It’s official. Yesterday, the National Arena League took action against the troubled Albany Empire. After weeks of shenanigans and off-field drama that made the team – and the league – a national laughingstock, the NAL has expelled the Albany Empire from their organization.
Can’t say as I didn’t see this coming. Nah, I didn’t see any of it. I didn’t see Antonio Brown using this team as his own personal publicity / clout machine. I didn’t see him going through coaches at the same rate that a Hummer goes through premium. I didn’t see him stiffing on bills and payrolls, only making good on his debts when the media finds out about the situation. Nah, I didn’t see ANY of this. </sarcasm>
But I figured that somehow the team would limp through its season, rebuild, reboot, and figure out what to do for 2024.
Well, that’s not happening now.
See, one of the reasons the NAL put the kibosh on the Empire was because Antonio Brown – as the team’s owner – didn’t pay the team dues and finances to the league. Promises made, promises never kept.
And in that, Antonio Brown has accomplished something that only ONE other Albany-based sports owner ever achieved.
Let me introduce you to David Welker.
David Welker was the owner of the International Hockey League’s Fort Wayne Komets, and he relocated his team to Albany for the IHL’s 1990-91 season. The team received some money from Price Chopper Supermarkets, and the Albany Choppers took the ice.
I wrote a long, detailed history of the troubled, tortuous history of the Albany Choppers in Hockey Digest many years ago, I reprinted it in 2016 in my blog.
See, the Albany Choppers did not finish their 1990-91 inaugural IHL season. The team folded in mid-season. And that was over 30 years ago. Listen. I’m a Capital District sports nerd. It’s unusual for a professional sports team to not at least finish their season.
Before Welker’s Choppers went kaput, the last time a sports team went seasonus interruptus was back in (checks calendar) 1986, when the Troy Slapshots of the old Atlantic Coast Hockey League (the forerunner of today’s ECHL) petered out after six games. And trust me, the ACHL was not a league for stability – five years earlier, in 1981, the ACHL had a team in Schenectady for about two weeks before that team also went belly-up.
Prior to that … maybe you go back to 1932, when the Albany Senators of the old Eastern League folded in mid-season. Well, it wasn’t just the Senators that folded; the entire EL called it a season. And to be fair, the Senators were replaced by a relocated team from Reading who became Albany’s representative in the International League from 1932 to 1936.
but yeah, David Welker completely flopped as an Albany sports team owner. The Choppers were a local punchline. And yeah, minor league sports teams come and go in this area – the New York Kick indoor soccer team, the Albany Alleycats outdoor soccer team, the Albany Attack lacrosse squad, the New York Buzz team tennis franchise, the Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs baseball team, these teams came and went.
But yeah, the Albany Empire straight-up plummeted to the bottom, found an excavator and kept on digging.
And I shouldn’t pile on Antonio Brown at this moment. Honestly, I’m sure he feels plenty of regret and remorse about how this all turned out.
In the end, it just goes to show you that all the talent on the football field does not automatically translate into talent off the gridiron.
David Welker never realized that.
And apparently neither did Antonio Brown.
Chuck The Writer 
Good piece Chuck.
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At the end of the day, Antonio Brown, as a sports owner, is a neophyte in over his head, and the real reason he was up here, based on what had been reported, IMPO, was to dodge legal issues in Florida. We also learned that in addition to the likely CTE he got from concussions while playing, he had either bi-polar disorder or disassociative identity disorder, since he treated his social media handle, “AB”, like a separate personality.
His praise of a certain man-child in the paper didn’t exactly help.
My take:
https://tricitysportsbeat.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-fall-of-empire-albany-empire-2017.html
The league should’ve taken the franchise instead of ejecting it from the league. That way, there’s a better chance of another Albany team playing down the road, as long as Brown’s not associated with them…..
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Chuck,
I suggest checking Tri-City SportsBeat for my take on the Brown-Empire debacle. You’ll be glad you did.
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Let’s not sell AB short. I think he’s cleverly paved the way to run for political office.
Consider:
– quickly established name recognition
– flashy
– lacks humility
– loves the cameras and they love him
– tells the public one thing while the complete opposite is happening
– seems to ignore his advisors
– never lacks excuses when things go wrong
– screw-ups are everyone else’s fault but his
I think a run against George Santos might be worth the price of admission.
And financial backers are probably already lining up. I mean, all those qualities offered by a single candidate? That’s kind of tough to ignore.
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I said to my wife that AB, who had recently mentioned djt favorably, was like him. After djt was indicted again, he went to a restaurant indicating that there was free food for all, but he didn’t pick up the tab.
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