I used to follow WWE financials, and the business and creative pratfalls of the much smaller "TNA Wrestling" group (NWA-TNA to TNA Wrestling to Impact Wrestling).

In the days before the WWE network, WWF/E's revenues were from 5 main sources: live event tickets, merchandise, TV rights, advertising and PPV revenues. Shortfalls in one could be balanced by the others.

TNA was never able to generate significant revenue from ticket sales, PPVs, merchandise, or advertising. A contract with Spike TV kept them afloat for years, and now a contract with an Indian TV network keeps them going, plus subsidies from their ownership groups (until recently, PAnda Energy and the Carter family which owns PAnda, now a media group called Anthem)

For the AAF, the main revenue streams would be tickets and TV rights (including a split of the ad time with the network)--I really don't see how anything else adds up to much for a startup league.