The new football league, the Alliance of American Football league (AAF), had promising ratings on its opening night.
According to SportsTVRatings, the game between the San Diego Fleet and the San Antonio Commanders on CBS drew 2.9 million viewers between 9 to 11 p.m. ET. Those numbers were more than what ABC pulled for the Houston Rockets-Oklahome City Thunder game, which had 2.5 million viewers.
With that being said, Week 1 ratings mean little over the course of a season. The question going forward is whether the AAF can pull in consistently good ratings while not on a major broadcasting network. Going forward, AAF games will be broadcasted on TNT, NFL Network, CBS Sports Network, and Bleacher Report’s “B/R Live” service.
Another thing that the AAF will need to look at is the overall quality of play. The biggest criticism of the first slate of games was how hard it was to watch the offensive lines play. This obviously led to some quarterbacks getting lit up in the backfield.
Just ask Mike Bercovici.
We will see how the AAF holds up long-term as the regular season progresses. If the league can keep its viewership in this kind of range, it could become a major success. If it doesn’t, we very well could be looking at another one-and-done league like the XFL of the 2000’s.
Featured image by the Associated Press
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