I was so disappointed in week one of the relaunch of spring football by the United States Football League, USFL.
The USFL was founded in 1982 and made its debut in 1983-1985 with 12 teams across the United States. The league stopped playing in 1986 before the scheduled season. It was a league that tried to compete with the NFL. The USFL had big cities across the United States. They had name-recognizable players Steve Young, Reggie White, and Herschel Walker. They even had owners with some deep pockets — Former President and business entrepreneur Donald Trump owned the New Jersey Generals in their second and third year, but even he was not enough to keep the league alive. He is not affiliated with the current USFL or the current New Jersey Generals. Anyway, I guess it has only taken 37 years for the league to decide to try again.
This time around the league is cutting out travel and four teams. The USFL is now just eight teams, and all the games are based out of Alabama in two different stadiums about 20 miles apart. This means they really need the communities support to go to these games and support the league.
The problem in doing this is the fact that the other teams, named after the other cities, being represented, are already being ignored. The TV coverage showed the embarrassing turnout for the remaining three games in the leagues opening weekend, a weekend in which the eyes of the sports world were on the entire relaunch.
I do not know who planned this, but I know I could have gone around to local schools and businesses to get some people in the seats. Greed rears its ugly head once again. The lack of foresight gives the perception of an obvious lack of support for the endeavor. The empty seats scream horrible television and are a constant reminder of tougher times in a COVID society. The fact is nothing related to the pandemic is causing the poor attendance, just poor planning and execution.
So, this USFL season is scheduled for 10 weeks (about two and a half months), but only has dates for games through seven of the ten weeks. The teams are announced, just no dates for the games. It could just be a clerical error; we will have to see.
I am guessing it might just be around that time that the money the league received for the TV rights runs out (week 7). If I were a fan, I would be wondering and concerned about this.
The NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL all announce an entire season of dates, but not the USFL. Is anyone going to ask them why or what is the plan?
The league is self-contained, and the playoffs will be played in New Orleans, but the date should be already available for fans trying to make plans to attend the championship. They should also call this league what it is, a glorified tournament.
These are just a few of my thoughts on this topic and I have a few more. You can hear all about it tomorrow morning on my podcast “In the Sports Zone with me Vinny Pagano”.
It airs on Saturday mornings at 10:30 a.m. on Kool 103.9-FM and streams on www.Kool1039Radio.com You can also find all the previous podcasts on Spotify and where you normally get your podcast entertainment.
