From the AFL to the NFL: A Profile on Alison Wagner

Alternate football leagues have risen from the ashes.  The USFL came back from a 35+ year hiatus.  The XFL resurrected itself twice.  And now, the Arena Football League (AFL) will do the same.  The AFL is reemerging from its 2019 bankruptcy to put football back into arenas across America.  Officials from the AFL are aiming for a 16-team league, and they are looking at the locations of former AFL teams to fill those spots.  Buffalo had a team from 1999-2004 before it relocated to Columbus.  The Buffalo Destroyers set the season-ticket record when they first entered the league.  However, poor performance erased the excitement for the team.  Today, the AFL could once again bring indoor football to Buffalo.  The league is in favor of placing teams in avid football markets, rather than big markets in general. 

There is extraordinary value in alternate sports leagues.  These leagues create great value for the sport itself, for the players, and for the executives.  In the example of football, the need to generate profits has spurred the creation of many innovations.  The first iteration of the XFL pioneered the sky cam, which was adopted by the NFL.  Today the XFL is pushing the boundaries with behind-the-scenes access through live microphones.  Additionally, rule changes have evolved the sport into a faster paced, more exciting and safer product. 

In the example of baseball, small independent teams have masterminded the art of entertainment.  They have changed the formula from selling the sport to selling a night of entertainment.  Alternate leagues are the breeding grounds of new ideas to be later accepted by the larger leagues.  Secondly, alternate sports leagues offer tremendous opportunities for players.  The high school to college to professional pipeline is not perfect.  Talent evaluators can miss great players and the system often can leave athletes behind.  The saturation of alternate leagues allows for the safety net for overlooked players to showcase talent to the major leagues.  Also, players who are tremendously talented, and who have dedicated their life to the game, but are not of the upper echelon of talent, can have a place to display that athleticism.  There are only a small percentage of players who can play at the highest level, because there are limited spots, however that does not mean there is not a large pool of talented players who are capable of playing an entertaining game.  And lastly, alternate sports leagues create value for executives.  Sport jobs are highly sought after due to the relatively high passion for sports in the culture.  The high competition for these spots excludes up-and-coming sport professionals from climbing the corporate ladder.  With more sport leagues comes more jobs, and more opportunity for fresh executives to gain experience in the sports world. 

This article will highlight how the AFL functioned as the steppingstone for a future NFL executive in her climb up the sport corporate ladder.  I was fortunate enough to speak with current NFL Senior Counsel, Alison Wagner. 

Although Alison holds a very prestigious role in the NFL’s legal office, the path to this position was not clear.  Alison began her collegiate studies in Psychology before switching to Sport Information and Communications.  A legal career was not in the cards at this point.  Even after getting into and graduating from the University at Buffalo’s School of Law (which included the wonderfully extensive Sports Law courses taught by Professor Drew), Alison did not see the potential for a lifelong climb up the sport law ladder.  It was the AFL that spurred the opportunity.  Upon seeing the Buffalo Destroyers were in need of interns for their first season, Alison brought her resume in hand to join the organization.  She held the internship with the Destroyers throughout college and was given a full-time position when she graduated from law school.  Initially, Alison was disinterested in a legal career post-graduation.  However, the people in the AFL advised of the opportunity that awaited her if she chose to practice law.  Alison decided to take the bar exam and transition her career. 

On a quick side note from our conversation, I told her that her initial ambitions to a sport career were relatable to my own.  I, like her, have not had a true legal internship, but instead have interned with a sport team.  And my own ambition for a sport career was not tied to an interest in sports law, generally.  So, I was amazed to see someone, from my university, and my background, achieve such success.  However, Alison gave great advice.  The world has changed, and it is not as feasible to follow her path, today, as it was when she did it.  It was sound advice that I needed to hear as I move into summer internship season.

Alison moved to the AFL’s Chicago office and later to the New York City office in her climb up the corporate ladder.  She touched all areas of the law, but specifically helped the sales transactions of prospective owners to acquire teams.  Alison’s wide-ranging experience from her AFL legal work bled over into her next position with the NHL.  In drafting documents for a domestic event, she had encountered a problem that was outside the scope of her duties.  It was routine for her to handle this herself in the AFL, but in the NHL, there were divisions for legal specialty.  Alison could not venture outside of her domain without stepping on a co-worker’s toes.  In this way, the AFL helped create a well-rounded legal mind.  Furthermore, Alison remarked that the best leaders she has encountered had a multi-faceted background.  These leaders were the ones who had actual experience doing what they oversee.  In the AFL, where Alison wore many hats, she developed not only the hands-on knowledge of each position, but the empathy required to be an effective leader. 

After her time with the AFL, Alison moved on to be the Vice President of Legal for the NHL, specializing in Domestic & International Events.  And after 13 and a half years with the NHL, she now works as a Senior Counsel for the NFL.  The biggest difference between working in each league, Alison says, is scale.  The number of people who work in an office, the number of zeroes at the end of each sales transaction, and the number of resources at her disposal scaled up as she advanced to the larger leagues.  However, there is commonality in the role she played.  When I asked if the AFL had to tolerate more risk to make ends meet, Alison replied that, actually, each league has to tolerate risk in order to grow.  One has to recognize where the liabilities lie, and that is a skill that lawyers tend to have an advantage in over business-minded folk.  Assessing and balancing risk is an everyday task of a sports lawyer. 

So, is there room for success for an alternate sport league, in an already saturated sport market?  Alison says yes.  The example she gave was pickleball; its championship game, a few weeks ago, gained priority over the XFL’s broadcast on ESPN.  Additionally, Alison says that the pandemic proved that certain sport leagues can be successful, depending on the circumstance and market conditions.  The advice Alison would give prospective investors in a new league would be to “know the costs.”  Owning a team goes beyond the glitz and glamour of intellectual property.  It is the costs of workers’ compensation and player injury that must be first accounted for. 

Finally, what advice does Alison have for the prospective sport lawyers?  What would she tell herself as she was just starting out in the AFL?  “Be true to yourself.”  Alison elaborated by saying that your path may not be what you expected, and people may question or applaud your decisions, but you must stay constant in your belief in yourself.  It was this mentality that helped her achieve what only others aspire.  Alison remarked on how the world had changed.  Things that were said when she was just getting into sports are not acceptable today.  Unfortunately, she saw many bright minded women chose other career paths because of it.  She thanked her mother for the stubbornness instilled in her to power through.  An additional positive change in workplace culture has been a greater emphasis on a work-life balance, in Alison’s opinion.  She said that the newer employees are bringing a different philosophy about work.  “No one is going to wish they worked more on their deathbed,” Alison stated.  So, I asked, what would you want people to say about you, when you leave your legacy behind?  She said that she would want her coworkers to say that she always worked with integrity, and that her friends and family would say she was honest and true to herself.  I would add, after the conversation I had with Alison, that she is incredibly humble.

Thank you to Alison Wagner for providing wonderful insight into the career of a sport law professional and taking the time out of her busy schedule to speak with me.