Is Memphis ready for AAF and return of pro football? The answer involves a silent disco.

Is Memphis ready for the return of pro football this weekend? To answer that, you also might have to ask yourself if you’re ready for a silent disco.

Because when the Memphis Express play their first home game Saturday night at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium against the Arizona Hotshots, 500 people will be in the stands behind the north end zone, right near two party decks sponsored by liquor companies, wearing headphones, listening to music played by three DJs while football is going on in front of them.

“They’re going to have a party during the game,” Express President Kosha Irby explained earlier this week.

And then, he ran through all the promotions the Express have planned for their five home games during the Alliance of American Football’s inaugural season.

There's the Mardi Gras game, and the MemFeast game, when the team will serve some fans a seven- to 10-course meal featuring distinctly Memphis foods. After that, there will be a food truck rodeo, a sneaker trade show and a hot wing festival in the parking lots surrounding the Liberty Bowl.

Come to the festivals outside and then go to the football game inside.

But once the former WWE promoter and Memphis football player finished his sales pitch, he was asked how winning and losing factor into all these stunts. Will any of this matter if the football isn’t any good?  

“The fundamental sense of what we’re doing is you’re going to attend a football game,” Irby said, “and I’m sure they’re going to want to have a quality football product that they want to see.”

Winning all that matters

This, more than the gimmicks attached to the game, probably will determine whether the Express have more staying power in this town than the Memphis Southmen (World Football League, 1974-75), Memphis Showboats (USFL, 1984-85), Memphis Mad Dogs (CFL, 1995), Memphis Pharaohs (1995-96, Arena Football League) and Memphis Maniax (XFL, 2001) had.

Because as Memphis gets set to play host to a professional football game for the first time since 2001, there is a genuine curiosity about what the Express could mean for the city’s sports landscape. I sense people want this venture to succeed, that Memphis could get on board with the Express if all goes as planned.

If, as Express quarterback Christian Hackenberg put it this week, "we hold up our end of the bargain" and win.

Irby said he expects 15,000-25,000 people to attend games this season, and that would fall in line with what previous minor league football teams attracted here in previous decades.

"We know we’re not going to necessarily come and if you build it they will come. This is not 'Field of Dreams,' " Irby said. “We know we have to come in and earn every fan’s dollar and every fan’s respect.”

It’s an interesting marketplace the Express are about to enter.

Will they encounter what University of Memphis basketball or the Memphis Grizzlies have in recent years, when their fan support depended on their record? Or will this be more like the Memphis Redbirds, whose attendance is less about wins and talent than providing family entertainment and a quality fan experience?

The guess here is the Express won’t be able to replicate the dynamic minor league baseball enjoys. That if more Express games look like last week’s season-opening 26-0 loss, Irby’s creative marketing will go to waste.

Boring football

This isn’t to suggest the AAF can’t or won’t work.

Last week’s roll-out seemed to be a pleasant surprise nationally, confirmation that football fans are willing to watch more football, even if it’s not the NFL. The initial TV ratings were strong; the pace of play and the emphasis on gambling were refreshing; the rule changes were inventive; and the mic’d up players, coaches and officials added another layer of entertainment.

The problem is that the Express didn’t do that last week. They looked like the worst team in the league. They looked boring.

Even worse, at least as it pertains to galvanizing Memphis behind its latest foray into pro football: Coach Mike Singletary might have been one heckuva linebacker, but he’s more Tubby Smith than John Calipari or Penny Hardaway when it comes to generating excitement. He is no Steve Spurrier on the mic or in front of the camera, so he better have a good team.

Player stories are key

Singletary’s team, meanwhile, probably features too many LSU Tigers and not nearly enough Memphis Tigers or Memphis natives. Plenty of commercials have encouraged fans to buy tickets but there's been very little community engagement with the players involved. 

It’s their stories that make the AAF so interesting.

Although more than 80 percent of the league’s players were on NFL rosters at some point, many of them had moved on from football when the AAF came calling. Most of them were overlooked once their college careers were over.

Take former University of Memphis defensive back Jonathan Cook, who started at safety for the Express last week. A couple of months ago, he was cleaning carpets back home in South Alabama for a company called Peaches ‘N Clean.

On Saturday, he’ll make money playing football in Memphis for the first time – and experience his first silent disco. 

“I’m just expecting for people to show up and the team to show up,” Cook said. “And win the game.”

That last part seems more important than anything else.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @mgiannotto.

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