[Elendil]

2008 Season: First Month

At first, the season went badly as far as the Commissioner's Office was concerned. The preseason favorites, Mat-Su and North Pole, jumped out to quick leads in their respective divisions. The fans in those two towns were excited about this, of course, but if this kept up, there could be a decline in fan interest everywhere else. Many a young sports league had failed in the past because of an emerging dynasty.

Within three weeks, though, things became more exciting, as Kodiak - shockingly - began to challenge Mat-Su for the top spot in the Seward, while Juneau actually passed North Pole for the Denali lead for two days before falling back again. By the date of the amateur draft, June 15, the biggest shockers were the Glacier Pilots and Sentinels, who were both in last place.

A New Crisis

Shortly it became clear that the league was facing a new crisis: player desertion. Just two days into the season, the Jets' starting center fielder, Ed Strauss, 26 years old and making league minimum, left the team. On June 1st, the Glacier Pilots and King Salmon both had players go AWOL.

Even when players didn't desert outright, it was impossible for coaches to maintain discipline. Guys tried to hold down temp jobs while playing, and many of them wouldn't show up for practices. Some players even refused to be called up from the Training League, preferring its weekends-only schedule. The league minimum salary simply wasn't attractive enough to make them quit their day jobs.

Commissioner Paul Fulfer decided to call an emergency meeting of team owners for Saturday June 21st. Media reports suggested that he would push for a significant increase in the league minimum salary, a move expected to provoke opposition from smaller-market clubs, some of whom paid a majority of their active-roster players the league minimum. In addition, a shortening of the period at which players would be automatically resigned at league minimum before becoming eligible for free agency - from three years to two - seemed inevitable. Last year's move to allow player rights to expire after two years if no professional contract had been signed more or less made this change inevitable, because some guys had apparently resisted callup because they hoped to wait out two years in the Training League, then hit the free agency market.

Of course, players who deserted would be blacklisted from ever playing in the league again, so there was still a strong incentive for young guys to stick it out and try to perform their way to a big contract in the future. The more solid the league's financial future looked, the more likely it would be that players would accept small contracts in the short-run, in hopes of striking it rich later. It was a kind of Catch-22 for the league. (I am modeling player desertion by retiring players from random teams who fit the profile: at least mid-twenties or older, making at or near league minimum, not playing particularly well.)

Radio and TV Talks

Not all news was gloomy for the league, however. The Bucs' and Glacier Pilots' weekend radio broadcasts had been so successful that a couple of local AM stations had expressed interest in broadcasting weekday games as well. In addition, the Anchorage NBC affiliate wanted to air a Saturday "Game of the Week," ideally simulcast on radio.

Because of Alaska's highly Anchorage-concentrated media marketplace, the league had from the start insisted that all media contracts would negotiated through the league office rather than by the individual clubs. The league then allocated revenues according to a formula that rewarded local audience share, while guaranteeing a minimum share of media income for each club.

In short, then, the new Anchorage media deals would bring in a fair chunk of cash for the league as a whole. It couldn't have come at a better time.