Major League Football flops before first game can be played

UPDATE: Major League Football on Friday issued the following statement:

“Major League Football (MLFB) regrets to announce that full funding for the 2022 Training Camp and opening of the 2022 season was not completed as planned. “An unexpected delay has caused us to suspend Training Camp and potentially delay the beginning of the 2022 season” says CEO Frank Murtha. “The city of Mobile and all of the associated groups had been wonderful to us. It is very disappointing to have something outside of my control create such a problem for everyone. All the players and coaches have shown incredible grace through all of this disruption. Our deepest apologies go out to them. We are working with the hotel groups, caterers, and everyone to try and get this back on track. Our primary concern today is to get the players home quickly. We will be meeting continuously over the next few days to correct this situation.

“We fully intend to satisfy all of our obligations to vendors in Mobile,” Murtha continued. “This is a temporary delay in operations and I am working tirelessly to correct this situation. As I have said, our first goal is to take care of all of the players and coaches and get them back home. Every waking moment is dedicated to working on solutions.”

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EARLIER STORY:

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - In just a couple of hours, Major League Football went from getting ready to kick off its inaugural season, to going bust.

The league was supposed to field four teams with one of those being the Alabama Airborne playing in Mobile. All of the league’s teams used Ladd-Peebles Stadium for their training camp. But Thursday, players were shut out of their hotel rooms, because the league had not been making payments to the hotels, according to Danny Corte, Executive Director of the Mobile Sports Authority.

So instead of practicing, players were doing a different scramble drill to find a way out of town. Many of the players were visibly frustrated with the shocking suddenness of the league folding.

One said he’d left a full-time job to try to play professional football one more time.

Corte said the city of Mobile is not on the hook for any money. The league paid $30,000 up-front for the use of Ladd-Peebles Stadium for training camp.

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