XFL 🫱🏼🫲🏾USFL 🟰UFL
The start of a new legacy.#UFL | #SpringFootball pic.twitter.com/tBwXNg77mZ
— XFL (@XFL2023) December 31, 2023
The merger of the USFL and XFL continues apace, as the combined venture officially announced its new identity and logo yesterday. As had been expected, the merged enterprise will be called the United Football League. The rather pedestrian logo is shown above.
As you may recall, there was another UFL that existed from 2009 through 2012. Its logo looked like this:
The new UFL is taking four teams apiece from the USFL and XFL. The new league’s first season will kick off on March 30, with the USFL champion Stallions facing the XFL champion Renegades.
I would think the St. Louis Battlehawks would be an XFL team that would make the cut. ♂️
If not, St Louis will recently have been spurned by the NFL and UFL
But honestly, there seems to be a decent following in St Louis
All teams have been annouced
link
Have the Roughnecks listed in the USFL conference- it’s the Gamblers that live on though. No surprise the SA team survived.
The CFL was smart not to merge with (e)XFL…though I secretly wished for a USFL/CFL marriage, based on looks alone.
Roughnecks is correct. This is one of the oddities of the conference setup. They kept the XFL nickname but the USFL’s coach (Curtis Johnson).
Sigh…always liked the look of Houston USFL and was pleased with the refreshed iteration.
Hey Texans! How about you drop the Oilers obsession and demand the Gamblers brand?! I can get behind that.
CFL XFL merger? Was that actually on the table or in discussions at one time?? Despite living in Canada and in a CFL market, I barely follow the league…bad Canadian eh?
The economic reality of the pandemic to the CFL brought this up. It wasn’t a straight merger but presented as a partnership. I am pretty sure CFL officials listened to the pleas of XFL officials but it was talking and never seriously going to happen.
Thank you! I wrote this piece yesterday and didn’t see that the teams had been officially announced today. Link now added!
How bland. IMO.
Should’ve just removed the “S” from the USFL Logo and called it a day. XFL logo looked too much like a video game league. The new UFL logo is bland and needs some color.
The new UFL logo is bland and needs some color
In a world where wearing plain black vs plain white has become all the rage, the logo seems sadly appropriate.
Could have also kept the USFL name and called it the United Spring Football League.
West coast doesn’t make the cut? Hmmm.
Among those of us in the alternative football leagues fan community, the claim is made that expensive Workmen’s Comp Insurance in California makes it difficult to operate there. I don’t know about Oregon or Washington. However, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego were also notoriously difficult markets for a new team in men’s sports. And Oakland only recently lost all its teams. The intersection between that argument and the Workmen’s Comp argument may have been illuminated by recent events, in which women’s soccer teams in San Diego and Los Angeles made attendance breakthroughs unseen in that region in many years. Workmen’s Comp is less of an issue in soccer than in gridiron football, and the culture in that region seems to have burned out on endless indoor variants of men’s sports or imported men’s sports like rugby.
I still think there’s a way to make spring football happen in the West Coast, but it will have to be aggressive and expensive.
It had nothing to do with workmans comp. But it was largely based on financials. The teams that survived all had stadiums and practice facilities locked in place on the cheap. Plus the cost of having to travel to play on the West Coast is not feasible when 2/3rds are based center/East.
The reason it has nothing to do with workmans comp. is that it is an Entertainment entity, so they fall under Production WC. which is the same where ever they go. Dwayne knows that from his years at WWE. The curious thing is what format are they gonna adopt, USFL or XFL? Hub cities or more local markets? And the UFL logo sucks, but they can work on that. I’ll be watching.
I’m miffed at having only 3 USFL teams. And all of my favorites are gone. Farewell, Maulers, Stars, Breakers and Bandits.
Actually, I may become a Battlehawks or Defenders fan. I used to be a Panthers fan until they were the only team to wear an ad patch. I’ll root for the Showboats too.
Said it before – the Stars deserve to stay, but I’m glad they won’t be associated with this…whatever this is.
Ideally, it would have made more sends ti keep the Breakers than the Panthers.
Bringing back the pinwheel/red/silver ‘Boats would be a plus, Edie silly since the Gamblers are goners.
Good gravy – I have to check the auto correct prior to posting… YVVM.
That makes sends
These leagues cannot survive on gate revenue, so they must have TV contracts. And TV networks demand large metropolitan audiences. Detroit is still way ahead of New Orleans in that regard.
What happens to the players of the defunct teams lost in the merger?
This is still going to be a hard sell. Minor league baseball and college football have a certain degree of success because (among other reasons) we know we’re potentially seeing future pros, going to games is more affordable, accessible, and manageable for more fans, and they run the same season as the pros but finish earlier so we can watch them while we’re “in the mood” but focus on the pro post-season and then take an off-season break. At best what this league can hope to accomplish is make enough money in non-NFL markets to get NFL brass interested in buying them out and keeping those teams. I doubt this effort will work either, but it’s a classic “start up/disruptor” move. It’s just a proof of concept or sales pitch that no one asked for, but if they make enough noise, maybe someone with access to the company checkbook will listen.
This isn’t like the original USFL.
This is a developmental league.
They’re not trying to compete with the NFL, which is why it’s lasted this long and will last.
I think they need to add more teams
“UFL” said aloud sounds a lot like “awful.”
Merger? More like just desolved 1 league. Keep Gamblers name. It’s Dallas Renegades,not Arlington. How about XSFL.(Xtreme Spring) or NSFL(National Spring). After all done, with only 8 teams, they just eliminated a whole league
Here in Houston, there’s a lot more affection for the Roughnecks name than the Gamblers name, as shown by social media statistics. If you live here, what matters is what your name is associated with recently, not nostalgia for 1984-6. The Roughnecks went 5-0 before their first season was canceled by the pandemic. The 2nd season, they had the popular Wade Phillips coaching but got upset in the semis after a 7-3 record. Now he’s being sent to the San Antonio team to bail out a once-promising market, because he’s popular everywhere in Texas. And I guess converting the low-budget Gamblers to Roughnecks 3.0 is a cost measure, like most things in these leagues.
One way or another, most football fans will ignore this league and so it will stop operations very soon.
They should have just stayed with “USFL” – Undistiguished Survivors Football League
I watched some of the games (of the USFL side at least), and I will admit, many of them were entertaining, but the whole situation off the field seems pretty rinky-dink.
With yet another Orlando professional team getting the ax, I wonder if that is a record for a city having defunct teams (A few prior minor league teams, XFL, USFL, UFL, etc.)
I assume both league owners were not happy with what the financial returns were. I think if people actually go through the gates, there could be slow burn expansion and the return of old teams. Stadium deals are probably what saved Michigan. I think the Roughneck fans were very very vocal and that is why they get to keep their team! I love that for them, honestly. I assume the USFL survivors will either go this year in their old sets or paired down looks before getting a full UA treatment next year. Hopefully Houston gets rid of that awful helmet. It’s ok for an alternate look, but trash for all 10+ a season.