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"The Spring League"


dcameronh

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Didn't see a thread for this so I thought I would add one.  A new spring football is starting this weekend simply called "The Spring League". They call it "an Instructional league and showcase for professional football talent"  They are having practices right now and then just 6 games all right before the NFL draft.  No word on how many teams yet or what the uniforms will look like.

 

Game Dates:

Game 1 – Saturday April 15 1:00pm EST

Game 2 – Sunday April 16 2:00pm EST

Game 3 – Saturday April 22 1:00pm EST

Game 4 – Sunday April 23 1:00pm EST

Game 5 – Tuesday April 25 1:00pm EST

Game 6 – Wed. April 26 1:00pm EST

The Spring League

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I'd be shocked if all six games even get played. The website says rosters will be revealed in March; it is now April 11, and still nothing.

 

Also, have they said if the games will be televised or streamed anywhere? I'd be interested in watching some old washed up NFL players try and make a comeback, because I mean it's still some semblance of football, after all.

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This is another Brian Woods (failed) adventure...like the FXFL.

There are four "teams" but when there are just five coaches total, it's hard to use that that term.

 

He still has this pipedream of creating a business which he can sell to the NFL. He had 160 roster spots to sell @$350 each, but only sold 97. He wants to develop QBs, but the four there include: Hutson Mason, Ricky Stanzi, and David Ash, who left Texas due to repeated concussions.

 

He promised to televise games, but no news as of today and avoided the question yesterday. Contact drills were on Facebook live.

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9 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

This is another Brian Woods (failed) adventure...like the FXFL.

 

He still has this pipedream of creating a business which he can sell to the NFL.

 

BINGO!

The Spring League's minimalist SL logo fits the venture perfectly, as any Brian Woods undertaking has a minimal chance of success... and the SL can just as easily stand for Short-Lived. 

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Well, not so great on the game uniforms.  4 teams - North, East, South and West team names.  Two uniforms - Orange and Black jerseys but same black pants and helmet for everyone.  Helmets have Spring League logo as helmet stripe.  Well at least they are keeping it cheap so maybe they will be back again next year.  Apparently there were NFL scouts at the games though so that is what they were hoping for.  Now will anyone make an NFL roster?  That will be what makes this a success or not.

 

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1 hour ago, dcameronh said:

Well, not so great on the game uniforms.  4 teams - North, East, South and West team names.  Two uniforms - Orange and Black jerseys but same black pants and helmet for everyone.  Helmets has Spring League logo as helmet stripe.  Well at least they are keeping it cheap so maybe they will be back again next year.  Apparently there were NFL scouts at the games though so that is what they were hoping for.  Now will anyone make an NFL roster?  That will be what makes this a success or not.

 

58f4ddb03d0e4_C9kS1p4WAAE5jhw.jpglarge.thumb.jpg.995b7453929d35d88c30447bbc9141b1.jpg

 

 

The hell happened to that dude's eye?

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On 04/17/2017 at 8:25 AM, dcameronh said:

Well, not so great on the game uniforms.  4 teams - North, East, South and West team names.  Two uniforms - Orange and Black jerseys but same black pants and helmet for everyone.  Helmets have Spring League logo as helmet stripe.  Well at least they are keeping it cheap so maybe they will be back again next year.  Apparently there were NFL scouts at the games though so that is what they were hoping for.  Now will anyone make an NFL roster?  That will be what makes this a success or not.

 

It's not cheap. It's being run "on the cheap". Housing and feeding 100+ for three weeks is costly and Woods didn't get all player spots filled, so he's already lost money.

 

And they won't play today, due to weather. Yea, football canceled by weather. So per usual, Brian Woods can't deliver what he promises since those dudes lost another opportunity "for film".

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Why is it that football seems incapable of having a minor league system? So many attempts have been made to have spring football, presumably to work as a minor league of sorts, and they've all failed. Is it the nature of the NFL being relatively short?

 

The only leagues that even appeared to last a full season or multiple seasons were the ones that at least tried to incorporate different rules... World Football League, XFL, etc.

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11 minutes ago, Quillz said:

Why is it that football seems incapable of having a minor league system? So many attempts have been made to have spring football, presumably to work as a minor league of sorts, and they've all failed. Is it the nature of the NFL being relatively short?

 

The only leagues that even appeared to last a full season or multiple seasons were the ones that at least tried to incorporate different rules... World Football League, XFL, etc.

MInor league sport is a gate driven business and the marketplace does not want it, period. People have generations of attachment to HS, college and NFL teams. They don't have the need to be attached to minor league (or spring) football.

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2 hours ago, Quillz said:

Why is it that football seems incapable of having a minor league system? So many attempts have been made to have spring football, presumably to work as a minor league of sorts, and they've all failed. Is it the nature of the NFL being relatively short?

 

The only leagues that even appeared to last a full season or multiple seasons were the ones that at least tried to incorporate different rules... World Football League, XFL, etc.

 

The USFL had established itself in the spring during its three seasons, and probably could have continued indefinitely with that schedule, if its owners had not inexplicably decided to follow the lead of a certain orange-hued monster and attempt a move to the fall.  Even if the antitrust trial's jury had been properly instructed and had awarded the league an appropriate amount of damages after the court victory, the league's sailing would have been rocky in the fall, as the move itself cost the league its teams in Philadelphia, Houston, and New Orleans.

 

The World League / NFL Europe lasted for about fifteen years.  This league was run by the NFL itself; it produced one star player (Kurt Warner, who actually got his start in the Arena League) and several other players who had good NFL careers.  More important, the league's original World League incarnation showed that the logistical hurdles of a league having teams in both North America and Europe are surmountable, a point which is often forgotten by those who discuss the possibility of an NFL team in London.

 

Neither of these leagues had experimental rules during ordinary play, though the NFL tried out what would become its new overtime rules in the World League before adopting them itself.  

 

From a purely branding standpoint, the NFL probably should have kept NFL Europe going, as it brought American football with the NFL name in person to new audiences on a regular basis. I suppose the NFL figured that anyone in Europe who cares about the NFL can be served by international broadcasts of its regular games, and that London was sufficient for the European staging of matches.

 

American fans have not had a stable spring outdoor league simply because no television network has been willing to buy broadcast rights of an independent league since ABC paid to show USFL games. By contrast, broadcasts of the UFL were time-buys which not only generated no revenue for the league but burned through the league's meagre coffers.

 

We shouldn't overlook the Arena Football League, which has been on television and in American cities in the spring for thirty years.  The league in its early days usually was able to get some scant money for its television rights, and then in the early 2000s entered into a high-profile revenue-sharing partnership with NBC. However, this did not succeed in establishing the league in the sports mainstream, and the league folded in 2008, a few years after the end of the NBC partnership. A new (and admittedly inferior) version of the Arena League began in 2010, and has paid for its television coverage since then.

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