diff --git a/yarn-project/aztec/src/bin/index.ts b/yarn-project/aztec/src/bin/index.ts
index 55294c642f0e..b032f9d64714 100644
--- a/yarn-project/aztec/src/bin/index.ts
+++ b/yarn-project/aztec/src/bin/index.ts
@@ -12,8 +12,11 @@ import { createConsoleLogger, createLogger } from '@aztec/foundation/log';
 
 import { Command } from 'commander';
 
+import { NETWORK_FLAG, aztecStartOptions } from '../cli/aztec_start_options.js';
+import { enrichEnvironmentWithChainConfig } from '../cli/chain_l2_config.js';
 import { injectAztecCommands } from '../cli/index.js';
 import { getCliVersion } from '../cli/release_version.js';
+import { addOptions } from '../cli/util.js';
 
 const userLog = createConsoleLogger();
 const debugLogger = createLogger('cli');
@@ -26,6 +29,17 @@ async function main() {
   process.once('SIGINT', shutdown);
   process.once('SIGTERM', shutdown);
 
+  // We create a temp command object to detect the presence of the network option
+  // If it has been given then we enrich the environment with the chain config
+  const tempCmd = new Command('aztec').allowUnknownOption();
+  addOptions(tempCmd, aztecStartOptions['NETWORK']);
+  tempCmd.parse(process.argv);
+  const networkValue = tempCmd.getOptionValue(NETWORK_FLAG);
+
+  if (networkValue !== undefined) {
+    await enrichEnvironmentWithChainConfig(networkValue);
+  }
+
   const cliVersion = getCliVersion();
   let program = new Command('aztec');
   program.description('Aztec command line interface').version(cliVersion);
diff --git a/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/aztec_start_action.ts b/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/aztec_start_action.ts
index 9ba1f849d256..c4b7c8e506e3 100644
--- a/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/aztec_start_action.ts
+++ b/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/aztec_start_action.ts
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ import { getOtelJsonRpcPropagationMiddleware } from '@aztec/telemetry-client';
 
 import { createSandbox } from '../sandbox/index.js';
 import { github, splash } from '../splash.js';
-import { enrichEnvironmentWithChainConfig } from './chain_l2_config.js';
 import { getCliVersion } from './release_version.js';
 import { extractNamespacedOptions, installSignalHandlers } from './util.js';
 import { getVersions } from './versioning.js';
@@ -51,10 +50,6 @@ export async function aztecStart(options: any, userLog: LogFn, debugLogger: Logg
       userLog(`Not exposing PXE API through JSON-RPC server`);
     }
   } else {
-    // If a network is specified, enrich the environment with the chain config
-    if (options.network) {
-      await enrichEnvironmentWithChainConfig(options.network);
-    }
     if (options.node) {
       const { startNode } = await import('./cmds/start_node.js');
       ({ config } = await startNode(options, signalHandlers, services, adminServices, userLog));
diff --git a/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/aztec_start_options.ts b/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/aztec_start_options.ts
index ee7e435252f2..852176c80d75 100644
--- a/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/aztec_start_options.ts
+++ b/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/aztec_start_options.ts
@@ -65,11 +65,13 @@ export const universalOptions = [
   'dataStoreMapSizeKb',
 ];
 
+export const NETWORK_FLAG = 'network';
+
 // Define categories and options
 export const aztecStartOptions: { [key: string]: AztecStartOption[] } = {
   NETWORK: [
     {
-      flag: '--network <value>',
+      flag: `--${NETWORK_FLAG} <value>`,
       description: 'Network to run Aztec on',
       defaultValue: undefined,
       envVar: 'NETWORK',
diff --git a/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/chain_l2_config.ts b/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/chain_l2_config.ts
index bb7ca1fba3c5..97718e5b6ffc 100644
--- a/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/chain_l2_config.ts
+++ b/yarn-project/aztec/src/cli/chain_l2_config.ts
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ export const alphaTestnetL2ChainConfig: L2ChainConfig = {
   aztecEpochDuration: 32,
   aztecProofSubmissionWindow: 64,
   testAccounts: true,
-  sponsoredFPC: true,
+  sponsoredFPC: false,
   p2pEnabled: true,
   p2pBootstrapNodes: [],
   registryAddress: '0xad85d55a4bbef35e95396191c22903aa717edf1c',