Los Angeles Avengers

Arena Football League (2000-2008)

Background

24-year old Casey Wasserman paid a reported $5.0 million dollar for rights to a Los Angeles expansion franchise for the Arena Football League in October 1998.  Wasserman, the grandson of movie and music mogul Lew Wasserman, bought into the league just as an enormous run-up in franchise values got underway.  Within five years, the going price for an expansion team would more than triple to over $16 million.  But ultimately the bubble burst and the league would collapse nearly ten years to the date that Wasserman’s Los Angeles Avengers were born.

The Avengers were the second effort to establish Arena Football in Los Angeles.  The league began play in 1987 and placed an expansion club known as the Los Angeles Cobras in the old Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in 1988.  But the Cobras lasted only one season, just long enough to appear in a low-budget Charles Bronson thriller, before folding.

Todd Marinovich Comeback

During their debut season in the spring of 2000 the Avengers signed infamous NFL drug casualty Todd Marinovich as their starting quarterback, despite the fact that Marinovich had barely played in eight years.  Marinovich showed flashes of the talent he once showed at the University of Southern California a decade earlier, including a June 2000 game when he tied the Arena Football record with 10 touchdown passes in a game against the Houston ThunderBears. During the 2001 season, another former NFL 1st round draft disappointment, Jim Druckenmiller, backed up Marinovich.

Marinovich continued to struggle with heroin and other drugs during his time with the Avengers and he separated from the team and from pro football for good during the 2001 season.

Al Lucas Tragedy

Tragedy struck on April 10, 2005 during an Avengers game against the New York Dragons at STAPLES Center. Avengers lineman Al Lucas was kneed in the head by a Dragons player during a kickoff return five minutes into the first quarter.  Lucas fell motionless to the turf and was unresponsive. All efforts to revive Lucas at the arena and later at California Hospital Medical Center failed. He was pronounced dead later that afternoon of an upper spinal cord injury. Meanwhile, the game was resumed and completed. Avengers and Dragons players were not notified of Lucas’ death until after the game. Lucas was a two-year veteran of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers (2000-2001). He was survived by his wife and daughter.

League Bankruptcy & Demise

Throughout their history, the Avengers had an up and down record in the regular season.  The Avengers had their best season in 2005, winning the Western Division with a 10-6 record.  But the team floundered in the postseason, never advancing beyond the quarterfinals in five trips to the playoffs.

In December 2008, the Arena Football League suspended operations after a failed effort to sell the league to a private equity firm and amidst an internal debate about reforming the league’s business model.  The 2009 season was cancelled and the league would ultimately declare bankruptcy in August 2009.  Before that happened, Casey Wasserman folded the Avengers franchise in April 2009.  Wasserman addressed the demise of the league and his reasons for dropping out in this brief video clip posted by USC’s Marshall School of Business in February 2012:

Los Angeles Avengers Shop

Los Angeles Avengers Video

ESPN All-Access segment on Avengers at Orlando Predators match-up from the 2007 season.

Avengers video montage:

Downloads

5-1-2004 Avengers vs. Arizona Rattlers Roster Card

5-22-2004 Avengers vs. Las Vegas Gladiators Roster Card

Links

Arena Football League Media Guides

Arena Football League Programs

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