USFL 2023 Season

[BBTV]

20 hours ago, GDAWG said:

It will be interesting to see which stadiums the 7 other teams will play once they move to actual cities.  

 

Philadelphia is going to be an issue if they want to draw anyone from the city, as the only option I can think of is Penn's Franklin Field, and Penn-hosted events, like the Penn Relays, would take priority over anything USFL, which could make scheduling tough.  Lincoln Financial Field is a non-starter.

 

If they think their target audience would be strictly suburbanites, then Villanova field (maybe - I don't know if any sprint sports like lacrosse are played there) or maybe the Union's field, which again would have conflicts, and is in a crappy area that people probably wouldn't want to go for to see something like a USFL game.  Also not sure how the Union would feel about the grass being torn up.

[Red Comet]

On 6/29/2022 at 11:38 AM, MJWalker45 said:

If they settle with the original group that says they hold those brands I think you could see the references to the original league and teams come back next year. Reportedly they are looking to get funds to expand in 2024 as well.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/28/foxs-usfl-seeking-outside-investor-to-help-fund-expansion-sources/

I found it completely laughable with this statement though:

"With MLS franchises now worth about $400 million each, the math goes that the USFL with its eight teams could be worth at least $3.2 billion a few years down the road".

 

The whole league isn't even worth $200 million at the moment, how do they think it could appreciate that much? And how many years are a few? 

The Chiefs are worth less than $3 billion. And I’m supposed to believe a USFL franchise is going to be worth more than an NFL team? 
 

Let’s see how this plays out.

[MJWalker45]

2 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

The Chiefs are worth less than $3 billion. And I’m supposed to believe a USFL franchise is going to be worth more than an NFL team? 
 

Let’s see how this plays out.

I think the $3.2 billion is for the league as a whole, with just 8 teams. 

[Brian in Boston]

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

If they think their target audience would be strictly suburbanites, then Villanova field (maybe - I don't know if any sprint sports like lacrosse are played there) or maybe the Union's field, which again would have conflicts, and is in a crappy area that people probably wouldn't want to go for to see something like a USFL game.  Also not sure how the Union would feel about the grass being torn up.

My nephew played football for Villanova. According to him, not only does Villanova Stadium play host to football, but during the USFL's season it would be - as you suspected - the home facility for both men's and women's lacrosse, as well as track and field and intramural competition.

As for Subaru Park, though the stadium was designed with the idea of hosting concerts and sports besides soccer (football, lacrosse, rugby), I'm right there with you when it comes to questioning how welcoming the Union would be to a USFL franchise setting up shop in the facility.   

[MJWalker45]

31 minutes ago, Brian in Boston said:

My nephew played football for Villanova. According to him, not only does Villanova Stadium play host to football, but during the USFL's season it would be - as you suspected - the home facility for both men's and women's lacrosse, as well as track and field and intramural competition.

As for Subaru Park, though the stadium was designed with the idea of hosting concerts and sports besides soccer (football, lacrosse, rugby), I'm right there with you when it comes to questioning how welcoming the Union would be to a USFL franchise setting up shop in the facility.   

I think only having 5 dates instead of 8 or 9 can help with Subaru Park, but I think they'd rather tarp off parts of Lincoln Field than play at the other locations. Houston will be interesting depending on if U of H lets both teams (Roughnecks/Gamblers) use their field. I can't see either team at NRG Stadium. 

[Red Comet]

4 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

I think the $3.2 billion is for the league as a whole, with just 8 teams. 

Ah. Misread it, my mistake. Still hard to believe an alt-league football team would be worth $400,000,000. I’d like to see Season 3 before any grandiose promises come to pass.

[GDAWG]

8 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

I think only having 5 dates instead of 8 or 9 can help with Subaru Park, but I think they'd rather tarp off parts of Lincoln Field than play at the other locations. Houston will be interesting depending on if U of H lets both teams (Roughnecks/Gamblers) use their field. I can't see either team at NRG Stadium. 

 

The USFL will probably tarp of sections of Heinz Field as well.  

[BBTV]

18 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

I think they'd rather tarp off parts of Lincoln Field than play at the other locations. 

 

I'd be surprised if the Eagles wanted them on their field, even though I'm pretty sure they re-sod before camp starts.  I know they do other non-field-friendly events in the summer, but this just doesn't seem like the kind of thing they'd get on board with.  Even with tarp, it'd look bad to be in such a large stadium with the type of crowds that they'd draw at first.  It would probably look worse than a Temple game.

 

Franklin Field, if they can work around the other events, would get my vote.  It's not necessarily suburbs friendly due to parking, but given the size of the crowds at first, it'd be fine.  It's also the only place i'd go to see them, since there's so much else to do around there vs going to the Linc, where after the game you just get on the subway to go home.

 

If they overgrow Franklin Field, then we can talk about the Linc... or maybe by then (if the league survives enough years) Temple will have their own field, though those plans aren't promising.

 

I can't see people being behind this, other than families with little kids that want to take them to football, but not in the war zone that is the Linc.  So many people in the area are down the shore or up in the Poconos every weekend once Memorial Day hits, and there's no local connection - at least to me, it just seems like a product that they slapped a Philadelphia sticker on the side of, as opposed to anything with any kind of local connection.  They can get there, but it would take a lot of work to ingratiate themselves to the community.

 

@infrared41 said that he encountered people from Philadelphia that made the trek down to Alabama for the championship game, and that blows my mind, as I wouldn't bet that 19 out of 20 people here have even heard of this team.  I believe him and take his word for it, but it just really surprises me.  Maybe they worked it into part of a larger trip and were like "hey, why not make a pit stop in Alabama and see this game", I'm struggling to wrap my head around that.  I hope this succeeds, as more football is better than less football, but we'll need at least a year in the home cities before really being able to judge.

 

 

[Sec19Row53]

10 minutes ago, BBTV said:

@infrared41 said that he encountered people from Philadelphia that made the trek down to Alabama for the championship game, and that blows my mind, as I wouldn't bet that 19 out of 20 people here have even heard of this team.  I believe him and take his word for it, but it just really surprises me.  Maybe they worked it into part of a larger trip and were like "hey, why not make a pit stop in Alabama and see this game", I'm struggling to wrap my head around that.  I hope this succeeds, as more football is better than less football, but we'll need at least a year in the home cities before really being able to judge.

 

 

If they went to Alabama, they missed a good game. It was in Canton, Ohio 

[MJWalker45]

25 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

I'd be surprised if the Eagles wanted them on their field, even though I'm pretty sure they re-sod before camp starts.  I know they do other non-field-friendly events in the summer, but this just doesn't seem like the kind of thing they'd get on board with.  Even with tarp, it'd look bad to be in such a large stadium with the type of crowds that they'd draw at first.  It would probably look worse than a Temple game.

But do the Eagles control the field, or does someone else? If they do I can understand them keeping the Stars off of it, but if it's owned by another organization then they can probably protest but not have the final word. 

 

A tarped off field won't look as bad as this if they're getting 25,000 to 30,000 a game. 

[Sec19Row53]

17 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

A tarped off field won't look as bad as this if they're getting 25,000 to 30,000 a game. 

Right - but why would they get 25-30000 per game? I think a more realistic figure is maybe 10000. If attendance is going to grow, it isn't going to go from the numbers in Birmingham (even those when Birmingham was playing) up to 25-30K overnight.

[MJWalker45]

4 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Right - but why would they get 25-30000 per game? I think a more realistic figure is maybe 10000. If attendance is going to grow, it isn't going to go from the numbers in Birmingham (even those when Birmingham was playing) up to 25-30K overnight.

I think the biggest problem this year was 8 teams playing in the same city, and only one being treated as the home team, rightfully of course. If the Maulers are playing home games in Pittsburgh then Maulers fans will show up. But if the Stars are playing all home games in Birmingham again next year, unless they play Birmingham I'd expect the sparse crowds that show up when the Stallions aren't involved.  I think getting the right "local" players that are able to bring in casual fans will help as well. 

 

This is the XFL attendance for the first four weeks of 2020, so I can agree that 25,000 may be a generous estimate but they should be able o pull over 15,000 as long as they play like they did this year. You'll also get people that will travel to some cities that wouldn't have traveled to Birmingham this year. 

 

Week   Total        Average
1            69,818    17,455
2             76,285    19,071
3             81,942    20,486
4              70,214    17,554

[raysox]

32 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

A tarped off field won't look as bad as this if they're getting 25,000 to 30,000 a game. 

Not the point, but I believe this was a closed door scrimmage game being played at Legion Field instead of Protective Field. Attendance sucked but these specific pics would get a pass.

[MJWalker45]

2 minutes ago, raysox said:

Not the point, but I believe this was a closed door scrimmage game being played at Legion Field instead of Protective Field. Attendance sucked but these specific pics would get a pass.

It's Week Ten at Legion Field. I pulled the image directly from Getty Images.

https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/usfl?assettype=image&editorialproducts=sport&events=775791491&family=editorial&phrase=usfl&sort=newest&page=2

[raysox]

damn fair enough, I didn't realize they played anything at Legion. My mistake!

[MJWalker45]

14 minutes ago, raysox said:

damn fair enough, I didn't realize they played anything at Legion. My mistake!

Yup, they played Weeks 8 and 10 there while they started prepping the other field for the World Games.  

[infrared41]

2 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

@infrared41 said that he encountered people from Philadelphia that made the trek down to Alabama for the championship game, and that blows my mind,

 

The game was in Canton at the Pro Football HOF stadium.

[BBTV]

2 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

But do the Eagles control the field, or does someone else? If they do I can understand them keeping the Stars off of it

 

The Eagles have 100% control and sign off on everything. 

[Sec19Row53]

9 minutes ago, BBTV said:

The Eagles have 100% control and sign off on everything. 

This will likely be the issue for all fields that are NFL-controlled. Unless the NFL has a stake in a spring league, they are, IMO, unlikely to grant the use of their facilities.

[MJWalker45]

23 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

This will likely be the issue for all fields that are NFL-controlled. Unless the NFL has a stake in a spring league, they are, IMO, unlikely to grant the use of their facilities.

I'd think having 5 to 6 extra games and a month and a half break until NFL games would make this an easy call. Pittsburgh really has no options, but everyone else could find a space that's not an NFL stadium.