After slowly rolling out the first two cities in its new professional football league, the Alliance of American Football has picked up the pace, announcing two new cities to the pro circuit scheduled to begin play in 2019.
Reportedly. over the last two weeks, league officials announced teams will be located in Memphis, Tempe, and Salt Lake City, joining Atlanta and Orlando which were announced earlier this spring. The league plans to launch in February 2019 one week after the NFL Super Bowl game with eight teams.
The Memphis Alliance will be coached by Mike Singletary, a former NFL linebacker and Super Bowl champion with the Chicago Bears and has been a regular on the professional football coaching carousel since joining the staff of the Baltimore Ravens as linebacker coach in 2003. Since then he has spent time as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, linebackers coach for the Minnesota Vikings, and as a defensive advisor for the Los Angeles Rams. Singletary is currently the head coach of Trinity Christian Academy high school in Addison, Texas.
He is BACK! @CoachMSing confirmed to fill the position of head coach for #AllianceMEM with home games played at @LibertyBowlMem Stadium. pic.twitter.com/VEBn5XPvxO
— AAF (@TheAAF) May 10, 2018
Memphis Alliance is the third team located in the Sun Belt region, in what appears to be a strategy to place teams in, perhaps, the nation’s most passionate football fanbase. The team will play its home games in the Liberty Bowl and tickets are currently on sale online.
Details on Salt Lake and possible Tempe team are a little sketchy at the moment, however, it has been confirmed that the Salt Lake squad will play at Rice Eccles Stadium on the campus of the University of Utah. Additionally, team officials will announce Salt Lake Alliance’s head coach and other details on Wednesday, May 16.
Dust off those boots because we aren’t going far and news travels fast, so make sure you hear it here first! #JoinTheAlliance pic.twitter.com/TOe4bVrxYY
— AAF (@TheAAF) May 4, 2018
Finally, while the league initially made some references to “going out West” via its Facebook Page, several media outlets in Arizona claim the league is in discussions with officials at Arizona State University to play at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe.
— UPDATE —
Alliance Salt Lake has named former Miami Hurricanes and San Francisco 4pers head coach as the team’s coach.