Sodboy13

This is a fair point to make, and it is more than worth remembering that Reagan Carey and the other folks in charge of the league announced a huge boost to the salary cap and were signing players to contracts reflecting it, while quietly negotiating an acquisition deal that would void every single one of those contracts. Profoundly bad actors.

Now to find out where they stole it from to do the click-and-fill recolor and shove some trees in the ears.

You know what? Give me the Fox Sports NIL Tournament presented by FanDuel or whatever the hell. Give me some garish trophy with a million damn dollars in cash stuffed in it for the winning players. Big-money college sports is one of our more absurd institutions, and I say lean into it.

We're two months out from the start of the season and there's no schedule, no confirmed venues to go with the market assignments, and only (informed) speculation on (very bad) team identities. It feels like a "dog finally caught the car" scenario. This sounds a bit like women's soccer, where too many people are power tripping in their little fiefdoms to see the bigger picture and the change and growth that are happening. On the micro level, that gets you the Chicago Red Stars being fall-down drunk as an organization over the past couple years because Arnim Whisler was still operating like the offices were in a Lincoln Park three flat and Rory Dames being allowed to operate as an abusive god king. On the macro level, that gets you US Soccer seemingly ignoring all the stories from 2015 and 2019 of "Hey, (European nation) finally figured out how to give a crap about the women's game" and then being completely shocked by how ordinary the USWNT was in 2023.

"Serve in the roll." I don't know that I'd trust any of these people in the food service industry.

I remain at least partially convinced, as I have for years, that the people running the PWHPA and now PWHL want to run women's pro hockey into the ground. I've been losing my mind all day at "Toronto Torch." Good thing there's not another pro hockey team in Canada with a storied history of torch imagery. And even better that such a theoretical team does not have some sort of blood rivalry with Toronto.

In reading these proclamations citing sources, it is best to focus one's emphasis on the "could" and "might." Boosting up to twelve teams all in their home markets, some getting their first home season of spring football in this era, and some (PHI, NJ) having profound obstacles ahead in the way of venues is an instantaneous money pit, and remember this is the last year of Fox's financial commitment. Yes, I know they've said they're making money in the USFL. As I said in the Arena thread, these people say a lot of things.

The people heading up this league, they say a lot of things.

Yeah, you get adjusted to the motion in the backfield after a couple games. I decided to add 2022 estimates of metropolitan statistical area populations to the current lineup of franchises, because I have real work to do and do not want to do it. Orlando, FL - 2,764,182 Albany, NY - 904,617 Council Bluffs, IA - 976,671 (includes Omaha; city population 62,799) Rapid City, SD - 154,165 Wichita, KS - 650,039 Salina, KS - 46,889 (2020 census population, no MSA available) Dodge City, KS - 27,788 (2020 census population, no MSA available Odessa, TX - 177,216 (secondary city in Midland, TX MSA) Billings, MT - 190,208 Everett, WA - 4,034,248 (as part of Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue MSA; city population 110,629) You're telling me big networks are going to spend on broadcast rights for this when there's 100-yard football up and running during the same time of year? Alternately, you're telling me this current iteration of the AFL, clearly more fly-by-night and seat-of-pants than the two before it, is going to have the money and planning required to broker time from even a mid-major cable net? This bunch is going to be lucky to get games streaming on Twitch with a handful of Ring cameras.

Halt Film Queue Candies. Here's your current AFL reality: Orlando, FL Albany, NY Council Bluffs, IA Rapid City, SD Wichita, KS Salina, KS Dodge City, KS Odessa, TX Billings, MT Everett, WA As nonsensical as that looks on its own, it becomes more absurd when you go to the official league Twitter account and scroll through, with all the promised launch markets and a stern post from the commissioner advising against believing any information not coming officially through the league or himself. Forget Chicago and Philadelphia; these dudes haven't even been able to deliver on promises of Tallahassee.

So we've gone from the big splashy vague announcement of major and mid-major markets into grabbing on to the glitz and stability of Salina, KS and Rapid City, SD in a speedrun.

For all of their team and league announcements via tweeting, which carries less reach and impact than it has in at least a dozen years, I would just like to note that this Arena Football League appears to have not made a single update to their website since the launch announcement. Did the guy in charge of it forget the password and now they're going to have to start another website at real arena football dot com? If so, relatable.

All right then, if six from the X are selling, plus the Stallions, Showboats, and Canton Pennsylvanians, then maybe we're getting a 10-team league with all home markets, and the Houston Roughblers as your tenth?

So... Canton Birmingham Memphis St. Louis San Antonio Houston Arlington And one more? Also consider that they might be doing four hubs again, with Arlington as your fourth. That would screw St. Louis, but this entity has never been about the in-person fans, so why start now?

I thought "Oh jeez, they're going to compete with the Barnstormers?" But then I saw the team is based in Counciltucky, so they're going to try to compete with Omaha. Okay, good luck.

Guys, don't worry, the new stadium is going to be much smaller, so even though attendance will still be embarrassingly low and the location will actively push would-be attendees away, the price of each ticket will be higher and the owner will make more money. And gosh, isn't that what we all really want to see as baseball fans?

Orange and black.

I want to talk about this photo for a moment, and not for the obvious reason. Look at where the centering of the gradient is on each numeral. It's much lower on the 6 than it os on the 3. Is this botched design, or does his jersey have a 9 sewn on upside-down?

I can't believe they're going with the "NSFL" acronym, which kills off the legacy/nostalgia marketing angle they just became able to fully embrace last year, and is both one letter more than the entity that will happily sue anything that comes within 100 yards of its IP, and one letter change away from an email with a surprise Goatse attachment. You could simply rename it the United Spring Football League and cover all the bases without mucking things up. Alas. I am reminded of my conclusion that XFL 1.0 could have never gotten off the ground without Vince McMahon pushing for it, and never could have survived with Vince McMahon running it. The poor decision makers are here, and they are emboldened.

"See? We weren't being duplicitous at all! Washington!"

I would be fine with solid white socks. Just something to balance this ketchup bottle mess.

Well now look what you did.

The buildup to the branding reveal lasted longer than the brand did. One? Probably one.

Did we ever find out if the NBC Universal portion of the broadcast rights was a brokered agreement? As for the new amalgamation, calling it now: Eight teams, 10 games, run however it's cheapest to do so. Hope you like Birmingham.

Between Fox and The Rock, we are about to definitely find out who has been the biggest sucker over these past couple of years. And I genuinely can't predict an answer!