture. Officials said they hope eventually to return with new ownership groups, preferably from the NFL.
Of the four teams that were axed, the Milwaukee Mustangs franchise was the strongest, with an average attendance last year of 9,623, eighth among the AFL's 19 teams that played last season. But the AFL decided to eliminate the team because of arena issues surrounding a scheduled renovation of the Bradley Center.
"The league gave me the option to relocate to a different city, but my roots are here in Milwaukee, and if possible, I'd like to keep the team in Milwaukee," said owner Andrew Vallozzi in a statement. "However, under the current Bradley Center proposed renovation it is necessary to continue examining the possibility of relocating the franchise to a different city in the future. Unfortunately, I have no assurance that I will be able to continue to play in the Bradley Center and, therefore, was unable to move forward."
The AFL's contraction agreement calls for the league to buy back the Houston and Oklahoma franchises for an undisclosed sum while retaining the rights to sell the Milwaukee and South Florida teams.
"It was the right decision for the long term," said AFL Commissioner David Baker. "It's painful for the folks in those markets, but we may be back. For one reason or another, things happened that kept those owners from being the kind of strong owners that are needed for the long term."
The AFL will field 16 teams next season.
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