NFL Suspend 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan” for Insulting San Francisco 49ers president Al Guido
Al Guido, the president of NFL franchise the San Francisco 49ers, has declared that he is considering buying a stake in an NRL team after the success of the two season-opening games in Las Vegas.
Backing the NRL’s push into the United States market, Guido spoke at the NRL’s Business and Sport conference the day before the two games were played in Las Vegas and made some stunning revelations.
Whilst revealing he would like to buy a part of an NRL club, he also wanted the NRL and ARLC (Australian Rugby League Commission) to consider playing games at Levi’s Stadium outside of San Francisco within the next four years.
Recently, the 49ers Enterprises Global Football Group took ownership of the English football team Leeds United and are looking to add more sports teams to their multi-sport ownership group.
“I don’t want to comment as to what’s ongoing at the Niners,” Guido said, per The Sydney Morning Herald.
“But we like to be thought of as multi-sport ownership. And again, it’s not a new concept. Fenway Sports Group has bought multiple franchises.
“We will look at anything that has a passionate fan base because, to us, it starts with people coming through the gates and supporting it. The reality is you have a pretty good commercial opportunity [in the NRL].”
Despite coming off a loss to Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl, the 49ers President is looking to do something similar with an NRL club that Robert McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds did the Wrexham AFC.
Aiming to buy a stake in a team, Guido is hoping to make a Netflix docuseries about the team and the NRL competition, allowing the game to be exposed globally.
“If you look at what Ryan Reynolds and the team have done with Wrexham,” he said.
“People love live sports. It’s always been strong. Some argued when live sports came back online post COVID that it was the COVID bounce.
“And I don’t think it was, I think what COVID did is it didn’t necessarily change anything. It accelerated everything.”
Brandon Aiyuk trade rumours addressed by San Francisco 49ers star’s teammate
With the franchise tag deadline having passed and the start of free agency less than a week away, the NFL rumour mill has begun to crank up.
Plenty of deals will be done over the next few weeks in free agency, while the trade market will also be a hive of activity as teams look to reload their rosters for the 2024 season.
The San Francisco 49ers will be looking to go one better next season following their heartbreaking overtime Super Bowl defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs last season. And while their roster will not be too heavily impacted by free agency departures this offseason, the future of wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk will be a talking point.
After earning second-team All-Pro honours for a campaign that saw him catch 75 passes for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns last season, Aiyuk will be entering the final year of his rookie contract in 2024, meaning he is due for a contract extension.
Many pundits have mooted the idea that the receiver could be a potential trade candidate if the two parties cannot agree on a deal that fits in with the 49ers’ salary cap plans, but Aiyuk’s fellow Niners wideout Deebo Samuel does not see that happening.
“The season that’s he’s just come off and the seasons previous, I mean if you look at his numbers from when he got to the league and now it’s always a different type of leap,” Samuel told the Up & Adams Show on Tuesday.
“I told him, I said, ‘You’ve put yourself in the position to be who you want to be’. He’s up for a new deal and things like that and I just told him that I’ve been through it. It’s not going to be all fine and dandy like you think it’s going to be. You’ve got to stay the course. You know you did everything possible for you to be in this position and just let everything play out.”
“I love that guy,” he added. “I don’t see him leaving though, I don’t see him leaving.”
