National Arena League terminates Albany Empire's membership
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The National Arena League has announced that the Albany Empire's league membership has been terminated. The decision was made after an emergency conference call of the NAL's board of owners discussing the Empire’s failure to pay overdue league mandated assessments.
According to the league, each team is responsible to pay for 1/7th of the league’s operating budget via monthly assessments. The AFL stated that while team owner Antonio Brown paid the Albany Empire’s April assessment after acquiring the team, the Empire then failed to make their May 15 assessment payment.
The NAL was also notified last week that the April assessment was being challenged. The league reached out to Brown's official accountant, Alex Gunaris, to remind them of the Empire's financial obligations to the league, that additionally included a $1,000 fine for conduct detrimental to the league for recent public comments by Brown, which the NAL said had also gone unpaid.
The league then received communications from Gunaris stating that Brown was unlikely to pay the assessment or the fine. Hearing of Brown's intentions led to the board's emergency conference call.
It was decided that the league would give the Empire a deadline of Thursday, June 15 at 12 p.m. to make their payment. The team failed to meet the ultimatum, resulting in the Empire's immediate membership termination.
The Albany County Executive Office issued a statement regarding the team's termination from the league, sharing that “We are aware MVP Arena management is alerting ticketholders and we will be reviewing options moving forward. This is an unfortunate situation.”
MVP Arena made their own statement, saying "All season and individual ticket holders will be refunded for the remaining three home games. Refunds can be obtained at the original point of purchase and tickets purchased online using Ticketmaster will be refunded automatically."
The National Arena League said they will be adjusting the rest of the 2023 regular season schedule accordingly. Stay with News10 as this story continues to develop.