FOX Sports is looking for investors.
The people at FOX Sports who brought the second United States Football League to life and saw it through the 2022 season are looking for partners who can invest up to $200 million in the product to keep it going beyond the 2023 season. The USFL had the spring football season to itself in 2022 but there will be a competitor in 2023 as a third version of the XFL plans to hit the field. The XFL has a deal with the Walt Disney Company to show games on ESPN but not much else is known about the league with less than eight months to go before the product hits the market. It’s a football league, that is all.
The USFL used two stadiums in Birmingham, Alabama for its games and its playoff games were held in Canton, Ohio. But the league plans to add a market or two or three next year. The cost of producing a weekly football show and the USFL is little more than a TV show is relatively cheap in Birmingham. If the USFL really wants to play games in Philadelphia, East Rutherford, New Jersey, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Houston, Tampa or New Orleans, those cities allegedly have franchises, it is going to cost more money. But Roller Derby was successful for a while based out of San Francisco with the Bay Bombers and an array of teams that never performed in some home city. Roller Derby was a TV show in the very early days of network TV in 1948 and lasted for about three decades as a TV staple. The XFL’s ownership group claims it is building a fan-first, fast-paced global professional football league with innovative rules and enhanced 360 game experience. Unfortunately, neither the USFL nor the XFL will make much of a mark in a crowded spring sports calendar.
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