SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — The San Antonio Commanders and the Alliance of American Football are calling it quits.

The news leaked out throughout the day Tuesday as rumors swirled earlier in the day and continued to heat up when the Commanders practice was suddenly cut short.

League co-founder Bill Polian confirmed the news in a statement later in the day, stating he was disappointed with the decision taken by the league — most notably new financier Tom Dundon.

Polian said he’s been told football operations have been suspended and that virtually everyone involved will be terminated within 24 to 48 hours. He declined to say who told him that.

In an email sent to league staff, including the Commanders radio partners at ESPN San Antonio, officials stated that the league did suspend football operations immediately.

“As part of this process, we expect to keep a small staff on hand to seek new investment capital and restructure our business,” the email stated.  “Should those efforts prove successful, we look forward to working with many of you on season two.”

Everyone, unless otherwise contacted, will be terminated from their jobs effective Wednesday.

Polian stated the only people to be retained will be equipment managers and others closing facilities.

Polian said he is “extremely disappointed.”

He said: “We were headed to a tremendous run of success, beginning with Saturday’s game leading into (the NCAA Tournament) on CBS. Our league on the field has prospered and grown. The football’s gotten better, and that’s a tremendous tribute to the coaches and players and GMs and front office staff and all the other people who have done a phenomenal job.”

Asked why the league was shutting down, Polian said he’s heard that “only that it’s about the money. That’s all.”

What does this mean for San Antonio?

The move means a lot for San Antonio — both positively and negatively.

On the business and operations sides of the league, San Antonio did very well.

The good is that the league held its training camp in San Antonio.

However, it also leaves some local vendors hanging.

Most notably, North East Independent School District told KTSA News the Alliance has not paid the remainder of its bill to the district’s athletics department for the use of its two stadiums in January.  The district is still expecting that money.

On a larger scale, the San Antonio Commanders proved that the region can support top-tier professional football.

“The four highest-attended games in the Alliance of American Football were all San Antonio Commander home games and I think that says a lot for the city of San Antonio,” ESPN San Antonio host Jason Minnix, who was also the play-by-play voice of the Commanders, told KTSA News.  “For San Antonians, the way they embraced the San Antonio Commanders, you feel bad for the fans because we want pro football in this city and every time there is a league, San Antonio demonstrates that it will support a pro football team.”

The Commanders were by far the attendance champions in the league, drawing an average crowd of 27,721 fans.  The next two were Orlando and San Diego, which were both averaging just under 20,000 fans per game.

When it comes to future football for the city, Minnix said the XFL should seriously consider San Antonio.

“If you look at it from the XFL level, they are in a lot of NFL cities,” the sports talker explained.  “In the Alliance, they were in Atlanta, a very poorly attended franchise.  Phoenix — and they are NFL cities and they did worse.”

Both of those teams were drawing just under 11,000 fans per game.  Only Salt Lake was worse.

The XFL had flirted with the idea of coming to San Antonio, but the city and the Alliance were able to come to an agreement before the XFL laid down permanent roots.

The new spring league is planning to field teams in Dallas and Houston, with the Dallas team expected to play in Globe Life Park, which the Texas Rangers will be departing when their new stadium is constructed across the street in Arlington, and the Houston team playing at the University of Houston.

If you are the nostalgic type — or just like merch — there are questions about what will happen to all the shirts, jerseys and caps the league was still hawking on its site as late as Tuesday — or team-branded beer stocked on the shelves at H-E-B.

“I would imagine the beer would be on sale, the gear will be on sale at Dick’s,” Minnix said.  “Looking at everything, not sure I would be buying anything from the Alliance website at this point, but I’m sure it will all be on sale at some point.”

And with Fiesta around the corner, there is still one mystery to solve.

“All of those Fiesta medals that they have?  They’re not for sale yet,” pondered Minnix.  “They were supposed to be on sale this Saturday. They have been made.”

It may be time for a KTSA I-Team investigation.

Includes reporting from the Associated Press.