On Feb. 9, the Alliance of American Football (AAF) had a successful debut, drawing about 3.25 million viewers on CBS, a number that surprisingly exceeded those from a prominent NBA game (Thunder-Rockets) being played at the same time.



Less than a week later, multiple sources told The Athletic, the new league’s existence was in jeopardy.



According to the sources, there was one enormous problem, one that became obvious even before the AAF’s second weekend (Feb. 16-17) of games: The league was running short on cash, and quickly. Without new investors, there was a good chance it was going to miss payroll last Friday.



“Without a new, nine-figure investor, nobody is sure what would have happened,” one source said. “You can always tell people their checks are going to be a little late, but how many are going to show up on the weekend for games when they don’t see anything hit their...