USFL 2023 Season

[Sec19Row53]

33 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

Was told that the league wanted to rebrand Pittsburgh but was just too late before the season after already planning the color switch. 

Any reason they mimicked the Pittsburgh colors if they were going to rebrand them? That doesn't make sense to me.

[MJWalker45]

4 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Any reason they mimicked the Pittsburgh colors if they were going to rebrand them? That doesn't make sense to me.

Probably expected to get Heinz Field and now they're trying to figure out how to keep that brand if they can't get access. 

[Sec19Row53]

2 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

Probably expected to get Heinz Field and now they're trying to figure out how to keep that brand if they can't get access. 

But if they were expected to get Heinz Field, why would they have planned a rebrand? The recolor would have been sufficient. 

[MJWalker45]

Just now, Sec19Row53 said:

But if they were expected to get Heinz Field, why would they have planned a rebrand? The recolor would have been sufficient. 

Because now that they're staying put, maybe they decided a team called Pittsburgh playing in Canton hurt sales. I guess I didn't do a good job with my hypothesis. But I'd be surprised to see any changes unless they go all in on a new name instead of recycling other teams instead. 

[GDAWG]

48 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

Because now that they're staying put, maybe they decided a team called Pittsburgh playing in Canton hurt sales. I guess I didn't do a good job with my hypothesis. But I'd be surprised to see any changes unless they go all in on a new name instead of recycling other teams instead. 

 

I have my doubts that they will play in the Stadium formerly known as Heinz Field.  Just like I have my doubts about the Gamblers ever playing in Houston.  

[Red Comet]

A spring football league not thinking beyond this year is something I did not see coming at all. 

[McCall]

9 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

I have my doubts that they will play in the Stadium formerly known as Heinz Field.  Just like I have my doubts about the Gamblers ever playing in Houston.  

I, too, doubt the Gamblers will ever play in Houston. But Houston does have two alternatives to the NFL stadium (NRG Stadium).

 

1. TDECU Stadium - Which, currently, the Roughnecks of the XFL lay claim to spring league use, so probably unavailable.

2. Shell Energy Stadium (Houston Dynamo) - Not truly sure of the availability for football use, but it's an option.

 

As mentioned, the availability of these stadiums is another story, but, unlike Pittsburgh, they do have alternatives. Pittsburgh is Acrisure or bust.

[4_tattoos]

24 minutes ago, McCall said:

2. Shell Energy Stadium (Houston Dynamo) - Not truly sure of the availability for football use, but it's an option.

It's the home stadium of Texas Southern University (FCS) football team. Dynamo is used to sharing the stadium, but may not have had a choice in TSU coming in. 

[McCall]

12 minutes ago, 4_tattoos said:

It's the home stadium of Texas Southern University (FCS) football team. Dynamo is used to sharing the stadium, but may not have had a choice in TSU coming in. 

And they may not want to have to share it in the fall AND winter/spring.

[GDAWG]

Somehow I think that Fox will push for Philly and New Jersey playing in NFL stadiums rather than MLS or small college stadiums.  

[Sykotyk]

19 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Any reason they mimicked the Pittsburgh colors if they were going to rebrand them? That doesn't make sense to me.

Rebrand was planned before they gave up on playing in Pittsburgh. 

[Sec19Row53]

25 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

Rebrand was planned before they gave up on playing in Pittsburgh. 

So they changed to black and gold expecting to play in Pittsburgh.

 

Then they decided to rebrand to some other name (but they're still going to be in Pittsburgh, and they're relying on historical USFL names).

 

Then they aren't playing in Pittsburgh.

 

This timeline has me confused. If the rebrand were planned after Pittsburgh wasn't available, that would make more sense to me. They could even call them the Denver Gold and keep those colors. Heck - unless the team name includes a color, they could likely stay black and yellow.

[Sykotyk]

51 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

So they changed to black and gold expecting to play in Pittsburgh.

 

Then they decided to rebrand to some other name (but they're still going to be in Pittsburgh, and they're relying on historical USFL names).

 

Then they aren't playing in Pittsburgh.

 

This timeline has me confused. If the rebrand were planned after Pittsburgh wasn't available, that would make more sense to me. They could even call them the Denver Gold and keep those colors. Heck - unless the team name includes a color, they could likely stay black and yellow.

No. The black and yellow maulers rebrand was planned before they gave up on Pittsburgh. Going to Canton was so late they couldnt rebrand again. So they just stuck with Pittsburgh and tried to make it work

[GDAWG]

Canton is much closer to Cleveland than to Pittsburgh, so I don't know why the USFL thought that Canton was a part of the Pittsburgh area.  Not going to attract Cleveland football fans when the Pittsburgh team is in Canton and is Black and Gold.  Not going to get a good reception if you show up at Cavs and Guardians games in Black and Yellow of the Maulers.  

[4_tattoos]

Is Canton close enough to Columbus where they could claim having a connection to the Columbus Crew being the reason for the color change?

[McCall]

11 minutes ago, 4_tattoos said:

Is Canton close enough to Columbus where they could claim having a connection to the Columbus Crew being the reason for the color change?

[GDAWG]

1 hour ago, 4_tattoos said:

Is Canton close enough to Columbus where they could claim having a connection to the Columbus Crew being the reason for the color change?

 

it's about two hours.  Cleveland is closer.  

[Sykotyk]

8 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

Is Canton close enough to Columbus where they could claim having a connection to the Columbus Crew being the reason for the color change?

Canton is 94.6 miles from Acrisure Stadium. Canton is 129.1 miles from Lower.com Field in Columbus.

 

So, other than being Ohio, no the black/yellow is not at associated with Crew. In fact, the Crew had an uphill battle going with that color scheme since day one. Sure, there's a lot of Steeler bandwagon fans in Columbus and transplants (from out of state and eastern Ohio that is heavily Steeler area), but that put a lot of Browns/Bengals fans disinterested in ever visibly supporting the Crew day-to-day. It really is an odd decision by MLS/Lamar Hunt back in the 90s to go that route for colors.

 

As for the USFL switching to an Ohio or Canton branded name was just too late in the game. They were stuck with the Pittsburgh name and the already planned Pittsburgh rebrand. Pittsburgh has no other stadiums.

 

There's Acrisure (65k or so), PNC (35k baseball that is probably a definite no), and then... a few high school stadium sin the 10-14k range nearby. North Allegheny HS, Woodland Hills HS,... then some nice ones such as Pine-Richland, Mt Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, etc. But all far too small. The few colleges in and around Pittsburgh (Duquesne, Carnegie-Mellon, Robert Morris) have very tiny stadiums. In the 1k-4k range.

 

The only really big stadium closer to Pittsburgh that could work isn't also in PA. WVU in Morgantown is 75.2 miles from Acrisure. Slippery Rock University is 51.2 miles north of Pittsburgh. Seats about 14k. But a huge track, almost all bleachers, and in a town roughly bigger than the university.

 

Canton only got the hub because their relationship with the league hosting the playoffs in 2022. If they knew going in that there WASN'T going to be games in Pittsburgh,  I doubt Canton is anywhere close to hosting a hub. Detroit gets all 4, or they go all-in getting a PHI/NJ hub setup in eastern PA. They just gambled on Pittsburgh and lost.

[MJWalker45]

If the Maulers get rebranded/placed on hiatus, I wonder if they decide to go with the Federals for a Canton team. It's add colors not currently used in the league, and the justification that William McKinley served in the Civil War, as well as President of the USA. And would they "retire" the team if they win the league? 

 

Also, I'd hope they get better fan support than they did last night. We're the semi-finals this poorly attended last year? 

[GDAWG]

10 hours ago, Sykotyk said:

Canton is 94.6 miles from Acrisure Stadium. Canton is 129.1 miles from Lower.com Field in Columbus.

 

So, other than being Ohio, no the black/yellow is not at associated with Crew. In fact, the Crew had an uphill battle going with that color scheme since day one. Sure, there's a lot of Steeler bandwagon fans in Columbus and transplants (from out of state and eastern Ohio that is heavily Steeler area), but that put a lot of Browns/Bengals fans disinterested in ever visibly supporting the Crew day-to-day. It really is an odd decision by MLS/Lamar Hunt back in the 90s to go that route for colors.

 

As for the USFL switching to an Ohio or Canton branded name was just too late in the game. They were stuck with the Pittsburgh name and the already planned Pittsburgh rebrand. Pittsburgh has no other stadiums.

 

There's Acrisure (65k or so), PNC (35k baseball that is probably a definite no), and then... a few high school stadium sin the 10-14k range nearby. North Allegheny HS, Woodland Hills HS,... then some nice ones such as Pine-Richland, Mt Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, etc. But all far too small. The few colleges in and around Pittsburgh (Duquesne, Carnegie-Mellon, Robert Morris) have very tiny stadiums. In the 1k-4k range.

 

The only really big stadium closer to Pittsburgh that could work isn't also in PA. WVU in Morgantown is 75.2 miles from Acrisure. Slippery Rock University is 51.2 miles north of Pittsburgh. Seats about 14k. But a huge track, almost all bleachers, and in a town roughly bigger than the university.

 

Canton only got the hub because their relationship with the league hosting the playoffs in 2022. If they knew going in that there WASN'T going to be games in Pittsburgh,  I doubt Canton is anywhere close to hosting a hub. Detroit gets all 4, or they go all-in getting a PHI/NJ hub setup in eastern PA. They just gambled on Pittsburgh and lost.

 

it doesn't help matters when Canton is closer to Cleveland than Pittsburgh and that those who are diehard football fans in Canton are either Browns fans or Bengals fans.  Those fans would have probably embraced the Maulers more in Canton if the Maulers had kept the Orange and Purple rather than Black and Yellow.  They could overlook the Pittsburgh name in the Maulers if they had kept their colors from 2022.  If you are fan of the Brown or Bengals living in Canton, what reason do you have to go to a Maulers game at the local stadium when they remind you of one of your rivals, the Steelers?