Sykotyk

Their laurels were well rested on.

Houston was definitely a sheep in wolf's clothing. SA might have been better but that come-from-behind win by STL to open the season snakebit them. Not championship level, but that was a gut punch. Seattle was good from day one, offensively... but their defense was usually pretty suspect. LV was terrible and Orlando was terrible for the first half the year until their miracle win over DC which was more DC being relaxed and assuming a win before they stepped on the field. Arlington obviously improved at the end, but survived the rest of the year on their defense.

They rested on their laurels. After the good start, once they started losing, they just never regrouped but were far enough ahead to just coast into hosting their division playoff. As troublesome as the XFL 1.0 crossover playoffs were (letting SF and LA playing in the first title by upset of the far better team Orlando), the division playoffs just feel hollow. It's four teams. Would the NFL like to let the top two in from each division and immediately play each other in the first round? In a crossover this year, it would've been Arlington at DC and Seattle at Houston. In a top 4 league-wide, it would've been DC v. St. Louis and Houston v. Seattle. Either way, I figured at least one Houston spring football teams were going to win today.

2023 is a lot different than years past. Right now the networks absolutely crave anything that draws live viewers as opposed to most stuff being streamed at the viewers' leisure. A July Friday night game might actually draw better on the worst TV night than any other programming they can throw on there.

Definitely silver. You can see the white stripe on the sides stand out. But it is a very dull silver.

Gambling alone is not enough anymore to get people to go to Vegas. It's the experience that Vegas has become. And any excuse to get people to want to come to Vegas is financially worthwhile. That's why sports are becoming a huge draw for interested parties. It gives people a reason to travel to watch the road team play at the Las Vegas team and in the time there spend money at hotels, casinos, shows, etc as well. And baseball helps since many that will travel will travel for their teams' entire series there. A 4 game series might see someone going there for 5 or 6 days in part or in whole. That's a lot of opportunities for the casinos to make money off them.

Grey Cup is scheduled for 11/19 at 6pm. There's no way that game is on CBS ... unless... they only have the 1pm NFL slate that weekend and they somehow decide 60 minutes would be less than the demos of those who might watch CFL's championship game over mid-season NFL games on Fox and the first hour of NBC. I don't see it happening.

Was on it on Sunday. Was really nice. I'm just curious once USFL is done how much painting is going to be done during the fall season once the Hall of Fame game is over. But it's better than having a field that doesn't look like McKinley's home field. Basically for decades.

The other thing was a long time ago the cost to attend a major league game and a minor league game in terms of tickets were nearly the same. Also most of the time the major league team never came close to selling out their non weekend non major important games. Comparison, Houston cheapest ticket this Friday is $45. Sugar Land most expensive non luxury seat ticket for their next Friday home game is $27. And tickets as cheap as $12. So yeah. They're ALL just gonna go watch the MLB team and ignore the AAA team.

Minneota is a town in Minneota. Their school teams are named the Minneota Vikings. They're blue and yellow. Points for an original logo. But Minneota Vikings and Minnesota Vikings are about as close as you're going to get without directly copying the name.

The one thing I haven't investigated is the season ticket prices. The Maulers are advertising $30 season tickets. Their normal price is $10 per game. $8 for group sales. However, is that $30 for just the Mauler games or for all Canton games? On 5/7, it's a true doubleheader on one ticket. But the rest of the year they're different tickets. I would call but don't want to get roped into an overzealous sales rep contacting me. Either way $30 is a great deal but they've just missed the proper market. Canton could host a Cleveland named team probably. But not Pittsburgh. Because as many Steelers fan this part of the state has.... they're Steelers fans. Not Pittsburgh fans. Funny the only Browns jacket I saw was at the night game between Michigan and Philadelphia. You're not going to get many Browns fans to cheer for a Pittsburgh named team wearing black and yellow.

I suggested on another site that they just go with an 8-team league structure instead of divisions. Still go with '3 teams played twice, 4 teams played once' but just seed them #1 through #8. Take the top 2, 4, 6, or 8. Whatever they want. But there's no reason to do a straight split. Another option I concocted was this: Instead of a 10 week season, play an 8 week season. Play with divisions or without. Doesn't matter. With divisions, take the top 3 teams from each division. Without, just take the top 6 teams. For regular season schedule, (with divisions) play division teams twice (6 games) and play two of the 4 remaining teams once each, missing two of them. (without divisions) play two teams twice, and play four of the remaining 5 teams once. Only missing one team. Take those 6 teams, put them in two groups. From Divisions, you can do N1/S2/N3 and S1/N2/S3 for example. For league-wide, go 1/3/6 and 2/4/5. After 8 weeks, 2 teams are done. The remaining six are now playing a three week/two game tournament for the playoffs. Random draw which team is which slot. A hosts B. C hosts A. B hosts C. Each gets one home game. Each has one road game. There's two outcomes. A group finishes 2-0, 1-1, and 0-2 or a group finishes 1-1, 1-1, and 1-1. If A beats B and A beats C, A #1 and B-C play for the #2 spot. If A beats B and C beats A, C is playing for #1, but B can win to make a three-way tie. If B beats A and A beats C, B is playing for #1, but C can win to make a three-way tie. If B beats A and C beats A, B-C plays for #1 and loser gets #2. Each of the three games means something. No game is a 'it doesn't matter' game at the end of the season. And to make it really fun, the three-way tie-breaker would be PF/PA among the 3 teams in the 3 game tournament. So, in that third game, HOW MUCH you win or lose by could make the difference between #1, #2, or being out. For instance: A 23-10 B C 44-20 A A -11 B -13 C +22 C wins, gets #1. B wins, it's a three-way tie. If they win by 3, they're #2, and C is #1. If they beat C by 18, they're #1 and C is #2. If B wins by 2, C is #1 and B/A are tied at #2. A wins on head-to-head. In the improbable 'every team has the same PF/PA differential, go PF, and then go net touchdowns. And to avoid any coin toss rules, just go net yards in those games. Take the top two, put them in the playoffs. #1 from one group hosts #2 from the other group. Semifinals. And then Finals. In all, you play 2 less games for the entire season and have one extra week. You eliminate the two worst teams after 8 weeks. The last 9 games all mean something very important. And in a lot of cases, even if you're not playing you're almost required to watch to see what happens and what you need to do when your team does play.

I'm sure the lease contracts include exclusivity while their season is going on. But Houston has a lot of options. Hell, play it over at Katy at Legacy Stadium or in Cy-Fair. Rice, NRG, Houston Dynamo... All could host.

No added noise. The fans were vocal but they were individually noticeable. Like you could see individual shouts. A lot of player families were there. The crowd that was there was into it. But the game was so so bad.

USFL knew that Detroit wasn't able to host this week and wanted a doubleheader. It's technically a Philly home game.

Hey that's me

Same issue with the Cleveland uniforms we pretend never existed. At least they didn't put anything down the legs.

Vast majority of ESPN's expenses are the rights fees they pay out. With cord cutting harming their carriage rates, they cut corners on everything. The fact a handful of big name on air talents still work for ESPN is amazing. But even then you'd think ESPN would be able to draw a ton of highly motivated and capable graduates every year just to get ESPN on their resume to find local work. It's not the gold standard it was before. It's not even bronze. The worst thing is that the bigger the property the less likely they'll put anything against it on their underling networks. Unless it's things like The Mannings or the All 22. They can't risk undercutting their own programming. So most cable companies are paying ESPN for several channels when they only show one major thing at a time. Then they're tied up with things like SEC Network or how they treated NHL when they went to OLN that makes their position as Sports News network to Sports Propaganda network. Remember Playmakers and how the NFL forced them to cancel a surprisingly success and honestly unique show. Because they couldn't risk their biggest rights fee having an issue with them.

One, Las Vegas Ballpark is a top of the line, beautiful AAA level park. It's honestly to MLB standards in quality it's just small and lacks the numbers of things people want in an MLB stadium. Fewer seats, fewer boxes/clubs/etc. But quality wise it works. Got to see a game there back in 2019. It's not unreal. Arizona Coyotes are playing in a 4500 seat venue. Chargers played a year at whatever they called the StubHub Center that year. The other thing is that the Aviators are the A's affiliate. They could 'swap'... Put the A's in Las Vegas Ballpark and send their AAA team to Oakland until they vacate the LV Ballpark for this new venue. You could even still call them the Oakland A's. Then bring them back or leave them depending how well they do. LV Ballpark could be a A or AA venue (quite large) but to avoid going up against the MLB team now in town. But staying in Oakland will not work. Attendance cratered already with the chance they'd find a new home in Oakland. This isn't the regionalized Raiders fan base that tolerated it somewhat. Plus NFL has ridiculously high standards for their home venues now. They were not playing at Sam Boyd or anywhere else.

This is where the league and their TV overlords will differ. The costs in Philly and NJ are obscene compared to Michigan and Ohio. While TV really wants the viewership numbers in those markets. Remember, USFL is not a big money endeavor. it's basically The Spring League in an edgar suit. Franklin Field is the most likely possible venue for a Philly team. But then will the TV partners want to host games there. How's the lighting? Press facilities? etc. Subaru definitely exceeds all requirements for TV but USFL still wants butts in seats because they turn into eyeballs on screens to help fuel the TV numbers. For NJ.... Rutgers is by far the most likely possible venue. If this were XFL, I'd say MetLife. But I can imagine that Rutgers being far cheaper and TV just wants the NJ name with NJ fans watching on TV. It's a Big Ten venue. It's going to work fine for TV. Hell, the red/white colors work great for the Generals, as well. Where MetLife will really look like an intruder on foreign lands. I agree with Houston. TV wants the Houston market right now. But there's no way with the XFL existing they're going to compete head to head. Even in a city the size of Houston. Oklahoma is an untapped market but it's horrible for TV. I could definitely see a complete relocation a la TB and go to somewhere like Denver, Phoenix/Tucson, etc. The USFL does want to keep to USFL names/teams history so those two seem likely. The other could be a return to Florida. Maybe TB comes back from Houston? Philly and NJ I detailed above. I agree with both of your assessments. For Pittsburgh... I just don't see Heinz/Acrisure happening. The one major problem and the one the Steelers absolutely hate is that it runs their grass hybrid field. It's not fully grass. There's a plastic mesh infused into the turf that makes upkeep costly and you can't just replant new sod the way other grass fields do. They tolerate the WPIAL finals being played there but charge a fortune. And that's more political pressure as they used the 'community relations' aspect as part of their plea to build a new stadium to replace Three Rivers. The other is that Pittsburgh is not nearly as big as other markets. They have three major league teams and a surprisingly popular Riverhounds though their numbers are small. Additionally, for a city/metro area as small as it is it's surrounded by a lot of other options for minor league sports not too far away. Wheeling has the Nailers (Pens AA affiliate), Altoona has the Curve (Pirates AA affiliate), Johnstown has two teams (baseball Mill Rats and hockey Tomahawks), Youngstown area has two teams (Mahoning Valley Scrappers draft league team and USHL's Phantoms)... And Pitt is right there with all their ACC sports sapping fan dollars and support. Pittsburgh is a tough market. AFL failed there with the Power when they went hard into the black/gold motif and came off as a 'major league' type team. Maulers would be going up against the tail end of a Pens season, the early 'we might still have a good season' Pirates summer, and the all important 'let's save up for Steelers tickets' fans. Steelers have some of the biggest control over their stadium in the NFL. And they really don't want another football team playing there. I just don't see it happening. And the closest venues anywhere near Pittsburgh are high school (Wolvarena in Turtle Creek, Neumann Stadium in Wexford, Wheeling Island Stadium in Wheeling WV, Mihalik-Thompson Stadium at Slippery Rock University, Stambaugh Stadium at Youngstown State, and you could maybe try to argue WVU in Morgantown but that's almost as bad as the Maulers playing in Browns contested territory going into WVU territy for a Pittsburgh named non-Steelers team). I like the idea of the Maulers becoming an Ohio team, but then the black/gold doesn't matter. Mapfre is now Historic Crew Stadium (Mapfre ending their naming rights). And that's definitely a decent venue and perfect size. But Columbus is a ridiculously fickle market. It's taken decades for the Crew and Blue Jackets to establish themselves as an everyday part of the city. If it's not Ohio State it's nothing. Even the Clippers took a shiny new chic stadium for fans to come around. A minor league football team playing in late spring and summer is just not going to survive there. Unfortunately. Akron/Canton can work but they need to be Ohio or NEO or Canton/Akron labeled, marketed, and themed. Cleveland isn't happening (not playing at CBS or Progressive, Byers is not capable of hosting a professional team, and that immediately ends any possible options around the city. Best way to describe Canton would be like Winston-Salem NC. Charlotte's the big city in the region. Greensboro (Akron) has a ton of people, some major venues and a better sporting acumen, but Canton/Massillon/Stark County is still a big urban area with a lot of people and a lot of money and a lot of people that travel for sports all around the region. And there is no 'rural' areas from 20 miles west or east of 77, 20 miles south of 30 to the lake, and 20 miles north or south of 76 from Akron to PA. You're constantly minutes from a town and easy access to the cities and major cities in the region. A team could exist anywhere in that area of Ohio and draw

Central Oklahoma in Edmond has a 10k seat stadium. Wonder if some temp bleachers could be brought in to get it up to 15k-20k. Tulsa could be possible and just go with the Oklahoma name and try to draw from the whole state and southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas and northwestern Arkansas. Either way, OKC would be the better market, but the stadium limits it. I don't see OU hosting a team. And an 80k stadium is not what any league should want when they're expecting about 20k at best. From what I remember, that is basically how it went. Vince knew how badly small crowds in big stadiums looked during XFL 1.0 and focused more on stadiums that could host in the 20-40k range. Seattle being an outlier because of the setup of whatever the name du jour stadium in Seattle has for the Sounders, is that the bottom level feels divorced from the upper deck. Making a perfectly nice 30kish seat stadium if you ignore the tarped off upper deck. But Vince wanted the major markets as much as possible. Chicago was a no go from XFL 1.0 days, but needed NYC and LA for television number purposes. And at least in LA had a good very lined up that fit perfectly. First, it's even worse, it's the Riverhounds, not Greyhounds. And the stadium barely seats about 4k if you squeeze everyone in. A road behind the home side and railroad tracks just beyond the river side makes the stadium nearly impossible to expand. As for Buffalo. No. Not just no. But hell no. That would be like putting NJ in Norfolk or Richmond, Virginia. It's over 330 miles from MetLife to Buffalo (and further since UB is on the north side of town while Bills play far south of town). The best bet for NJ would be Red Bull but Red Bull just doesn't want it. They got the rugby team briefly and the title game last year was played at RBA, but this year they're at another stadium. Also, RBA is hosting the NWSL team. As long as RB owns the team, runs the stadium, etc I don't see it happening. MetLife will rent to anyone. But it's costly, huge, and hard to get to from almost anywhere with people. If not for the Giants and Jets history, there's no way games at the meadowlands would do well. So many other teams tried and failed. This isn't the USFL of the 80s. The Generals will not draw a big enough crowd to make it worthwhile. Rutgers could be an option. They host HS title games every year it seems. Princeton has the perfect sized stadium but it's highly unlikely they'd ever host an outside team. For Philly, Franklin Field also hosts quite a few high school games. It's in the city. it's perfectly capable of hosting games. It's just old. Villanova Stadium holds 12,500 which for the USFL could work. Union's stadium is there, but one of the biggest complaints is being in Chester and the neighborhood.

"Who wears short shorts!"

I remember in the AFL days under the NBC contract, most team jerseys were just the year and the team name for the player name. Were nice simple uniforms. I think with this, they could've kept the 54 number as a quiet nod to him, but put the team name on the nameplate. At least then you're advertising the league. Most people that see D. Johnson 54 would probably think it's just some fashion jersey and not a real team jersey. Especially if any are worn outside the team market.

The XFL broadcasts have felt so far behind the first three USFL broadcasts. Though the USFL is relying far more on TV revenue and selling tickets for nothing. XFL meanwhile has very high priced tickets and has a home venue for every team and caters to the GameDay experience.

Rocket Mortgage is by Quicken Loans which is owned by Dan Gilbert who owns the Cavs and the Monsters in Cleveland. He's also part of the group trying to bring an MLS team to Detroit. He also owns the company that owns one of the casinos in Detroit and also the one in Cleveland. Rocket Mortgage is based in Detroit so sponsoring the Michigan Panthers makes sense. I doubt they'll sponsor every team.