By Garland Pollard
REDONDO BEACH, Calif. – OK, so this is one of those “head- scratcher” returning brands that we had COMPLETELY forgotten about, and are wondering if this could be true. In February of 2010, there could be a New United States Football League.
The old USFL only lived for two seasons from 1983-85. It attracted a large amount of initial hype (and fans), including the involvement of George Allen, Doug Flutie and Donald Trump.
The planned new league was announced in August by Michael Dwyer, founder and chairman of the new league. The New USFL season will run from February through June and will feature a 16-game season with no pre-season games. There will also be wild card and division playoffs leading to a new USFL Championship Game at the end of June. The league will start with 12 teams and grow to a maximum of 16 teams. Teams are currently slotted for California, Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Michigan, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Utah and New York.
The longshot league has some money to raise. In a press release, Tom Shapiro, USFL Commissioner and Assistant City Attorney of Santa Barbara, said, “Americans love football – it’s a fact that’s been proven year after year. We’ve worked long and hard to develop a winning league concept that Americans can really buy into. In fact, 30% of each team will be sold to the public in stocks, with an additional 20% of each team held by the league. We think this will help create fan loyalty and discourage teams from moving around.”
For more info, see www.newusfl.com.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Mar 8, 2009 at 3:44 am
Check out my interview with the founder and CEO of the NEW USFL Michael Dwyer.
http://www.youcastr.com/casts/archive/usfl-12-20-08
2 Dave // Mar 11, 2009 at 12:02 pm
The old USFL ran for THREE seasons, actually (1983 through ’85) and likely would have survived had the owners not bought Trump’s nonsense about going head-to-head with the NFL in the fall. The start was solid enough to lead ABC to offer a new contract that probably would have assured the league’s survival, but that was for spring play. The switch to fall nixed the contract.
Interestingly, ABC is available again. It would be great to see the new USFL ink an ABC contract and fly high from the start–and this time, of course, stay the course with spring football.
3 John W. Petty // Aug 5, 2009 at 10:14 am
You tell ‘em, Dave. I’m sick of hack critics who can’t even get their facts straight. The USFL was a great league and would’ve done well except for Trump who destroyed the entire league in a vainglorious effort to develop and own a 3rd NYC team for the NFL. Jerk.
4 Bobby wills // Oct 22, 2009 at 7:23 pm
BRING IT BACK PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!
5 Bo McValles // Oct 22, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Cant wait to back season tickekts
6 Karl // Dec 12, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Why a max of only 16 teams? I think spring football would work very well in smaller cities as well as current NFL cities if you can hold back some of the greed. Hope most of the original teams make it back…Generals, Panthers, Wranglers and maybe even World League like the Orlando Thunder with their Neon Green Jerseys
7 stephen // Mar 22, 2010 at 4:05 pm
it would be great to bring back, the same teams. i like the oakland invaders and the arizona wranglers.
8 Brad West // Oct 3, 2010 at 11:54 am
GO USFL!!! GO TAMPA BAY BANDITS!!!
9 Onz // Jul 28, 2011 at 2:31 pm
You guys are crazy. Yes, the league had success stories, but are you guys forgetting the San Antonio Gunslingers, LA Express and Chicago Blitz? Sure Donald Trump wasn’t good for the league, but a lot of teams struggled while playing in the spring, and they didn’t even have NFL teams to compete against.
Leave a Comment