HOOVER

I'd say this is fair in most cities, with Pittsburgh being the exception, since the majority of their teams have an identity that is now synonymous with the city. I grew up in PA and lived in PGH for 11 years. If you're not Black & Gold, you're not Pittsburgh. Pitt gets the only pass.

Agree that there's too much Red, but I think the USFL identities have more brand equity than the XFL identities; I wouldn't take Red away from the Generals or Stars, per se, but I would add Navy to the DC Defenders, in the absence of the Roughnecks, in order to minimize some Red in the league. Summary: I'd prioritize preserving USFL brands over XFL brands, who have 1-2 years of history.

Yes, it is. I'm not advocating for putting a great brand in a terrible market; I'm telling you that a terrible identity will sink a team in a great market. You said it's not important. It is.

But in a city like Pittsburgh, where the Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins are Black & Gold, a team that is Purple & Orange doesn't stand a chance. Even the Riverhounds SC is Black & Gold. It was a logical change. Agree on the '22-23 USFL's color problem...way too much Red. They tried to fix that with the Showboats by changing their colors, given they were also a Red team.

I wouldn't agree that changing the color schemes qualifies as a complete identity change. In these cases, it was a correction (Pittsburgh, especially). Moose said they really didn't want to leave Tampa and that they'd go back, so I don't think you pin that one on the Bandits identity. I think our opinion here differs as you guys are thinking of it from a short-term, geographic viability standpoint, which is totally valid...for the league to survive the first 1, 2, 3 seasons. I look at it from a branding perspective first, more as a long-term viability prospect, which is perhaps short-sighted. Different lens.

I understand your position, but if you place a horrible identity in a great market, it'll likely still bomb, just as placing a great identity into a poor market can still bomb. The point is that identity is critical.

Nothing personal, but going to be hard to value your opinion going forward after this statement.

Orlando and Vegas did not perform well in attendance last year, but Orlando is growing in population like crazy (I think Vegas is, too) so I get why the XFL wanted to be in those markets. I’d like to see Orlando stay but go back to playing at UCF. The area around Camping World Stadium a :censored:hole. Vegas not having a venue makes that an easy cut, though, and I’m glad: the Vipers brand sucked.

From what I'm reading today, it sounds like it'll be a 50/50 ownership split between Dwayne/Dani/RedBird and Fox, with Disney (ESPN, ABC, FX) & Fox then splitting the broadcast rights. Might leave NBC/USA out in the cold.

Got it. RedBird cuts its losses a little bit but stays in the game and the USFL picks up capital infusion. Cut league down to 10-12 teams, keeping Top 5-6 from each? What might be most interesting is what happens with the TV deals. Isn’t Fox the principal owner of the USFL?

Agree. It would be semi-pro bush league stuff at this point. Another reason to license out the property as a video game; would be fun to play, not so much to watch.

All of this is logical. But my question is then: what does the USFL gain by buying out the XFL? Why not just keep operating at a profit and let the XFL go out of business, and be the last man standing? If not to create an expansion, why do the deal at all?

Combine XFL & USFL in 2024, then expand in 2025 with the new league acquiring the IP to the AAF. Add the following teams/markets to get to 20 teams for the '25 season: Atlanta Legends Salt Lake Stallions* San Antonio Commanders San Diego Fleet *I wanted to add Salt Lake, but we already have Stallions in Birmingham and we need a new team in the North division; adding Salt Lake would also crowd the West division. I'd opt for a new franchise in Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, or New York. Per my prior post, new divisions could look like this: NORTH DIVISION Michigan Panthers (USFL) New Jersey Generals (USFL) Pittsburgh Maulers (USFL) Philadelphia Stars (USFL) *New Boston/Buffalo/Chicago/New York franchise using Blitz, Breakers, Enforcers, Hitmen, or Guardians identities, or a remaining AAF brand (Hotshots or Iron, rather than Apollos or Express) EAST DIVISION Atlanta Legends (AAF) DC Defenders (XFL) Orlando Thunderbolts (XFL) St. Louis Battlehawks (XFL) Tampa Bay Bandits (USFL) SOUTH DIVISION Birmingham Stallions (USFL) Dallas Renegades (XFL) Houston Gamblers (USFL) Memphis Showboats (USFL) San Antonio Commanders (AAF) WEST DIVISION Las Vegas Brahmas (XFL) Oakland Outlaws (XFL) San Diego Fleet (AAF) San Francisco Demons (XFL) Seattle Sea Dragons (XFL)

On another note...this league, literally on Day 1 of a merger, needs to reach out to 2K Sports to develop a new football video game. Madden is trash, but you could really build some loyalty to teams and the league by putting out a great game. It wouldn't make sense to try to use real players, so you'd save on costs of paying the NFLPA like EA has to do, and you could simply sign certain guys to NIL-type deals for the game and offer them as downloads, while letting the fanbase create the rosters themselves like people do for Madden draft classes that you can download. There's great potential for storyline modes, such as a star NFL player jumping ship (fake name), or a 5-star high school player skipping the NCAA and jumping straight to the XFL/USFL (although that would be dumb today considering NIL money). Franchise mode could involve league expansion with created teams, letting players put teams back in San Diego, etc. and rounding out these divisions. Obviously putting The Rock in these modes, as well as his face on the cover, helps sell it. Get Bob Stoops, Wade Phillips, Todd Haley, and Hines Ward signed so that their likenesses are in the game, also, and maybe reach out to some other retired/unemployed coaches to get them in the game as for-hire options (so we can go 7-9 with Jeff Fisher). There are ways to include some big retired names to offset the lack of star players in the league; why not see if Manziel or Tebow would take a paycheck to be in the free agent pool? 2K does a really good job with the MLB & NBA games, and this could be their way back into the football market and a nice way for the XFL/USFL league to generate some revenue while growing the brand.

I agree, and if you’ve got 16 teams, that’s going to be a longer season, so you want to wrap up earlier and avoid the heat at the end of the season in the late Spring/early Summer. The league needs to kick off the week of, or week after, the Super Bowl…or maybe even Pro Bowl week.

Didn’t really want to; it was more or less the fact that Texas already had Dallas and Houston and I wanted to have more balance on the West Coast. This is my “ideal” scenario to achieve some geographic goals and lay out divisions, short-term and long-term. The more realistic scenario is that San Antonio stays due to venue, demographics, and attendance history - from a numbers standpoint, they're probably #3 overall behind St. Louis & Seattle in terms of viability. I just wasn’t ready to give up on Vegas yet and wanted to return a team to another original XFL city to rival SF & OAK, and potentially future other West Coast expansion teams (Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix). The Brahmas branding, since it is figuratively Dwayne's brand, makes the most sense to rival future West Coast teams, given Johnson's Hollywood status. I suppose the Brahmas would fit in Dallas if we wanted to flip the Renegades to Vegas, too. I’ve never liked the Battlehawks logos or colors, so the shift is about fitting in alongside the Blues, playing into the blues music history like the NHL franchise, and tying back to the city’s football history with the Rams. If I was going to make a change, I tried to justify it in terms of color balance within the league while making it make sense for the city. Thanks for reading and for the critique.

Here's my 1st crack at a potential line-up, with my reasoning for the decisions, as well as changes to team identities: NORTH DIVISION Michigan Panthers (USFL) New Jersey Generals (USFL) Pittsburgh Maulers (USFL) Philadelphia Stars (USFL) (Big Rivalries: Pittsburgh vs Philly & Philly vs New Jersey) EAST DIVISION DC Defenders (XFL) Orlando Thunderbolts (XFL) St. Louis Battlehawks (XFL) Tampa Bay Bandits (USFL) (Big Rivalry: Orlando vs Tampa) SOUTH DIVISION Birmingham Stallions (USFL) Dallas Renegades (XFL) Houston Gamblers (USFL) Memphis Showboats (USFL) (Big Rivalries: Dallas vs Houston & Alabama vs Tennessee) WEST DIVISION Las Vegas Brahmas (XFL) Oakland Outlaws (XFL) San Francisco Demons (XFL) Seattle Sea Dragons (XFL) (Big Rivalries: SF vs Seattle, SF vs Oakland, Oakland vs Vegas) TEAM SELECTION: I chose 8 teams from each league, past or present (or a combination of past & present). Those 16 teams were selected in part due to location, demographics, brand equity, recent ticket sales, and demand for football. The 16 teams selected were able to be divided into 4 divisions that, for the most part, make sense geographically - the only outlier is the St. Louis Battlehawks, who are a midwest team that I had to slot into the East Division. I chose Vegas over San Antonio, despite Vegas's poor ticket sales and venue issue; explained in more detail below. TEAM LOCATIONS: A few changes here, with the Brahmas regretfully exiting San Antonio, which has a huge population and had some larger games in terms of attendance, in addition to the new league adding a franchise in Oakland. With teams in Dallas & Houston, and only Seattle & Vegas on the West Coast, I needed to find some balance. Vegas did not have good attendance and also has a venue issue, so this one would need work. Tampa gets a team back, but it's the Bandits, not the Vipers. Houston retains Gamblers, but says goodbye to the Roughnecks. San Francisco sees the return of the Demons. New Orleans would lose its franchise. TEAM IDENTITIES Most of the USFL teams would remain the same as they were in 2023, although I revived the Tampa Bay Bandits because it's a great market with good weather and a great team identity. The New Orleans Breakers were dropped in order to do so. The USFL team names & logos have a lot of nostalgic brand equity, in my opinion, and it makes sense to keep & use the best ones. The following teams would see no, or minimal, changes: Birmingham Stallions (changing Red to Crimson or Cardinal) Houston Gamblers Michigan Panthers New Jersey Generals Pittsburgh Maulers (in Black/Athletic Gold/Grey/White) Philadelphia Stars (changing primary to Athletic Gold) Some of the color schemes would need to be tweaked, especially to alleviate the amount of Red in the league. Notable changes: Birmingham Stallions: Shifting Reds here to a darker Cardinal, or a Crimson; with Tuscaloosa down the road, Crimson makes sense. Dallas Renegades: because "Arlington Renegades" sounds stupid. And they'd shift back to the 2021 logo as the primary. DC Defenders: Navy/Red/White. They would inherit these colors to replace the exiting Houston Roughnecks. It only makes sense for the DC team to wear these colors. Memphis Showboats: Memphis created the biggest challenge; I'm giving Navy & Athletic Gold back to St. Louis (see below), so the question was: does Memphis get Red back? Not completely. I thought since I've darkened it in Birmingham, minimized it in DC and for the San Francisco Demons (see below), and subbed it out in Tampa Bay (also below), it could fit back in here to oblige the change in St. Louis (also below). But, with New Jersey in Red tops, Michigan in Maroon tops, Birmingham in Crimson tops, and Red being an accent in Dallas, DC, San Francisco, Houston, and Philadelphia, we've got to go in a somewhat different direction. While I'd love to call back to Red, Silver & White to pay tribute to the Reggie White days, let's move Memphis in a new direction that ties together multiple sports & local histories. I worked through Royal (Memphis Tigers) and Navy/Light Blue/Gold (Grizzlies), but ultimately decided to call back to the Maniax and early Grizzlies days: Teal or Turquoise, which also can relate to the Chickasaw Nation's role in Memphis history; Cardinal as a nod to the original Showboats use of Red; and then retain Navy as a tie-in to the most recent colors. It sounds rough on paper, but Teal/Turquoise, Navy, and Cardinal creates a unique palette that solves the issue and can branded. Oakland Outlaws: While the USFL had a great brand in the Oklahoma Outlaws, that logo obviously inspired the XFL Renegades logo, so this will morph into an entirely new identity for Raiders fans in Oakland that no longer have a team to watch on Sundays. This team would definitely be Silver & Black...but would also add in Chrome Metallic Gold, as in the type that Colorado wore in their 1st game this season, and the branding would take inspiration from the Bay Area Biker Club scene. I think fans there would eat this up. The Raiders used Gold briefly at one point in their history, and some rumors swirled that they were going to do it again recently, so this would be a nice way to take a shot at the franchise that left town. Orlando Thunderbolts: Being an Orlando resident, I can tell you that Florida really is the Lightning Capital of the World. We get a thunderstorm almost every afternoon for half the year at least, so this is an easy sell. Orlando would ditch the ill-fitting 2021 XFL New York Guardians logo & 2023 color scheme here in favor of the 2001 XFL Birmingham Thunderbolts brand, featuring a new logo & new colors: White/Volt/Silver Chrome/Anthracite. Tampa has the Lightning, so Orlando can have the Thunder(bolts). Philadelphia Stars: the Red issue continues to be addressed here, as the Stars switch to Athletic Gold as their primary helmet & jersey color. Red & Orange will remain as accent colors along with the use of White. Stars shine bright, and Yellow-Gold jerseys will be one of the brightest in the league. San Francisco Demons: This is a tough one, because their original colors work so well, but there's already so much Black, Red, and Gold in this league. There's also no Purple. Until now. Taking a cue from one of The Rock's former ring foes, The Undertaker, we'd roll with Black & Purple for the Demons, with just a touch of Red as an accent, as I've suggested the Baltimore Ravens use. The use of Purple, rather than Red, also makes this a little more PG...not sure any league in the Rear of Our Lord 2024 will roll with a team name of "Demons" but if so, this is a way to soften the blow, as the branding leans more into "phantoms" than satanical imagery. Seattle Sea Dragons: I hate this brand, but the league is light on Green & Orange. Perhaps a color shift will help it, so let's steal Lime Green from the Seahawks here to replace the Dark Green; steal Carolina Blue from the Portland Breakers; then add Brown for contrast and to give it all a Northwest nature vibe. Think Tulane, but with Lime Green instead of Kelly, with Brown to break up those light colors with contrast. Alternate plan? Instead of Carolina Blue, use Yellow as a nod to the SuperSonics. Lime Green/Yellow/Brown. Fun thought? Ditch the Sea Dragons identity altogether, and put this theme with the Rage team name from the original XFL Orlando franchise, and tie it back to the Seattle grunge music scene. Yeah yeah...Rage Against the Machine was an LA-based band, I know. Seattle Maniax? "Sonics...Seahawks...Maniax"...there's something there, too. Anything is better than "Sea Dragons". St. Louis Battlehawks: I've long hated the 2021 & 2023 Battlehawks brand; I don't like the logos or colors. St. Louis likes its "blues", though...so we're going to keep Royal and steal back Navy & Athletic Gold from the Showboats (see above) to call back to the Rams era and liven up the Battlehawks branding while complimenting their NHL franchise. Additionally, the sword is going to be dropped from the identity, which will shift more towards St. Louis's aviation history and take on a fighter jet identity. Tampa Bay Bandits: With so much Red/Black/Silver already in this league, we're going to go full Tampa, Florida here and steal Creamsicle Orange to replace the Red, retain Silver and add Dark Grey for contrast. Basically, darken up Bucco Bruce, with influence from Tennessee's Smoky Grey uniforms, and it's an easy hit. So, that's a start. I'm going to go Photoshop things now. Thanks for reading. (Yes, I love this :censored:. Yes, I just spent the last 3 hours writing this up. Yes, I'd love to be doing this stuff for a living.)

I like “Washington Federals” over “DC Defenders” but can’t get down with that Green/Black scheme in our nation’s capitol. I have a thing for DC-area teams that are Red, White and Blue, that’s all.

So, thoughts on how they proceed? 16 teams? 2 divisions of 8, 4 divisions of 4, or something else? 2 teams in Houston, or does one die again? I'd imagine it'd be the end for the Roughnecks, even though they have an edge on color scheme over another Black/Red team in a combined league. This will be a great opportunity to do some fun things. First thoughts if they drop the Roughnecks is to give the DC Defenders that color scheme, which is what they should have always had. That would eliminate 1 Red-heavy scheme, which is dominant in the USFL. Then replace the Roughnecks with the San Francisco Demons or Chicago Enforcers. Maybe find a way to bring back the Tampa Bay Bandits. Maybe rebrand Las Vegas back to the Outlaws (XFL 2001). Better yet...definitely get a team back in Oakland. They were the Invaders (USFL '83-'85) but the Outlaws brand would be an excellent replacement brand for the Raiders. The Oakland Outlaws...has a damn good ring to it.

Fair.

Kelly, Black, and Silver (or White). Simple.

It doesn’t look bad at all in the photo above. The overreaction to this wordmark is insane. I think it’s just because the uniform is so plain, that people just need to find SOMETHING to complain about.

If Coach Prime keeps winning at Colorado, they need to switch gears and roll out into these:

@canzman Niners vs Giants, Chiefs vs Bears, and Steelers vs Raiders will all be beautiful on-field match-ups this coming weekend.

Take heart…I did this on Madden, and it truly solves everything. I can’t believe they’ve stuck to this tampon combo this long. The franchise is a joke, but when they finally make this switch, they’ll at least look the the Arizona Cardinals are supposed to look.