Major League Football

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Major League Football (MLFB) is a proposed professional American football league consisting of eight announced teams and all teams are league-owned. Major League Football, Inc., is a publicly traded company. In June 2016, eviction papers were served to the league for non-payment of rent beginning in March 2016 on its offices at the Lakewood Ranch, Florida, facility. There have been no official updates by the league since March 31, 2016.

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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 (all of which lasted less than five years), and the then current Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL). The league looked to establish teams in unrecognized U.S. markets such as Birmingham, AL, Memphis, TN, Las Vegas, NV, Orlando, FL, Portland, OR, Sacramento, CA, and San Antonio, TX. It also planned to develop a non-conflicting and competitive league to the National Football League and other sports leagues in the United States (including the Arena Football League and Indoor Football League) 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 were served with an eviction notice.

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, the 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.

Rules differences

The rules of the MLFB are basically the same as the NFL with a few differences such as:

A 30-second play clock instead of the NFL's 40 seconds.
50-yard field goals being worth 4 points (former NFL Europe rule).
The ground can cause a fumble.
In the case of overtime, a 10-minute period will be played to determine a winner. Similar to former NFL rules, first score wins the game. In the event the game is still tied after overtime, there are alternating possessions from the 10-yard line; teams get four plays to score a touchdown and 2-point conversion.

Maps Major League Football

Teams

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:

Alabama Airborne
Arkansas Attack
Florida Fusion
Northwest Empire
Ohio Union
Oklahoma Nation
Oregon Crash
Texas Independence
Utah Stand
Virginia Armada

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Staff

Wes Chandler - President (resigned July 20, 2017)
Michael Queen - Executive Vice President of Finance and CEO (resigned June 23, 2017)
Jerry C. Craig - President & CEO, Chairman (from June 23 to October 14, 2017)
Kristina E. Craig - Director of Marketing & Branding (resigned October 14, 2017)
Rick Smith - Chief Operating Officer (resigned July 21, 2017)
Ivory Sully - Vice President of Branding and Licensing (terminated July 20, 2017)
Frank Murtha - Senior Executive Vice President (terminated October 4, 2017, by then CEO Jerry Craig; returned to the position and as acting president on November 1 after Craig's departure)
Rick Nichols - Vice President of Business Development
Michael McCarthy - Director of Football Operations
Rose Schindler - SEC Counsel
John "JJ" Coyne - Vice President Project Management Officer
Herm Edwards - Major League Football Senior Advisor
Marc Bulger - Quarterback Advisory Team