The USFL began with eight teams in one city in 2022.
This year, four cities will house two teams each.
And in 2024?
It’d be great for all the clubs to have homes of their own by then, but league president Daryl Johnston says the “crawl, walk, run” approach will determine how the spring league will be structured going forward.
“Well, I think you look at the expansion we did from year one to year two, and one of the big things that we had during the course of year one was to crawl then walk,” Johnston said during a Tuesday press conference. “We wanted to do things in a methodical manner. When we found out that we were going to expand into four hubs going from year one to year two, that was probably more than a lot of people were anticipating.”
Except for the playoffs in Canton, Ohio, all games were played in Birmingham last season. While the hometown Stallions drew anywhere from 10,000 to 17,500 for games involving them, contests featuring other teams were witnessed by only a handful of fans.
Johnston hopes additional hubs (Memphis, Detroit and Canton) will mean more fans will have a bigger stake in the teams.
“One of the things that the USFL has done is when we come into the markets, we want to make an impact,” Johnson adds. “We want to build those relationships. And it’s not just about football, we talk about sustainability and for sustainability to happen, you have to create relationships.”
From a cost containment standpoint, I understand the slow rollout, although having the New Jersey Generals and Pittsburgh Maulers playing in Canton means the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame will have no local team to cheer for.
Seems weird to me – I mean, why not just put a team in Canton?
Johnston has an explanation for that.
“We wanted to continue the relationship that we started last season with the playoffs in Canton,” he said. “It was something that I was really excited about. When somebody says you’re going to have the chance to play your playoffs and your championship game at the (Tom Benson) Hall of Fame Stadium, that’s something that we couldn’t say no to.
“We had such a great experience while we were there and we wanted to actually expand that relationship and continue with it, so we’re using the Canton hub to be kind of a satellite for Pittsburgh with the proximity to the city, and also put the New Jersey Generals there.”
TV ratings were relatively good in 2022 – which is a primary concern since the league is owned by FOX and partners with NBC – but the in-house fan experience is also important.
“When we heard the feedback about our fan base, wanting to get the teams into their home markets, there were opportunities that we felt were too good to pass up, going from year one to year two,” Johnston said. “So, we all kind of buckled down and got ready to move those teams into the market. As we move forward, it will always be done on a case-by-case basis based on what’s best for the USFL, what gives us the most opportunity to be sustainable, and to have that success. So, we continue to come back and talk about going on to that next season and surpassing what other leagues have done during the course of spring football attempts.”
Memphis Showboats coach Todd Haley said the fans he’s met are excited about cheering on their team in the friendly confines of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.
“I thought last year everything was great in Birmingham, but you know though, at times, you weren’t excited about not having your home crowd there,” he said. “We had a huge clinic out here and tons of kids showed up – parents, everything. But the biggest thing as the head coach of the Showboats has just been seeing my players and coaches embrace being part of this community.
“We’re obviously all excited about seeing fans come into the stadium and cheer us on and make some noise.”
Even Birmingham coach Skip Holtz welcomes the chance to take his team away from Protective Stadium to play a few regular season games.
“We have four road games and yeah, I am kind of excited to go on the road and watch this league continue to expand not just with more players, not just with the product on the field, but also expand with our fan bases,” Holtz said. “I think that’s all part of the excitement and fun and I love going on the road, you know, getting booed running out of the tunnel and stuff. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, here we go.” I mean, that’s all part of the fun and part of the competition of football.”
Ultimately, of course, the goal is for each team to find a home of its on. When that will happen, however, is still anyone’s guess.
“We hope to get all of our teams into their home markets at some point, but it will always be done on the basis of what’s best for the league,” Johnston said. “And we’ll stick with that crawl, walk, run mentality to make sure we’re doing it the right way.”