Football Discussion Forums

XFLUSFLGUY wrote: ↑Wed Apr 27, 2022 1:01 pm I had a conversation with a couple of friends recently who flat out told me that they aren’t going to “waste their time” following a league that “probably won’t finish the year” or “won’t make it to year 2”. Their words in quotes got me wondering how many other potential fans there could be but who aren’t going to commit until there is something concrete which proves to them the league will be around at least for a second spring.

XFLUSFLGUY wrote: ↑Wed Apr 27, 2022 1:01 pm I had a conversation with a couple of friends recently who flat out told me that they aren’t going to “waste their time” following a league that “probably won’t finish the year” or “won’t make it to year 2”. Their words in quotes got me wondering how many other potential fans there could be but who aren’t going to commit until there is something concrete which proves to them the league will be around at least for a second spring. My guess is, there is probably quite a few who would come off the fence once they’re assured that the league will be around. Fair weather or not, I guess it is what it is.

XFLUSFLGUY wrote: ↑Wed Apr 27, 2022 1:01 pm I had a conversation with a couple of friends recently who flat out told me that they aren’t going to “waste their time” following a league that “probably won’t finish the year” or “won’t make it to year 2”. Their words in quotes got me wondering how many other potential fans there could be but who aren’t going to commit until there is something concrete which proves to them the league will be around at least for a second spring. My guess is, there is probably quite a few who would come off the fence once they’re assured that the league will be around. Fair weather or not, I guess it is what it is.

MarkNelson wrote: ↑Thu Apr 28, 2022 7:22 am Plenty of XFL and AAF fans were supporters of teams within those markets. People supporting the local team. This does not play out the same for a USFL in a Birmingham hub. It’s a setback, and will continue to be an issue until they break out of that model.

Gopher123 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 27, 2022 11:10 pm I do believe there is a certain percentage of people that are turned off with the USFL because of other leagues not lasting. I also believe there might be an even larger percentage tuned out for the simple reason that they are XFL loyalists and don’t want to see the USFL survive because they view them as a direct competitor.
XFL 2.0 was viewed as a pretty damn good spring football league by many. Fans didn’t want to see it go and want it to come back because they remember it fondly. I think some of those people view the USFL as an imposter or copy cat league. While others see the USFL as another hurdle standing in the way of the XFL 2023’s success. They would rather see it burn down than support it, even though by doing so it could hurt the spring football concept. While I want to see both leagues have success I know it’s normal for people to want to pick sides and dig in.

johnnyangryfuzzball wrote: ↑Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:25 am

Gopher123 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 27, 2022 11:10 pm I do believe there is a certain percentage of people that are turned off with the USFL because of other leagues not lasting. I also believe there might be an even larger percentage tuned out for the simple reason that they are XFL loyalists and don’t want to see the USFL survive because they view them as a direct competitor.
XFL 2.0 was viewed as a pretty damn good spring football league by many. Fans didn’t want to see it go and want it to come back because they remember it fondly. I think some of those people view the USFL as an imposter or copy cat league. While others see the USFL as another hurdle standing in the way of the XFL 2023’s success. They would rather see it burn down than support it, even though by doing so it could hurt the spring football concept. While I want to see both leagues have success I know it’s normal for people to want to pick sides and dig in.

As someone who leans toward the "XFL loyalist" camp... I'm well aware that there is almost certainly not room in the United States for two alternative football leagues with national TV coverage.

The XFL was good. It got shafted by a government that thought it could micromanage an airborne virus. It is perhaps the only league that didn't have a glaring hole in its business model in the past 20 years. It had good capitalization, good media coverage, good fan bases, and good talent. The one thing it needed to do was to build upon its Year 1 success and ratings to get a better rights fee.

But I look at the USFL. It was started by Brian Woods. Woods has a long record—and it's not great. He can keep a league running but only because he doesn't pay his talent. It's part of the reason why Fox demoted him and bought him out. So now Fox is paying its players. Yet its talent seems to be even lower on the totem pole than Woods's leagues—at least TSL was able to get a few end-of-career vets with name recognition. So the USFL has good media coverage, (we think) good capitalization, unrecognizable talent (when your biggest NFL veteran QB is Paxton Lynch... ouch. Good luck.), only one of its teams has any decent attendance (the flaw of the bubble plan and more importantly, a comical attempt to attach teams to cities where they aren't playing)... I just don't see it at the same level as the XFL was. I see it as MAYBE AAF caliber, but even AAF had the benefit of good home markets at least in a few spots like San Antonio. AAF, of course, flopped and lost around 88% of its investment.

If we're going to have a spring football league, I'd rather it be the XFL because it showed itself as a good product that people wanted to see. The USFL hasn't shown that, and I believe the structural issues it put upon itself will very likely prevent it from becoming the product it needs to be.