If we follow the bankruptcy proceedings that might unravel this part of the mystery. As I understand it, the property (unless it's blocked) will go up for auction if debts are not paid:
"
Chapter 7, also called "liquidation" or "straight bankruptcy," is the process by which a debtor's assets are sold, creditors receive payment, and you are then free from your debts"
We'll see if what's his face manages to protect the intellectual property or not, and what lengths he goes to do that. That's one thing that should become clearer, because I was openly perplexed when he basically bought the league. If it does go all the way through Chapter 7 proceedings, we are left with nothing but the league being a colossal failure.
I believe you are correct and this probably lead to the first set of investors vanishing. 30 million was spent getting to launch, something must have spooked them (perhaps things like this: "
only $78,582 in licenses, franchises and royalties"). Despite one poster's assertions I lacked understanding of the issue,
I made a post about why this venture was likely to fail, before the financial troubles were known. You and I seem to be outlining similar issues. It should be noted that the AAF was not pre-revenue, they were not losing money simply because they weren't trying to monetize anything, once the product launched in week one that ended. They were still losing money because they didn't have enough engagement.
Not replying to you necessarily, but Ebersol screwed up by not having concrete investing lined up and not being on the same page with the ones he did have. Ebersol spoke of an exit strategy, so I have to wonder if he saw being bought out by the NFL as an exit strategy? Perhaps hoping to hang on just long enough to prove some sort of viability to the NFL, one of the only entities that might actually might want a property losing money on a weekly basis? I'm not sure a lot of people understand the extent that the minor leagues you mentioned, and even many college football programs are subsidized. If the fans aren't paying enough to keep the lights on, someone else has to.
That's the part I still am curious about. Even if the tech itself held value, there's no need to fund a league for years to that end (corporate raiding would explain why it was shut down). That part doesn't explain Ebersol's plan. He had to imagine some rich party coming in and throwing money at them down the road if his strategy was in fact to sustain this burn rate, but why and for what? At the end of the day I guess the investors didn't get that either and that's why both sets refused to continue the funding (hockey team guy could have kept funding the league
and retained ownership of the tech if he wanted).
So,
we know for a fact, that two different set of investors did not think it was worthwhile to continue funding. We know it continued to lose money. We do not however, have any real idea of how Ebersol actually expected to make it profitable and that remains the big mystery.