The two latest attempts at spring football, the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (and others) owned XFL and the FOX-owned USFL, actually achieved far more success than previous attempts, both garnering television audiences of more than 600,000 per game, and both seemingly ready to roll for a second another season in 2024.
Evidently, though, both leagues think that the best chance for viability fo football as a spring sport is with the two of them working together, as opposed to another year of slightly overlapping seasons working against each other. In that spirit, the two leagues announced in a press release on Thursday that they would indeed be merging in 2024:
NEW YORK – September 28, 2023 – Today, the United States Football League (“USFL”) and the XFL announced their intention to merge.That's about as brief and non-celebratory an announcement as I could imagine for a merger of this magnitude, and there is very little detail, perhaps because even the parties involved haven't hashed out the specifics yet.
Subject to customary regulatory approvals and if the transaction is consummated, the new league will establish best-in-class operations based on the most recent seasons of both leagues. This historic combination will anchor professional spring football with substantial capabilities and resources to ensure future growth and continue to enhance the development of the collective players, coaches, and staff that are coming together.
More details regarding the new league will be announced at a later date.
As the one city with a team in each of the two leagues, Houston may have more unanswered questions than any city affected by this announcement, but there are plenty of non-Houston questions that are still open ended, as well. Here they are:
What's this new league going to be called?
For what it's worth, the USFL recently filed for a trademark of National Spring Football League, so that may be a tea leaf for all of us. If they had to choose between one of the two current names, base don cachet, I'd probably take the XFL, which feels like it has more buzz, and a Pavlovian association with Johnson, who is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
How will the league be structured, geographically and functionally?
Both the XFL and the USFL were eight-team leagues. The big question will be how the new league will be structured on game days. The XFL operated during the week with teams in hub cities, then traveling to whichever four cities were hosting games that weekend. The USFL went with a far more hub-oriented approach, playing games in Birmingham, Detroit, Memphis, and Canton, OH, regardless of what city was on the teams' jerseys for each game. The USFL approach kept travel costs way down, but made it much harder for a city to connect emotionally with their team. Eventually, the USFL was reportedly going to branch out and play games in their eight core cities, but now the merger likely resets everything.
So, what happens to Houston?
I'd be stunned if the new league didn't have a team based in Houston, as Texas is a state where I would think the league would overload, if possible. Also, we are the fourth largest city, and the spring weather is ideal for outdoor football. The one fly in the ointment is that TDECU Stadium is undergoing renovations, and the XFL had already been put on notice that they would need a new home for the Roughnecks, so if the merged league intends to play games in the actual markets, this could factor into Houston's inclusion.
Who will run the league?
FOX owns the USFL, while the XFL is a partnership between Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital Partners. The USFL has Daryl Johnston, former Dallas Cowboy fullback, as its President of Football Operations. I have no clue what the best solution is in the leadership realm, other than to say that I would do whatever it takes to maintain Johnson's front facing presence with the new league. Also, because of FOX's involvement, it will be interesting to see how the television contract works for the new league, as FOX was obviously the key outlet for the USFL, while the XFL primarily ran on ESPN affiliated outlets.
Will there be any affiliation with the National Football League?
The XFL had an agreement in place to act as a sort of football "petri dish" for the NFL, where the XFL could worship rules, ideas, and innovations with some input from the NFL. It was a groundbreaking agreement in that other spring leagues in the past and attempted to work with the NFL, with no success. So whether that agreement stays in place remains to be seen. Obviously the holy grail for any spring league is to become an actual feeder league to the NFL, with spring league teams being actual minor league teams for the NFL's 32 franchises, but with college football becoming more and more like a professional feeder league (i.e. the transfer portal, and NIL money being allowed), we are likely many years away from that.
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