Cruhawk7975

It does in terms of how strong the original USFL team's brands are/were and whether or not its worth it for the new USFL to revive. My first quote about the Michigan Panthers was also referring to the current iteration of the team (Even though the original Michigan Panthers were well supported and actually won the first league title) Meanwhile in this past USFL season, the panthers were also reported to have good local TV ratings among the current USFL teams despite a 2-8 season.

Doens't help that the Gunslingers had both a poor record (12-24 all time) and finished in the bottom quartile of average home attendance in either of their seasons as well.

Think the league is looking there because the Michigan Panthers were one of the better-supported teams in the league and Detroit seems like a good sports town. Easy logistics to pair Pittsburgh with them there too. Fox also owns their Detroit fox affiliate TV station as well via a subsidiary, plus sports betting is legal in Michigan - good for the FoxBet App, so there's some vertical integration benefits there too.

Article came out from the Detroit News the other day about USFL North division hubs. Looks like the league is evaluating venues in the Detroit area now, and is prioritizing stadiums that have turf surface to withstand hosting multiple teams, as well as have sufficient locker room/training facilities and TV broadcasting infrastructure. They've apparently reached out to Eastern Michigan University about using Rynearson Stadium . It also looks like a 4th hub could happen as well, with Philadelphia being a potential 4th host site. Hope both happen as it gives the league an even 2 hubs per division in 4 different regions, and all with a decent chance of drawing a good amount of local interest. Plus some good city-pair locations for rivalries and logistics: Birmingham: Stallions and NOLA Breakers Memphis: Showboats and Houston Gamblers Detroit: Panthers and Pittsburgh Maulers Philadelphia: Stars and NJ Generals

They would have to be on the Mississippi or Ohio river in order to make historic sense IMO. so like St. Louis, New Orleans, Memphis, Louisville, etc. Cincinnati might actually technically have even greater claim to it then Memphis : the last surviving actual showboat used to be docked on the Cincinnati riverfront for decades, and is moored just east of the city now.

Looks Like the USFL is going to announce the Showboats in Memphis later this morning, Logo and Colors may have already been leaked from new social media accounts created for the team. Tweet with logo and new colors

Agreed. If nothing else its a unique and distinctive brand identity for the USFL to build on and update. Plus they can somewhat mitigate the red issue by switching the main Jersey color to gray/silver and still look like it fitss.

Recent Reddit post has more details on the new Trademark filings and the new logo Link: Logo:

Looks like the USFL may be relocating the Tampa Bay Bandits to Memphis for 2023, league recently filed for additional "Memphis Showboats" trademarks and a new logo Link: https://usflnewshub.com/usfl-news/report-tampa-bay-bandits-moving-to-memphis-to-be-showboats-new-usfl-hub-city/

Not sure if it counts as "Expansion" per se, but in the USFL's first season in 1983, a few teams had very similar looks: the Birmingham Stallions and Philadelphia Stars had basically identical Red and Gold color schemes in a 12-team league (2022 version somewhat mitigated this by giving Birmingham a darker red and tan look, with Philly keeping red and adding bright yellow). Chicago Blitz and Tampa Bay Bandits had similar red and silver color schemes, with the difference being Chicago had a dark blue as an alternate color and Tampa had black. The Memphis Showboats would also opt for a red and silver look when they joined the league in 1984 Both the Houston Gamblers and Oklahoma Outlaws would have Red and Black color schemes when they joined in 1984, though Oklahoma would have black pants while Houston had grey. Other teams also had similar looks to one another depending on Helmet-Jersey-Pants combos as well. That league had a lot overlap in its short tenure.

I think it has to do with Fox Sports and NFL Films partnering for the USFL's "United By Football" show (their season-long equivalent to Hard Knocks). Fox has friends in high places when it comes to this league (as shown by them now having a permanent exhibit at the Pro Football Hall of Fame)

Just read the press release on it. Fox owns Blockchain Labs so it makes sense that they're vertically integrating as much as possible into the league. Sounds like they will run a USFL NFT store where the league will create/mint and sell them to fans like merch/trading cards, and consult with players who want to create their own (and get paid a cut of its revenues). They're also planning on doing token drops to promote gated discord servers and merchandise giveaways Not ideal, but not the worst application of NFTs either. I think the ELF is doing something similar as well.

USFL begins a 2 day player draft tomorrow night, in which all 8 teams will select players from players who signed contracts with league itself (total draft pool estimated to be from 450-500 players, all from an initial database of about 3000+ players the league has on file). The league wont release the full list of draft pool names, but journalists/twitter accounts and websites have been piecing some names together. In an unusual twist on the normal draft style, rounds will be organized by position group as opposed to a normal unrestricted round format. QBs are selected in round 1, then Edge/DE in round 2 , OT in round 3, etc. Full snake draft list for each team/position group:

If nothing else you gotta respect how they try to do something relatively bold and different by prominently featuring a brightly colored yellow on the uniform, something not common in in sports in general, let alone pro football.

I had a similar thought actually. Barring a wild curveball (i.e. USFL-XFL merger), I think this is the avenue the USFL pursues assuming the league outlasts XFL 3.0. with those exact teams (maybe move Oakland to San Jose/San Diego/Sacramento as needed) if they can find sufficient stadiums. Assuming the league makes it to 16 teams, and the USFL goes back to the well and only wants to re-use old team names, I think a four team central division could be: Central Division Chicago Blitz [expansion] Memphis Showboats [expansion] San Antonio [expansion] - ("Arizona Wranglers" and "San Antonio Gunslingers" trademarks are used by indoor teams rn so I'm guessing Arizona would be revived as the "Outlaws" from their name in 1985 after merging w the Oklahoma Outlaws so I'd guess San Antonio would be rebranded as the "Wranglers" - plus the Gunslingers had a sketchy off-field reputation as well (paychecks frequently bounced, team cut corners everywhere possible, etc. ) so the league may want a fresh start ) Houston Gamblers [moved from southern division, replaced by an expansion team - Jacksonville Bulls in this scenario] Ultimately leading to a 16 team USFL of: North NJ Generals MI Panthers PHI Stars PIT Maulers South BHM Stallions JAC Bulls (expansion) - (swap w/ Orlando if desired) NOLA Breakers TB Bandits Central CHI Blitz (expansion) HOU Gamblers (from South) MEM Showboats (expansion) SA Wranglers (expansion) West AZ Outlaws (expansion) DEN Gold (expansion) LA Express (expansion) OAK Invaders (expansion) - (place in San Fran./San Jose/San Diego as needed) Orlando, Oklahoma (Tulsa), Portland, and Washington D.C. would be the remaining USFL 1.0 Markets without teams in this scenario. (Note: I'm also assuming the USFL avoids Seattle, St. Louis, D.C., and Dallas since they each had relatively strong fanbases for XFL 2020 and they all seem like logical candidates to return in 2023).

I think the league also placed its teams where it did both partially accounting for a potential XFL return in 2023, but also for geographic reasons. Take a look where each team's namesake market is located: To me I think the USFL is trying to think longer term with its team placement. Following the initial "bubble" season in Birmingham (w/ playoffs in Canton, OH), this is where the "Initial 8" teams would be set up following relocation to home markets. You can see 2 distinct geographic "pods" forming in the Northeast and Gulf Coast. Each team has at least 1 close travel partner within somewhat reasonable driving distance (except for maybe Tampa-Birmingham, which is about a 9hr drive per google maps). I think the league intentionally set this up both to give a chance for more regional rivalries to organically form, and also to help ease logistics and travel costs for subsequent seasons (pending any further expansion/relocation). That's why I think Pittsburgh was selected despite not having a glowing USFL 1.0 history: they fit the geographic footprint, have potential nearby rivals in Michigan and Philly, and didn't have a popular XFL (2020 version) market (NY, Houston, Tampa all overlap both leagues, but the XFL's Houston team may have to abandon its logos due to trademark disputes with the NFL so they may opt to relocate, plus TB and NY were two of the less supported teams in the XFL at the time - Gamblers, Generals, and Bandits are all stronger brands IMO then the Roughnecks, Guardians, and Vipers are).

I concur, I think XFL 2.0 was starting to make inroads and get start building solid fanbases (see the crowds at the games in STL, Seattle, Houston, and DC and how big, loud, and enthusiastic they were even after the first weeks) . Even as someone who lives in the NYC metro and with a crowded sports landscape, both in teams and of fans of varying teams, I noticed people actually talked about the XFL and were legitimately interested in it. I have seen people wearing NY Guardians shirts, and talked about going to games. That is not often the case with established MLS/WNBA/College Teams, let alone spring alternative football leagues. If they can return as many of the XFL 2.0 markets and teams as possible, devote the proper resources to starting up this league correctly and get decent broadcasting distribution like they did last time, I do believe they legitimately have a chance of carving out a space in the American sports calendar annually.