As the owner of the Albany Empire, Antonio Brown and his team’s time in the National Arena League (NAL) has been terminated after Brown failed to pay its bills.
After falling behind on two payments and getting a $1,000 fine for some comments he made about the league, the league decided to boot out Brown and the Empire.
“After exhausting all avenues, the NAL board of owners have decided unanimously to terminate the membership agreement of the Albany Empire,” the league wrote in a statement.”
The decision was reached after an emergency conference call of the members in good standing to discuss the Empire’s failure to pay their league-mandated and overdue assessments.”
Brown acquired the Empire three months ago and has already run it into the ground. He is technically still the owner but the team is not in a league to play in.
“Unfortunately Mr. Brown has failed to meet the deadline to his team’s required financial obligations, and as a result, the league has terminated his membership Agreement,” the league said in a statement.
In the NAL, there are seven teams and each team has to cough up one-seventh of the league’s operating budget.
“After acquiring the Albany Empire, new team owner Antonio Brown paid the Empire’s April assessment,” the league said. “The team then failed to make their May 15th assessment payment and last week just before the Empire’s game in Orlando, the league was notified that the April assessment was being challenged.”
Alex Gunaris, an accountant to the former Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro receiver, told the NAL that the former NFL receiver probably wouldn’t pay up.
When Brown bought the team in March, things started rocky.
According to multiple reports, players and staff weren’t being paid as recently as late April and the team’s former head coach Damon Ware left the Empire over the missed payments. The team claims that the missed payments were due to a change in payroll processors that happened after Brown purchased the franchise.
This isn’t the first time Brown’s missed payment, as he has a pretty lengthy history of doing so.
In September 2021, Brown was sued by his marketing company for $2.4 million and was also accused of trying to rip off a music promoter for $500,000. Back in April of 2023, he was sued by a jeweler, who claims that Brown owes him more than $1 million.
According to Spotrac, Brown, despite not playing since 2022, has made a total of $80.4 million during his 12-year pro football career. The former NFL star’s last incident was storming off the field shirtless during a Buccaneers win over the Jets in January of that year.
The Empire was a successful franchise before Brown took over. The now-suspended team won two titles in the NAL in 2021 and 2022, but will now not get the opportunity for a third.
