PFT: USFL articles

[4th&long]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... d-to-head/

>> Last year, the USFL had spring football all to itself. This year, the XFL got a two-month head start. This weekend, the two spring leagues go head to head for the first time.

As noted by Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, the USFL and XFL will have games on TV at the same time in two different windows.

On Saturday night, ESPN2 will televise the Orlando Guardians at the San Antonio Brahmas at 7:00 p.m. ET. Thirty minutes later, the Birmingham Stallions host the New Jersey Generals on Fox.

Given that the USFL game will be played on a broadcast network, it will fare better. The size of the game will be instructive.

On Sunday at high noon, the USFL will televise the Michigan Panthers at the Houston Gamblers (in Memphis) on NBC, while the XFL will present the Arlington Renegades at the D.C. Defenders on ESPN.

The regular seasons will overlap for only two weekends, before the XFL playoffs begin.

Via Fischer, the XFL has averaged 632,000 viewers in eight weeks on ABC, FX, ESPN and ESPN2. Last year, the USFL averaged 715,000 on Fox, NBC, USA and FS1. <<

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/S ... =usfl&sc=0

Slight error in viewership - using ShowBuzz, XFL 628k thru wk 8 (minor diff). The USFL numbers seem to be off due to simulcast and not including championship etc. The actual USFL number is 747k with opening week simulcast counting as 1 game.

Either way the Sunday noon game numbers may be the one to watch in USFL vs XFL. NBC v ESPN, and two teams looking to win in XFL. However, If OG beats SA saturday AR could coast a bit with a playoff spot locked in esp if Houston wins Sat too. They don't want LP hurt for playoffs. Its certainly possible ESPN game beat NBC, I am not aware of how much NBC USFL promotion of the game has been. NBC has edge but ESPN is still closest to broadcast in size.

[4th&long]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... usfl-game/

>> A pair of XFL and USFL games will compete this weekend, but with the USFL games on three-letter networks and the XFL games on cable networks. Next weekend, the XFL has moved the final game of its regular season to create an apples-to-apples competition with the USFL.

The game between the Vegas Vipers and the Seattle Sea Dragons will move from 9:00 p.m. ET to 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2. At that time time, Philadelphia Stars will host the Michigan Panthers in Canton, Ohio at 7:00 p.m. ET, on FS1.<<

[4th&long]

You can almost see MFer biting his tongue on this one...

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... 022-debut/

>> For the USFL, having the Kentucky Derby as a lead-in lifted the spring league to its biggest audience since Week One of 2022.

Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, 2.1 million watched the Memphis Showboats and the Michigan Panthers on Saturday night.

The only two higher numbers came the weekend the USFL returned, last year.

For both the USFL and the XFL, it’s going to be a long, slow grind. It’s going to be driven by increasing gambling revenue, and by keeping expenses manageable. <<

[4th&long]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... ff-berths/

>> Eight-team football leagues can lead to all sorts of unusual outcomes. In the second year of the reconstituted USFL, for example, all teams in the USFL North are below .500 after nine games — and all four teams in the USFL South are above .500.

It sets the stage for a final week of the regular season in which the 4-5 Philadelphia Stars, the 3-6 New Jersey Generals, the 3-6 Pittsburgh Maulers, and the 3-6 Michigan Panthers will compete for two playoff berths.

On Saturday, the Generals play the Maulers in Canton. On Sunday, the Stars and Panthers face off at Ford Field in Detroit.

In the South, the 7-2 Birmingham Stallions have clinched a playoff berth. The New Orleans Breakers are 6-3, and the Houston Gamblers and Memphis Showboats are each 5-4.

The postseason starts on June 24, with a pair of games that weekend. The championship game will be played on Saturday, July 1, in Canton. <<

Hey a PFT USFL article (even if its 6:12am)

[4th&long]

well its a little too little too late but the updated NBC Sports/PFT website has updated its USFL to include the current articles...

https://www.nbcsports.com/usfl

[4th&long]

Needed more of these leading into the game... it would be cheap promotion from PFT. MFer doesn't play along for his own net.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootba ... ampionship

>> The Stallions capped off their second straight title run on Saturday night with a 28-12 win over the Pittsburgh Maulers, 28-12.

In two seasons with 24 total games, the Stallions have posted a record of 21-3 under coach Skip Holtz.

League MVP Alex McGough again led the way for Birmingham, with four touchdown passes and another 64 rushing yards. Receiver Deon Cain, the MVP of the championship game, caught four passes for 70 yards and three scores.<<

[4th&long]

Boy that MFer, he likes to talk AFTER the big game on his net. Stating the obvious...

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootba ... me-markets

>> “We’re still figuring out the attendance thing in the hub model,” USFL president of football operations Daryl “Moose” Johnston recently told Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal. “Until we get everybody into their home markets, it’s going to be a challenge. We all know that. We’re trying to find creative ways to deal with it. What it does is motivate us to make sure we get our eight teams into their home markets as quickly as we can, but we can’t rush it. We’ve got to do it the right way.”

That’s the balance. The increased revenue from having eight teams in eight home markets versus the increased costs of moving teams around every week for the games.

It helps that the teams are clustered to the east of Texas; Houston is the outlier in a league that has teams named for New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Memphis, Birmingham, and Michigan. Even with reasonable travel costs for the road team in every game, the real question is whether enough fans in the eight markets would buy enough tickets (and food, beer, and merchandise) to make the league more profitable.

Ultimately, profit is the key. If the USFL doesn’t make enough of it, Fox will eventually shut it down or sell it off. <<

[4th&long]

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootba ... ip-ratings

Nothing much here that wasn't discussed - here's a excerpt

>> The difference could be in the timing of the games. The USFL Championship happened on Saturday night of the unofficial Fourth of July weekend, with plenty of people not home and/or watching TV. The XFL game happened on May 13, two weekends before Memorial Day.

Still, the USFL Championship did better than either 2023 spring-league title game in 2022, with 1.5 million. It justifies further consideration of whether the novelty has worn off, or whether there’s simply too much football beyond football season. <<

One thing no one has mentioned was the Twitter outage esp for none users that started Friday night into Saturday's game ... and still raging. I wonder if that had an impact?

Either way missing the Obvious - small markets involved in game.

[BattleHawks]

Either way missing the Obvious - small markets involved in game.

Pittsburgh is a small market?

[GregParks]

Either way missing the Obvious - small markets involved in game.

Pittsburgh is a small market?

It's #26 in the country per Nielsen

https://www.tvjobs.com/cgi-bin/markets/market2.cgi

I guess it depends on your POV if that constitutes a small market or not.