[3][1][4] The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan areas with at least one major professional sports franchise.

After eight weeks of play, however, the league's football operations were suspended by controlling owner Thomas Dundon on April 2.

[9] Exhibits in a lawsuit filed by Robert Vanech, who claimed to have co-founded the AAF, state that Ebersol had originally approached McMahon about relaunching the XFL but was unable to come to an agreement, as Ebersol wanted control of the XFL brand and was willing to pay $50 million for the trademark, which McMahon was unwilling to sell.

[9] The AAF was overseen by former NFL general manager Bill Polian, former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, and executive J. K. McKay.

[12] Ebersol attended the first XFL game in Las Vegas in 2001, and remembered how disappointed his father was by the poor quality of play.

On November 27, the league held a four-round "Protect or Pick" quarterback draft in the Esports Arena at Luxor Las Vegas and broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

[12] The first points in AAF regular season history were scored by kicker Younghoe Koo of the Atlanta Legends, who made a 38-yard field goal against the Orlando Apollos.

[30] A four-team playoff was to be capped with the league's championship game, initially scheduled to be held at Sam Boyd Stadium near Las Vegas.

When Mr. Dundon took over, it was the belief of my co-founder, Charlie Ebersol, and myself that we would finish the season, pay our creditors, and make the necessary adjustments to move forward in a manner that made economic sense for all.

[36] On April 4, the AAF announced through their official Twitter account that players were eligible to leave their contracts to sign with NFL teams.

On April 17, Ebersol Sports Media Group, Inc. and the five AAF operating entities filed for joint Chapter 7 bankruptcy (liquidation) in Texas’ Eastern District.

[41] The league's uniforms and equipment were stored in a lot in San Antonio, Texas and eventually auctioned off in July 2019.

[43] Subsequently, the perpetually postponed Major League Football claimed it had entered into an agreement to purchase the equipment for $400,000.

He stated that he used the average length of a feature film, slightly over two hours, as the basis for a typical fan's attention span.

[60] MGM Resorts International made an investment in the AAF tech platform,[61] and entered a three-year sponsorship agreement to become the league's official sports betting sponsor and exclusive gaming partner.

The deal marked the first time any sports organization had sold exclusive in-game betting rights to a sportsbook.

[62][63] Scott Butera, MGM's director of interactive gaming (the division that signed an agreement with the AAF), was formerly the commissioner of the Arena Football League before his 2018 ouster.

[69] For the fans, in addition to a fantasy league built into mobile broadcasts, there were low ticket prices (each team have a $35/game sideline seat option) and inexpensive food at games.

[71] He was also named the new chairman of the AAF,[72] and Dundon reportedly received a majority stake in the league in exchange for his investment.

[60] Ebersol had admitted prior to the start of the season that, on numerous occasions, the AAF had come dangerously close to folding before its first game due to various unstated complications.

[4] In late February 2019, a lawsuit by a venture capitalist in Los Angeles became public, as the AAF issued a statement denying a claim by Robert Vanech that the league was his idea and that he had a handshake agreement with Charlie Ebersol; Vanech is seeking financial damages and 50 percent ownership of the league.

[83][84] Also in late February, the league revealed that it had been unable to secure a league-wide worker's compensation insurance policy prior to the start of the season, forcing the Orlando Apollos to move its practice operations to Kingsland, Georgia, and commute to Orlando for games, as Florida does not consider professional athletes to be eligible for worker's compensation.

[58][93] The telecasts made extensive use of on-field microphones (with head coaches and quarterbacks also miked), and Skycams (with two deployed for each game, with one along the sideline, as opposed to having more than one high camera).

[13] After the season ended, it was confirmed that the AAF had resorted to buying airtime and was unlikely to be able to extract a rights fee from any of its partners for its foreseeable future, a factor in Dundon's decision to withdraw his investment.

[92] NFL Network's broadcast team for week one consisted of Dan Hellie on play-by-play and Marvin Lewis on color commentary.

[98] TNT's broadcast team consisted of Brian Anderson on play-by-play, Lewis on color commentary, and Maurice Jones-Drew as sideline reporter.

The league did not use set announcer pairings, rotating numerous hosts (several of them from CBS's NFL and college football crews) on both play-by-play and color commentary, depending on availability.

[105] In an admittedly incomplete review, Peter King stated that although he would not yet draw any "major conclusions" about the league, he liked some of the rule changes but feared the overtime process would be a gimmick.

[13] With these comparatively strong initial viewership statistics, the Week 2 ratings were highly anticipated in the interest of developing trended data.

[108] Week 3's NFL Network games drew 491,000 and 515,000 viewers, benefiting in part due to a counterprogramming effort against the 91st Academy Awards.