If this news is true, it illustrates two things:
1-The league was tremendously underfunded and rushed. Orlando Team President Mike Waddell did a Reddit AMA over the weekend and said he was the third Orlando employee hired. Spurrier was the first in April 2018, followed by the GM, then him. Waddell started on August 28, 2018, and then had to hire 24 full-time staffers by January 1. So they were taking seat deposits $50 at a time for longer than they were on the ground in the eight cities trying to get local sponsorship and selling tickets. Not naming the cities at once was another problem, but if Orlando, their first team announces didn't get staffed until late fall, the last two named didn't have a chance.

2-The attendance numbers are for what they distributed. San Antonio had 10,000 Week 1 seats bought by Red McCombs for the USO, and the team stated prior that 4,500 were to be given to them weekly. Birmingham was giving them out at police checkpoints for Week 2.

This more than the possibility of not meeting team payroll, but the ancillary items like office rent, stadium rent, the player's housing, their production costs, merchandising (a lot of their store still has little in stock). Heck, Hines Ward, Justin Tuck and the other former players on the Exec. Board aren't cheap.