Sports & Entertainment
A-11 Football League
The A-11 Football League was a planned professional spring football league built around the A-11 offense, a scheme in which all eleven offensive players could be eligible receivers. Announced in 2013 with USFL-revival team names and a 2014 ESPN broadcast deal for two showcase games, it postponed those games weeks before kickoff, dropped its California franchises over insurance costs, and quietly abandoned the A-11 concept in mid-2014. It never played a game.
- Started
- 2013-04
- Ended
- 2014-07
- Showcase games actually played
- 0
- Collapse speed
- Gradual
- Preventability
- Medium
- Lesson transfer
- Industry-wide
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-17
Narrative
The story
The ambition
In April 2013, California high school coaches Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries announced a professional football league built around an offense they had invented years earlier. The A-11 offense, developed at Piedmont High School, exploited a formation loophole so that any of the eleven players on the field, including linemen, could be an eligible receiver on a given play. High school federations had already banned the underlying loophole in 2009, but Bryan and Humphries believed the wide-open, pass-happy version of football it produced could work as televised professional entertainment. They set out to build the A-11 Football League (A11FL) around it, with Scott McKibben, a former Los Angeles Times Media Group executive and Rose Bowl director, installed as commissioner.
The rise
The league leaned hard on nostalgia and spectacle. It revived team names from the 1980s USFL, including the New Jersey Generals, Tampa Bay Bandits, Los Angeles Express, Michigan Panthers, and Philadelphia Stars, alongside original franchises like the San Francisco Bay Area Sea Lions and Chicago Staggs. In February 2014 the league announced an ESPN2 broadcast agreement for two nationally televised "showcase games," at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on May 17 and the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on June 5, positioned as a springboard into a full eight-team, 2015 regular season under modified NFL rules that allowed the A-11 scheme. Organizers projected average attendance above 30,000 fans a game at roughly $30 a ticket, and recruited players and coaches through open online applications.
The cracks
The plan showed strain almost as soon as it was made public. Days after announcing the ESPN deal, the league said in late March 2014 that it was redirecting its efforts toward an unspecified "new opportunity," followed by a vague "big news ahead" post in April. Around the same time, the league said it was dropping its two California franchises, citing the cost of workers' compensation insurance in that state, and postponed the showcase games it had just finished promoting. No inspected source describes the league's actual funding structure or investor base, and none of the period coverage names a broadcast rights fee or a capitalization figure; the announcements moved from firm dates and named stadiums to open-ended deferrals within weeks.
The collapse
The showcase games never happened. In July 2014, the organization said the people behind the A11FL investment effort were instead working to finance a new professional spring football league that would no longer carry the A11FL brand or use the A-11 offense at all, effectively discarding the concept the league had been built to showcase. By February 2015, the successor effort had dropped the A-11 rules entirely in favor of conventional football. The original A11FL, its named franchises, and its ESPN showcase games were never revived.
The aftermath
No professional A-11 league ever took the field. Kurt Bryan returned to high school coaching in 2017, and in 2019 he and Scott McKibben resurfaced together in the Indoor Football League, as head coach and team president respectively of the expansion Oakland Panthers, a conventional indoor league unconnected to the A-11 offense. The USFL-branded names the A11FL had revived for marketing purposes (Generals, Bandits, Express, Stars, Panthers) remained available for other ventures to use later.
The lessons
A television deal and a slate of nostalgic team names are marketing, not a league. The A11FL announced broadcast partners, stadiums, and franchise cities before it had visibly secured the financing or insurance arrangements to seat a single game, and the gap showed up first as postponed dates and vague public statements rather than an outright admission of failure. When an organizer drops its home markets over an insurance cost weeks after promoting a broadcast deal for those same markets, the deal was likely announced ahead of the operating capital needed to deliver it. The league's quiet pivot away from the A-11 offense itself, the one product feature that had generated any real media attention, suggests organizers could not raise money around the novelty and hoped a conventional format would fare better; it did not visibly fare better either, since no successor league is documented as having launched.
Causal timeline
Failure Anatomy
- 2013-04-16
- 2014-02-06
Teams and ESPN deal announced
The league announced six to eight franchises, several reviving 1980s USFL names, and an ESPN2 agreement to broadcast two showcase games in Tampa and Dallas in May and June 2014, ahead of a planned eight-team 2015 regular season. [3]
- 2014-04
California franchises dropped, showcase games postponed
Weeks after the ESPN announcement, the league said it was redirecting toward an unspecified new opportunity, dropped its two California franchises over workers' compensation insurance costs, and postponed the showcase games. [4] [5]
Regulatory pressureUnsustainable economics - 2014-07-09
A11FL brand and offense abandoned
The organization said the people behind the A11FL investment effort were instead financing a new professional spring football league that would drop the A11FL brand and the A-11 offense; by February 2015 the successor had dropped the A-11 rules entirely, and no version of the league ever played a game. [6]
Unsustainable economicsPoor execution
Structured analysis
What Went Wrong
Root causes
No visible funding to match the announcements. No inspected source documents the league's capitalization, investors, or broadcast rights fee, even as it announced named franchises, stadiums, and an ESPN broadcast deal; the operational retreat that followed (dropped franchises, postponed games) is consistent with a league that had not lined up the money its announcements implied. [5] [7]
Contributing factors
California workers' compensation costs. The league dropped its two California franchises, citing the cost of workers' compensation insurance in that state, weeks before its showcase games were due to be played. [4]
Novelty offense never proven at the professional gate. The A-11 offense's core appeal, that any of the eleven offensive players could be an eligible receiver, had already been closed off at the high school level by a 2009 rules change; the league bet a national broadcast launch on a scheme regulators elsewhere had moved to restrict. [2]
Immediate trigger
Showcase games postponed weeks before kickoff. Around March and April 2014, weeks after finalizing an ESPN broadcast agreement for two showcase games, the league announced it was redirecting toward an unspecified new opportunity, dropped its California franchises, and postponed the showcase games that had been the centerpiece of its national coverage. [4] [5]
Visible symptoms
Vague public statements replacing firm plans. Public announcements shifted from named stadiums and dates to open-ended language such as redirecting toward a "new opportunity" and "big news ahead," without ever specifying what the new opportunity was. [5]
Warning signs
Funding never disclosed. Coverage of the league's launch, from its 2013 founding announcement through its February 2014 ESPN deal, never named investors, a capitalization figure, or a broadcast rights fee, an absence that persisted across period sources. [7]
Affected groups
Keep reading
Related failures
Evidence
Claims & sources
Every numbered marker in the analysis links to the claim it rests on, and each claim to its sources.
- [1]
On April 16, 2013, Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries, creators of the A-11 offense, announced the A-11 Football League with Scott McKibben as commissioner.
- [2]
The A-11 offense, developed by Bryan and Humphries at Piedmont High School, allowed any of the eleven offensive players to be an eligible receiver by exploiting a formation loophole that the National Federation of State High School Associations closed off in a 2009 rules vote.
- [3]
In February 2014 the league announced six to nine franchises, several reviving 1980s USFL names, alongside an ESPN2 agreement to broadcast two showcase games in May and June 2014 in Tampa and Dallas, ahead of a planned eight-team 2015 season.
- [4]
The league dropped its two California franchises, citing the cost of workers' compensation insurance in that state.
- [5]
Around March and April 2014, weeks after the ESPN announcement, the league said it was redirecting toward an unspecified new opportunity and postponed the showcase games that had been scheduled for May and June.
- [6]
In July 2014 the organization said the people behind the A11FL investment effort were instead financing a new professional spring football league that would drop the A11FL brand, and by February 2015 the successor had abandoned the A-11 offense entirely; no version of the league is documented as having played a game.
- [7]
None of the inspected period sources name an investor, a capitalization figure, or a broadcast rights fee behind the league's launch.
Sources
A-11 Football League
Wikipedia
The A-11 Football League
Adamson Media
ESPN obtains rights to the A11FL ... Just what is the A11FL?
Awful Announcing · 2014-02
A11 Football League announces six franchises, two showcase games on ESPN2
FootballScoop · 2014-02