Week 2 TV Ratings

[Tank55]

Plus the NHL earns their money with the playoffs and Stanley Cup, not the 300K they draw on a random end of regular season game.

[4th&long]

Sure but the NHL has been around for decades and nobody is going to question whether or not the NHL will fold with 300k on TV for their games. 300K is my threshold for USFL. If it goes under that next week or even for the rest of their TV broadcasts from this week, then I will be concerned for the USFL's future.

The point is they get $$$ for that as does MLS with their sub 300k avg, even Mike Mul. said it, he must be listening to me.

They get the money because of their longevity. USFL would not be able to get that type of money with 300K.

I'll agree to some point, but that's why they need to stick it out. Get 1 then 2 years under their belts. It's not longevity, its stability and sustainability. Ie they will be around in 2, 5, 10 years.

That's why its important to get thru year 1 and 2.

[4th&long]

Plus the NHL earns their money with the playoffs and Stanley Cup, not the 300K they draw on a random end of regular season game.

That's part of it, sure. But still reg Season is bulk of broadcast

[GDAWG]

Plus the NHL earns their money with the playoffs and Stanley Cup, not the 300K they draw on a random end of regular season game.

Yep. 300K at the end of the regular season isn't a big concern for the NHL. 300K is a bit of a concern for the USFL.

[4th&long]

Plus the NHL earns their money with the playoffs and Stanley Cup, not the 300K they draw on a random end of regular season game.

Yep. 300K at the end of the regular season isn't a big concern for the NHL. 300K is a bit of a concern for the USFL.

Look - There is no way that USFL in spring with 16% cities in Household market share is going to get ESPN numbers from Feb. Never was going to happen (as per my Dec USFL prediction). And USA isn't a goto for sports. But NBC needs it to be TNT/TBS like and Fox needs programming for FS1. I had lower expectations for USFL.

XFL 2.0 was a juggernaunt for TV in 8 large markets making up 22% of housholds and in winter where people are trapped in doors in large sections of country. I've said that all along.

USFL will do fine if they stay the course and 364k isn't horrible.

[MGB01]

Plus the NHL earns their money with the playoffs and Stanley Cup, not the 300K they draw on a random end of regular season game.

Yep. 300K at the end of the regular season isn't a big concern for the NHL. 300K is a bit of a concern for the USFL.

Look - There is no way that USFL in spring with 16% cities in Household market share is going to get ESPN numbers from Feb. Never was going to happen (as per my Dec USFL prediction). And USA isn't a goto for sports. But NBC needs it to be TNT/TBS like and Fox needs programming for FS1. I had lower expectations for USFL.

The problem is they don't really have one. NBCSN never really took off (when it actually was getting a respectable number of viewers back in the Versus era), and USA decades ago was something of one carrying just about everything other than the NFL--but other than that all it's really known for is being the home of WWE going back to the early years of Hulkamania (save for five years when WWF/E went to Viacom) and they haven't really done sports for years so it's gonna take a bit of time, which no one really seems to have.

USFL will do fine if they stay the course and 364k isn't horrible.

If the Sat/Sun numbers are below 1M each, the wheels are turning towards that not happening

[4th&long]

Yep. 300K at the end of the regular season isn't a big concern for the NHL. 300K is a bit of a concern for the USFL.

Look - There is no way that USFL in spring with 16% cities in Household market share is going to get ESPN numbers from Feb. Never was going to happen (as per my Dec USFL prediction). And USA isn't a goto for sports. But NBC needs it to be TNT/TBS like and Fox needs programming for FS1. I had lower expectations for USFL.

The problem is they don't really have one. NBCSN never really took off (when it actually was getting a respectable number of viewers back in the Versus era), and USA decades ago was something of one carrying just about everything other than the NFL--but other than that all it's really known for is being the home of WWE going back to the early years of Hulkamania (save for five years when WWF/E went to Viacom) and they haven't really done sports for years so it's gonna take a bit of time, which no one really seems to have.

USFL will do fine if they stay the course and 364k isn't horrible.

If the Sat/Sun numbers are below 1M each, the wheels are turning towards that not happening

If the USFL panics they lose. Stay the course and build it like MLS - it will be alot quicker.

[Tank55]

Build it like MLS? Maybe you just mean "hold on for dear life and wait for other billionaires to jump on board", but beyond that, I don't think you could come up with a worse comparison.

MLS is an attendance driven league still struggling to establish itself as a television property nearly three decades after it was founded. The USFL is using an almost completely inverted business plan.

[MGB01]

If the USFL panics they lose. Stay the course and build it like MLS - it will be alot quicker.

Even MLS drew 78,000 for their first All-Star Game, the USFL might not even surpass that their whole time in Birmingham--fortunately with the HOF game weeks away by the time they get there and the setting involved Canton should be much better for the playoffs.

Here's another potential problem: Planning for year two should officially start on July 4, after all need to get thru S1 first, but how much of a priority will the USFL be for FOX with it being at best a distant third behind the NFL and college? And if plans are underway to sell the teams off how much of a hard sell is being made right now? And I can't imagine it was too successful when the USFL was maybe the third biggest thing going on in Alabama this weekend.

[Tank55]

the setting involved Canton should be much better for the playoffs.

I'm actually pretty worried about Canton. They're having a hard enough time in the home market; how is a neutral site going to fare? It's really too bad they couldn't play the playoffs in the named markets. That would have added so much legitimacy to these brands.