A11FL

[texaskdog]

So the "new USFL" has spent years trying to start up.  In the meantime the A11FL swooped in and bought the old names.  The 8 teams they are planning to field for 2015 are: LA Express, Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals, Tampa Bay Bandits, Chicago Staggs, Dallas Wranglers, Bay Area Sea Lions, and one TBD.

Going by how the USFL drew, I would think New Jersey, Michigan, Tampa Bay, and Oakland are great choices.  I would think based on how they drew (30 years ago) Jacksonville, Memphis, Birmingham, and Denver would be probably the best choices.  Chicago & LA, while in big cities, didn't draw. Dallas never had a team so maybe it will be a good market.

The 2nd tier were Houston, Arizona, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.  Arizona didn't have NFL yet and Philly may just be because they were so good.

Anyone else following A11FL?

[hotdogPi]

I can't even tell which sport this is.

[texaskdog]

I can't even tell which sport this is.

F

[formulanone]

I figured it was about some alternate state road west of Daytona Beach.

Second-tier football has just not caught on in most of America...I guess after the pros and college in major metro areas, and the high school-college overlap in rural areas, there's just not a lot of interest in a feeder league with limited history and tradition.

[texaskdog]

the USFL was doing really well, until Trump arrived and decided to take on the NFL.  Very stupid.  His NJ Generals, Jacksonville Bulls, and Tampa Bay Bandits all drew well over 40,000 per game each year.

[getemngo]

Ahh, minor league football. I miss the Arena Football League - tons of fun to watch an Arena game. Sure, they're still around, but not in any cities I care about. The 2009 disruption can't have helped them at all.

Second-tier football has just not caught on in most of America...I guess after the pros and college in major metro areas, and the high school-college overlap in rural areas, there's just not a lot of interest in a feeder league with limited history and tradition.

Up where I am now, hockey is at a saturation point - there's high school, college, and a couple different levels of junior hockey. A few years ago, my school had a D-I and a D-III hockey team at the same time! Yet the 5 or so teams above the high school level (in a metro area of under 100,000) coexist in harmony.

I'll bet that in areas where football is that big (e.g. Texas), there's room for another league or two below the NFL level.

[texaskdog]

Yes, especially if we don't have to watch soccer.

The AAA hockey team in Austin is a decent draw too.  But Austin is a city of people from all over.  Everyone at the hockey game looks like they're from Minnesota.

[Alps]

I figured it was about some alternate state road west of Daytona Beach.

Me too. The name is inscrutable, and with college football, there's no real market for this.

[agentsteel53]

I thought it was some alternate to Florida state highway 11.

[texaskdog]

I figured it was about some alternate state road west of Daytona Beach.

Me too. The name is inscrutable, and with college football, there's no real market for this.

As I mentioned the USFL drew well in places like New Jersey before Trump got into it.

[triplemultiplex]

The 8 teams they are planning to field for 2015 are: LA Express, Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals, Tampa Bay Bandits, Chicago Staggs, Dallas Wranglers, Bay Area Sea Lions, and one TBD.

C'mon TBD!  I'm their biggest fan! :rofl

LA Express?  Lame.  Sounds like a woman's soccer team.  Call 'em the LA Gridlock.
"Bay Area"?  C'mon, sack up and pick a city name.  The word "area" has no place in a pro sports team name.
Chicago Staggs... so like, deer?  Hmm.  "Bucks" anyone?
Wranglers = blatant ripoff of Cowboys.
Ain't no Panthers in Michigan.
The other two are okay, even though not really region-specific.

[Pete from Boston]

Ahh, minor league football. I miss the Arena Football League - tons of fun to watch an Arena game. Sure, they're still around, but not in any cities I care about. The 2009 disruption can't have helped them at all.

You're probably right to call it that, but don't make the mistake of calling the original USFL "minor league" as in second-tier talent, etc.  This was a league that had Steve Young, Doug Flutie, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, and — briefly, on paper — Lawrence Taylor.

More like the AFL than Arena Football, in other words.

Interesting footnote: Steve Young was supposedly being paid by the estate of the LA Express until relatively recently.  His $25 million contract was unimaginably large at the time, so it was paid as $1 million a year for 25 years.  No idea if they paid interest as well.