New Football League to go against NFL

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

To everybody who thinks it will succeed, I have one thing to say about it......It will NOT work! NOT in the Fall. NOT in the Spring. NOT in L.A. or Las Vegas or the moon. There, plain and simple, it's DOA to me.

the moon is quite successful with its league thank you. The Moonite Intergalactic League of Football is doing quite well.

[Mac the Knife]

I'll buy it. I was always a fan of the USFL.

Since we're talking about spring football leagues that failed, wasn't the WLAF a spring league? Would you call that a moderate success story?

[makes mental note]

[raises price per copy by a dollar]

LOL!

I am old enough to remember the USFL and I remember a lot of people my age (HS/early college) who paid attention. The quality of play wasn't bad and a lot of the teams developed strong followings. It happened once and it can happen again if the next league learns from the mistakes of the last. Let the UFL move to the spring and see what it can do.

Indeed. The USFL's founder, David Dixon, could have launched the league in the 1970's, but he carefully studied two different attempts at setting up a new league - those of the AFL and the WFL. He learned from both, and his blueprint for the league (a 1981 version of which I have among my archives) is short and concise but is simply brilliant. Had the league's owners not shoved him out the door and actually listened to him, the USFL would be around, at least in some form, today.

If the UFL were to move to a spring schedule, it'd have a fighting chance. If it avoided using gigantic capacity NFL facilities and opted instead for smaller stadia (preferably MLS-built facilities where available), it'd do better.

MLS built facilities? Am I nuts? Nope. Think about it - so called "soccer-specific" stadia are built with the stands closer to the (larger) field - big enough to handle football sidelines while at the same time giving fans a cozy feel, close to the action. That, coupled with an affordable ticket price, would do well in markets where the setting isn't as intimate (Columbus is a perfect example; put a team in Columbus Crew Stadium and see them sell out, versus putting 20,000 in OSU's canyon-like Ohio Stadium).

[mjrbaseball]

my vision for the league:

East:

...

NY(and really in ny not nj)

...

Where would you play in NY?

Yankee Stadium? Maybe for one year in the current ballpark, but I sincerely doubt George Steinbrenner would let anyone play football in the new place.

Shea? Can't fit a football field in there any longer. The moveable stands along the sidelines / foul lines can no longer be moved -- they long ago rusted in place. Plus, I believe there have been modifications to the stadium that won't let them move even if they weren't rusted. (And Shea is being replaced too -- same deal as Yankee Stadium.)

So what does that leave?

Downing Stadium (under the Triborough Bridge, where the WFL New York Stars played) was torn down a few years ago and a smaller track-and-field stadium built in its place.

Maybe one of the two minor league baseball parks, in Staten Island or Brooklyn? Possibly, since the seasons won't overlap, but there isn't enough seating.

Or possibly Wien Stadium at Columbia University. It only seats 17,000, but for a start-up league it could work.

[Brian in Boston]

If it avoided using gigantic capacity NFL facilities and opted instead for smaller stadia (preferably MLS-built facilities where available), it'd do better.

MLS built facilities? Am I nuts? Nope. Think about it - so called "soccer-specific" stadia are built with the stands closer to the (larger) field - big enough to handle football sidelines while at the same time giving fans a cozy feel, close to the action. That, coupled with an affordable ticket price, would do well in markets where the setting isn't as intimate (Columbus is a perfect example; put a team in Columbus Crew Stadium and see them sell out, versus putting 20,000 in OSU's canyon-like Ohio Stadium).

While I'm wise enough to refrain from ruling anything out, I'd say that there's a VERY slim chance that Major League Soccer owners would open there facilities up to franchises in a new spring-based professional league.

While control over revenue streams is a significant part of the move towards MLS franchises seeking soccer-specific stadia, and leasing these facilities to parties producing additional events would generate more revenues, there are other reasons behind Major League Soccer's member-clubs constructing their own playing facilities. Chief amongst them are controlling the scheduling of prime playing dates, avoiding excessive wear and tear to the playing surface and maintaining aesthetics by limiting the need to line and re-line the playing surface for a variety of sports.

Schedule control would not be affected as the MLS clubs would be the primary franchises in the soccer-specific stadia. However, unless an artificial playing surface is installed in the facility, a spring football tenant would add significant wear and tear to the field during at least a portion of the MLS schedule. Said wear and tear would not sit well with fans of the MLS franchise, thus threatening the soccer teams' primary source of revenue. Installation of an artificial playing surface for purposes of allowing ownership to lease the facility to non-soccer pro sports franchises would also be anathema to the MLS fan base, again threatening the primary revenue source. Finally, MLS fans have long complained about having to put up with football lines on the playing surface in NFL-controlled facilities, so I don't foresee them being pleased about having to live with football lines being continuously applied and removed from the surface of an MLS-controlled facility. In short, I see a preponderance of reasons why MLS owners would not be inclined to lease their soccer-specific facilities to teams playing regularly-scheduled contests in a spring football league.

All of this said, should MLS ever succumb to the vagaries of sports business that have felled past professional soccer leagues in the United States and Canada, one of the first ventures that would seek to make use of the stadia that the league would leave behind would be a professional spring football league. Count on it.

[Alphabet Man]

I think that the MLS teams would be happy to paint gridiron lines on their gorunds for money. There won't be any clash of dates, surely. Just paint over the lines with green paint. Afterall its an extra revenue stream, as i think you said, Brian.

If I was owner of an MLS side, i'd be more than willing to let other sports pay me to paint some lines on their ground, and stick up some different shaped goal posts.

It's actually the opposite over here, stadiums pay teams to play in their stadiums and governments negotiate for internationals to be played in their state and in their biggest stadiums.

[Sodboy13]

Just for the record, they're painting lacrosse lines on the pitch at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, as MLL's Chicago Machine now plays there along with the Fire.

Apparently, though, the Section 8ers are none too pleased about this development.

And lacrosse neither tears up nor marks up the field the way football does.

[leopard88]

And lacrosse neither tears up nor marks up the field the way football does.

I'm not so sure about that. It wouldn't be as bad as with football, but depending on how often the Machine plays, there is a good chance you will start to see wear in the crease areas. Add in a little rain and you will definitely see some damage.

[Brian in Boston]

I think that the MLS teams would be happy to paint gridiron lines on their gorunds for money. There won't be any clash of dates, surely.

There most certainly would be a clash of dates between the early portion of the Major League Soccer season and a spring football season, which is the venture that Mac had posited.

Just paint over the lines with green paint. Afterall its an extra revenue stream, as i think you said, Brian.

Again, Major League Soccer's core constituency of fans would pointedly question why the league had sacrificed quality of playing surface and aesthetic issues aftre going to all of the trouble to build it's own facilities. There would be the potential for alienating said core constituency, thereby threatening the stadiums' primary revenue streams... MLS soccer matches.

[Mac the Knife]

True Brian, but core constituency or not, my guess is that MLS soccer is already not the chief revenue producing event at those facilities, at least on a per-event basis.

No sports facility, no matter the size, survives on one sport or type of event alone these days. Not even baseball-specific stadia, which often have business conferences and related events during off dates. The cost of building them is just too high.

[Alphabet Man]

I think that the MLS teams would be happy to paint gridiron lines on their gorunds for money. There won't be any clash of dates, surely.

There most certainly would be a clash of dates between the early portion of the Major League Soccer season and a spring football season, which is the venture that Mac had posited.

When the UFL does their scheduling they'll look at the stadiums availability and see that MLS has a game there that day, schedule it for the next day.

Just paint over the lines with green paint. Afterall its an extra revenue stream, as i think you said, Brian.

Again, Major League Soccer's core constituency of fans would pointedly question why the league had sacrificed quality of playing surface and aesthetic issues aftre going to all of the trouble to build it's own facilities. There would be the potential for alienating said core constituency, thereby threatening the stadiums' primary revenue streams... MLS soccer matches.

Well, I don't see much of a problem, it's two matches at most a week. It's not a problem here when the MCG or Telstra Dome host 3 or 4 games a weekend. Fans won't mind. Anyway, they can replace the grass thats needed. It can be done. And I'm sure for the money the MLS clubs won't mind a tad used pitch. Then again, at most its 2 games a weekend so it won't cause too much problems to the surface. It's not a heavy toll on the surface, so it'll be fine.

[Bleujayone]

Since the United Football League wants to have their games on Friday nights, maybe they should adopt this theme for their television coverage.

Song Title: "Friday Night's A Great Time For Football" for the Motion Picture "The Last Boy Scout"

Performed by: Bill Medley

Written by: Steve Dorff and John Bems

Produced by: Steve Dorff

Courtesy of Curb Records

[totc]

As for the locations of the four new teams, Toronto, Mexico City and Los Angeles are presumably shoo-ins; that leaves just one other city to decide upon. Vancouver, perhaps?

The NFL, you must realize, never touched any U.S. college market with any substance. You can't get people, all hyped up about their university teams, to go to an NFL game after an Auburn/Alabama, Michigan/Ohio State, or Georgia/Florida.

Mind you, the NFL has thrived well in the Sunbelt -- Cowboys, Texans, Saints, Titans, Panthers, Jaguars, Bucs, Fins. But even there, there was careful thought about moving teams in. The Titans, remember, started their post-Houston existence in Memphis as the Tennessee Oilers. There is a vacuum in central Tennessee because, frankly, Vanderbilt could get beaten by Lees McRae or Sewanee, they are so bad.

But look at the Sunbelt teams: the 'Boys aren't in Austin, the Texans aren't in College Station, the Saints aren't in Baton Rouge, the Titans aren't in Knoxville, the Panthers are in neither Raleigh, Durham, or Chapel Hill, the Jaguars aren't in Tallahassee, and the Bucs aren't in Gainesville. OK, so there's competition between the Fins and the Hurricanes.

The principle is that the NFL isn't going into a city like Columbus, Birmingham, or Austin.

My thought for that fourth team to make the NFL a 36-team league? San Antonio. Instant rivalry in an NFC South with Mexico City.

[Luigi74]

As for the locations of the four new teams, Toronto, Mexico City and Los Angeles are presumably shoo-ins; that leaves just one other city to decide upon. Vancouver, perhaps?

The NFL, you must realize, never touched any U.S. college market with any substance. You can't get people, all hyped up about their university teams, to go to an NFL game after an Auburn/Alabama, Michigan/Ohio State, or Georgia/Florida.

Mind you, the NFL has thrived well in the Sunbelt -- Cowboys, Texans, Saints, Titans, Panthers, Jaguars, Bucs, Fins. But even there, there was careful thought about moving teams in. The Titans, remember, started their post-Houston existence in Memphis as the Tennessee Oilers. There is a vacuum in central Tennessee because, frankly, Vanderbilt could get beaten by Lees McRae or Sewanee, they are so bad.

But look at the Sunbelt teams: the 'Boys aren't in Austin, the Texans aren't in College Station, the Saints aren't in Baton Rouge, the Titans aren't in Knoxville, the Panthers are in neither Raleigh, Durham, or Chapel Hill, the Jaguars aren't in Tallahassee, and the Bucs aren't in Gainesville. OK, so there's competition between the Fins and the Hurricanes.

The principle is that the NFL isn't going into a city like Columbus, Birmingham, or Austin.

My thought for that fourth team to make the NFL a 36-team league? San Antonio. Instant rivalry in an NFC South with Mexico City.

Why would the NFL pass over large city like Dallas for a smaller one like Austin?

[myartsaywhat]

I would love to have a second league, but not at the same time. I'm constantly trying to get my NFL fix in the off season, but there's never enough going on until training camp starts. I would be a fan of the UFL if it bridged this huge off season gap. With games during the same season, I'm just going to watch my Hawks.

[whitedawg22]

This is never going to happen. It's just a lame idea by that little boy Mark Cuban.

Do I detect a note of jealousy?

I can tell you that if I had eleventy jillion dollars, I would buy a sports team and sit on the sidelines and yell at the refs, too. When you consider that throwing his hat in with this startup league costs him an infitesimal fraction of his fortune, why not?