Major League Football cancels its 2016 season

Major League Football President Wes Chandler delivered the bad news Thursday.

The fledgling professional league, which has its headquarters in Lakewood Ranch, was going to delay its opening season until 2017.

Chandler sent an email to players who had been drafted by the league's eight teams, informing them of his decision.

“We pushed forward with the intent of playing this year,” Chandler wrote. “However, it's become apparent to me that moving forward in 2016 with an abbreviated season would put your safety and the quality of play in danger.

“I decided to make 2016  developmental year in preparation for a 2017 kickoff.”

The league was expected to begin training camp this week at Premier Sports Campus at Lakewood Ranch. The local facility was in the process of lining 10 football fields for the MLFB to use.

On Tuesday, the MLFB executives met to discuss “operational problems.”

The MLFB had planned to bring just under 1,000 players and personnel to Lakewood Ranch for its three-week training camp.

The camp originally was scheduled for early March, then backed up to March 31 after the league announced it had lost a $20 million financial commitment from Clairmont Private Investment Group LLC on Feb. 8.

On Feb. 17, MLFB announced it had a $20 million equity, $100 million line of credit funding agreement with Asian Global Capital Ltd., that would put the league back on track.