BREAKING NEWS: Former Foxwoods CEO To Take Over as AFL Commissioner

Adam Markowitz
Thursday September 18, 2014

The Arena Football League is about to have its seventh commissioner. Sources have confirmed to ArenaFan that Scott Butera will be named the next commissioner of the AFL.

Butera is resigning his post as the CEO of Foxwoods Resort Casino on October 31st, when he will be assuming the commissioner's role of the AFL. This is a rare instance in which someone who doesn't have a background in sports taking over as the commissioner of a major sports league.

Butera has yet to announce that he is joining the AFL, but he did state that he is, "(pursuing) a rare opportunity outside of the gaming industry," according to a Hartford Courant report.

The next AFL commissioner had worked with the Foxwoods since the end of 2010, and he has helped grow the brand in many ways. The Courant reports that Butera slashed $2.2B in outstanding debt down to $1.7B in July 2013, and he increased staff at the casino in a span of just one year by almost 14 percent.

In the past, Butera also helped lead the Trump Organization out of bankruptcy, and he was the CEO on Trump Hotels & Casino as well. He has been known to turn around a number of casinos in the past, and he will hope to do the same with the Arena Football League, which has had many teams mired in red figures for years.

Though Butera has yet to confirm that he is coming to the AFL, he did make a statement via teleconference on Wednesday that foreshadowed the move.

"It was somewhat unexpected, something I'm passionate about, and it came up," Butera said. "It's one of those things where it I don't pursue it now, I never will."

Sources have confirmed to ArenaFan that Butera will take over all of the duties of the commissioner as former commissioner Jerry B. Kurz previously had.