The A11FL Candidacy Poll

The American-11 Football League Candidacy Poll                                                          (July 2010 - February 2011)
In order to give the A11FL the best initial chance to make a profit, league commissioner Jim Tading knew where the league set up shop would be vital. Though the league by mid-2010 had some mild buzz, it meant nothing in the long term if their franchises failed to connect with their host city. Signing off to play in 12 pre-built stadiums rather than each team being responsible for building their own had saved Tading and the league a pretty penny already, but outside of Dallas, Texas, Jim had no idea where any team in the league would play in 2012. But rather than just slap teams in area riddled with competition from established NFL clubs among other sports, Tading and the Board of Directors settled on an ingenious idea: give the option to the fans. How? A national poll. The Board would vote on a list of 50 candidate destinations (likely including a few NFL-dominated areas), and with the help of his friends at Microsoft, an electronic poll would be given to the people in the area online. The results would be tallied, and the locations with the highest returns would be given the opportunity to have their very own franchise in the A11FL. Soon, Tading and the Board of Directors began carefully planning which 50 U.S. cities to send the poll to, and within a few days the list was complete.

The A11FL Candidacy Poll Is Released (August 2010)
After a week of careful deliberation, the Board of Directors and Jim Tading settled on a list of 50 destinations the poll would be released to, with the hopes of snagging at least a few major markets as well as introducing a few areas to the world of professional football by giving them their very first franchise. A big part of selecting their first-time destinations came with the assistance of Google, by way of simply searching the term "Top US Cities without an NFL team", doing a large part of their job for them. Go figure. Along with Google, it also seemed convenient that Sports Illustrated released a Top 10 list in June of 2010, citing the top 20 likely destinations for an NFL expansion team. With all this in mind, it should come as no surprise that by the time the A11FL was ready to release their Candidacy Poll, a record 23 destinations out of 50 had little or no prior experience with an NFL franchise. The list was as follows:

East Coast Destinations                      West Coast Destinations Beyond the Borders (US)
 * Boston, Massachusetts
 * Greenwich, Connecticut
 * Albany, New YorkMap_of_United_States.jpg
 * Brooklyn, New York
 * Hoboken, New Jersey
 * Allentown, Pennsylvania
 * Columbus, Ohio
 * Cleveland, Ohio
 * Grand Rapids, Michigan
 * Louisville, Kentucky
 * Raleigh, North Carolina
 * Chicago, Illinois
 * Nashville, Tennessee
 * Memphis, Tennessee
 * Birmingham, Alabama
 * St. Louis, Missouri
 * Augusta, GeorgiaVancouver_Beavers.jpg
 * Orlando, Florida
 * New Orleans, Louisiana
 * Milwaukee, Wisconsin
 * Minneapolis, Minnesota
 * Washington D.C.
 * San Antonio, Texas
 * Austin, Texas
 * Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
 * Omaha, Nebraska
 * Fargo, North Dakota
 * Alberquerque, New Mexico
 * Colorado Springs, Colorado
 * Tempe, Arizona
 * Salt Lake City, Utah
 * Las Vegas, NevadaHawaii_Islanders.png
 * Portland, Oregon
 * San Jose, California
 * Los Angeles, California
 * Sacramento, California
 * Oakland, California
 * Oahu, Hawaii
 * Honululu, Hawaii
 * Vancouver, Canada
 * Toronto, Canada
 * Montreal, Canada

The A11FL Takes Shape (January - April 2011)
The results of the A11FL Candidacy Poll were returned to be calculated and assessed in December of 2010. Early leaders included the cities of Vancouver and Montreal of Canada, Brooklyn, New York and San Jose, California, all projected to have approval ratings higher than 90%. Not surprisingly, a few NFL-starved markets also projected some highly valuable returns, as cities such as Honululu, Portland, Salt Lake City and Louisville all projected and finished with ratings in the high 80%. Also following the status quo, markets within close range of established NFL teams gave less than enthusiastic results, with cities such as Boston, Minneanapolis, Colorado Springs and Los Angeles, California all turning in results under the 40% mark. The Top 20 also contained a few unexpected parties among it's ranks...