Sykotyk

1 hour ago, 4_tattoos said:

Question.  Are the breakers pants white or silver/light gray?

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

1 hour ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

It's funny to think anyone's going to extract free money from casinos.

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.

1 hour ago, Seadragon76 said:

Paramount is CBS.

 

My thought is that whatever games they don't show on CBS Sports Network would be on Paramount+ for those who want to see the other games. With 34 regular season games shown by CBS Sports Network, that means the other 48 games this season (82 in all) could be on Paramount+.

 

This doesn't include the playoff games and the Grey Cup, but I would think that the Grey Cup would be televised... maybe put it on CBS for even more exposure.

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.

5 hours ago, walkerws said:

The Hall got brand new blank turf that will allow them to have more clean looking events like the USFL and the occasional soccer and Canton McKinley football. 

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. 

54 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

You're at the game?

 

Q: Are they adding artificial crowd noise over the PA speakers? Or is that just for tv?

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. 

17 minutes ago, McCall said:

Wait, I thought Pittsburgh and New Jersey were the two Canton-based teams. Yet the Michigan-Philadelphia game, evidently the two Detroit-based teams, are also playing their game in Canton. What’s going on? I’m lost.

 

This whole league set-up is one confusing, convoluted mess.

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

56 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

Attendance from Canton.  The league has no St. Louis or DC:

 

Hey that's me

2 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

That photo, without the helmet and logo for context, makes it look like the most college-ass uniform ever.

 

If he was wearing a University of Arizona helmet, I wouldn't think twice about it.  For better or for worse, that wordmark size will never be part of the NFL aesthetic.

 

 

Same issue with the Cleveland uniforms we pretend never existed. 

At least they didn't put anything down the legs. 

26 minutes ago, Sodboy13 said:

ESPN is regarded as the gold standard of sports television, but over the last several years they've been quietly cutting corners in production over all their properties. It's little things like using cheaper cameras or running skeleton crews so the colors or audio aren't balanced properly, or maybe the graphics don't look as great or get wonky sometimes. It's the sort of thing you wouldn't probably pay much mind to, or you'd just assume it's your cable feed or stream being a little off or whatever. But then you get something like the split NHL deal, and you realize that Turner is just putting out a better version of the same product week upon week, when so many people assumed it was the ESPN half of the deal that would make the league look better.

 

At this point, with their focus on acquiring properties and then presenting them on the cheap to the best of their ability, ESPN is a lot like the Fanatics of sports television.

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.

2 hours ago, Cruhawk7975 said:

 

 Eh, I wouldn't rule out SHI Stadium until we hear something more definitive on that front - they host  Rutgers' Mens/Women's lacrosse teams and have hosted NJ state HS football championships in the past, but I don't think that would preclude the Generals from getting 5 weekend home dates  between April and June - I'm sure Rutgers's Athletic Dept would be open to another revenue stream since they have a substantial debt to pay. 

 

Penn does host the Penn Relays in late April,  but I do think the Stars could work as a tenant there with some flexibility/backloading for their Home Schedule. 

 

My bet is that Fox does not want to abandon 2 of the top 5 US TV markets  that are also located close enough to each other to develop an actual organic rivalry as well, especially since both have multiple venue options on paper.  

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.

2 hours ago, Cruhawk7975 said:

 

TLDR for the below - My 2024 USFL predictions: 

 

- HOU Gamblers either move into Rice Stadium or relocate to Tulsa, OK as the revived "Oklahoma Outlaws" 

 

- NOLA Breakers: 1) Yulman Stadium, or 2) Lower Bowl-only Superdome 

 

- PITT Maulers: 1) Heinz Field  or 2) relocate to Columbus and play at Mapfre Stadium 

 

- PHI Stars: 1) Franklin Field, 2) Subaru Park 

 

- NJ Generals: 1)SHI Stadium , 2) Red Bull Arena

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

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

 

Tulsa, unless the USFL wants to pay an extorbitant amount of money to the University of Oklahoma to have games played at their 80.000 seat stadium.  

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.

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

 

The Red Bulls said no to the XFL 2.0 when it was considered an option for the Guardians and as for the Union, the schedule seems to be packed with games from the Union and Union II of MLS Next Pro  if not for Union II, Subaru Park would be a good option.  

1 hour ago, McCall said:

I don't know if Red Bull Arena is actually in play. I think that was the intended stadium for the New York Guardians, but Red Bulls said no. Thus they ended up at MetLife.

 

If I'm remembering correctly.

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.

2 hours ago, GDAWG said:

With the Houston Roughnecks playing in Houston, it is unlikely that the Gamblers will ever play in Houston so the USFL needs to figure out what to do with the Gamblers.  If they want an actual presence in Texas, they might have to consider Austin, but where would they play in Austin?  Otherwise the Gamblers motiff and nickname fits a team in Oklahoma (Tulsa) better, unless they want to bring the Outlaws back.  I sense that the Gamblers will either go to a new city or be like the Bandits and be replaced.  If they still want Texas, do they go to El Paso or the Rio Grande Valley?  

 

The Maulers are playing in Canton right now and the USFL are promoting Canton as part of the Pittsburgh Market despite Canton being only one hour from Cleveland.  I think they would have kept their uniforms from last year if they didn't believe that they would eventually play at Acrisure.  The only other stadium is the 5,000 seat stadium where the USL Pittsburgh Greyhounds are playing, but the USFL might see it as too small for what they want in a stadium.  

 

The Generals are in a bind.  I doubt that MetLife Stadium or Red Bull Arena are in play.  That leaves Rutgers and Princeton and I don't think they would be as open to pro football at their stadiums as the University of Houston is with the Roughnecks.  The Generals seem unlikely to ever play a game in New Jersey.  I don't think New York City is a viable option either.    The USFL could be long gone when New York City FC opens their stadium in Queens.  If they want to keep the Generals brand and want to have all of their teams playing in front of actual home fans, I think a better option would be to move the team to the New England area, most likely Hartford at the football stadium where UConn plays.  Would the University of Buffalo be interested in hosting the Generals?  

 

Stars are in a similar situation as the Generals.  Where would they play in Philly?  Franklin Field hosts multiple track and field events during this time of year.  Subaru Park is busy with the Philly Union and Philly Union 2 of MLS NP.  I find it hard to believe that the Linc would be an option though.  

 

As for the Breakers, if Tulane was open to allowing the Breakers to play at Yulman Stadium then that solves the stadium problem for the Breakers.  If not then the Breakers will be like the Gamblers, Maulers, Generals and Stars.....in a bind on where to play.  The USFL has problems ahead with at least four of the teams in regards to their futures beyond the hubs. 

 

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.

1 hour ago, McCall said:

This guy forgot to put pants on.

"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.

9 hours ago, See Red said:

The AAF would've called it a sellout. They were awful about exaggerating attendance.  Ahhh... I do miss the AAF. 

 

So far, while I don't like the hub city structure they use and will struggle to really get into games played in empty stadiums, the USFL feels like a step-up from the XFL to me.  The presentation,  at least.  But then, anything would be an upgrade over ESPN's XFL coverage with their second- tier CFB commentators and constant talk about spreads and over/unders. 

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. 

17 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

Michigan is wearing a Rocket Mortgage ad patch. Are the rest of the league going to be doing that?

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. 

27 minutes ago, McCall said:

According to Curt Menefee during the Stallions-Generals broadcast, the Showboats-Stars game drew 30k. Yet, as you see in this video, half the stadium is empty (lower half even tarped off), and the other half wasn't completely full. Daryl Johnston also said they won't be releasing attendance figures.

 

Liberty Bowl capacity is 58k. Given that it appears there was freebies given out and tickets were only $10 and people were trying to flip them for many times over face value on the resale market, there's a good chance not every ticket was used at the game.

That's not unusual for ANY sport. If a ticket is issued, it is counted. They can't sell it or give it out again. So, that's how attendance is counted. We haven't gotten turnstile counts for decades from any league.

2 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

Liberty Bowl is extremely vacant for the Showboats' inaugural game, and Memphis' uniforms appear to not so much have been designed as just simply occurred. Something you'd get out of create-a-team in a PS1 game.

 

On the bright side, the end zone walls have advertising, so someone in this operation is at least working to bring money in besides the Fox checks.

Only sold tickets for one half of the stadium.  According to the ticket sales sites pregame, only a few dozen tickets were left available. And this crowd shot shows the home side pretty well full.

1 hour ago, ralphz said:

Funny to note: The league supposedly dropped the Bandits and recolored the Showboats to avoid so much red.

 

But with the Maulers recoloring, there sure is a lot of athletic gold now!

Was gonna say here that this first game between Stars and Showboats has a ton of yellow.

41 minutes ago, Discrim said:

^I wanna say "please tell me that wasn't varsity," but that was varsity, wasn't it?  Only because I know this is occasionally on display at state up here.  Normally though, the kids in the mismatching jerseys are 5th-6th stringers who aren't sniffing the field past warmups.  

Unfortunately it was varsity 8-man. Two small very rural Indian schools. Just making do with what they had. 

Pine Hill finished 0-8 while Dulce finished 3-6. Dulce is a public school but mostly Navajo. Their only 3 wins were over Navajo Pine, Alamo Navajo and Pine Hill. 5 their  6 losses were all mercy rule shutout losses at the half.  This game was 50-0 but ended in the 3rd.

Was Senior Day/Homecoming

Those were the seniors on the team AND the homecoming court.