USFL's biggest mistake could be fatal

The USFL is making a huge mistake that could doom it almost before it even gets off the ground.

I’ve written before that the spring football league miscalculated in terms of credibility when it announced its “hub” approach to the first season: Every game will be played in Birmingham. This is the same approach the Spring League took, and no one really paid attention. It seemed (and seems) like a decision made by a league that’s not fully invested in its own business plan: It wants to be able to cut and run at the first sign of trouble.

This is no surprise, since the same guy who was behind the Spring League is the primary owner of the new league. It’s not really USFL 2.0, it’s really Spring League 2.0 under a different name. Brian Woods also was behind the FXFL, another little-known league that lasted a couple of years. Not too auspicious, to say the least.

Woods doesn’t have a particularly successful track record with spring football, but that’s not out of the ordinary: No spring football league, including the original USFL, has ever succeeded, though a bunch of them have tried.

USFL relies on branding

Still, hope springs eternal.

So far, the USFL has relied on branding (it bought the rights to use the original USFL’s team names, logos, etc.), flashy uniforms, and managed to land TV contracts with NBC and Fox Sports. That’s a big deal, to be sure. But for people to watch, you have to give them something they care about beyond branding: quality football.

As XFL 2.0 (there’s a 3.0 coming) demonstrated, you have to grab viewers’ attention and hold it. Unfortunately, it demonstrated that principle by failing. Ratings dropped each of the five weeks it was on the air. During its debut week, the XFL’s lowest-rated game drew just under 2.5 million viewers. In Week 5, its final week before the season was canceled, the highest-rated game just surpassed 1.5 million — and two of the four games couldn’t even reach the 1 million mark.

USFL rushes its first season

Here’s where the USFL has made its biggest mistake. Unlike Dwayne Johnson’s rebooted XFL, which is taking a year off to get things right, the USFL is rushing things (to put it mildly). The season starts April 16, barely seven weeks after its draft. Rules still hadn’t been announced at that point. Coaches were only recently hired, and no exhibition games were scheduled.

That means the first week of the USFL season, when the most people will be watching, will likely be terrible. If practice makes perfect, the lack of it does the opposite.

Prediction: Most people who bother to watch will see poorly prepared, second-tier players making a lot of mistakes and not doing much of anything very exciting.

Second prediction: A lot of people who tune in for the first one won’t tune in for the second.

Bad football could doom USFL

All the branding and flashy uniforms won’t matter a bit if the quality of play is lacking, which it almost surely will be.

And because all the games are being played in Birmingham, even if (by some miracle) the games are good, “hometown” fans won’t be able to buy tickets to see their team in person — unless they want to book a flight to Birmingham.

I think it’s safe to say that not a lot of fans will be making that kind of investment. Why should they if the league isn’t willing to invest in itself?

Yes, the USFL has television contracts, which gives it an advantage. But it doesn’t guarantee a thing. In politics, the candidate with the most money has an advantage, but money alone won’t win an election.

Style trumps substance more and more these days, but that’s still not true of football. Without a Super Bowl, there wouldn’t be a halftime show. Without good football, there won’t be a USFL.  

Stephen H. Provost is a former sports editor, longtime journalist, and the author of A Whole Different League, focusing on alternate sports leagues. He is the author of 40 books, all available on Amazon.