Zuhosky’s Take #22: What Can USFL Do to Improve in Year Three?

There was some question as to whether or not this rebooted version of the league had the potential for vitality, given that the USFL was announced as returning almost 10 months before the opening kickoff. It was a fair question to ask at the time since the original 2001 version of the XFL was first heralded by WWE chairman Vince McMahon approximately one year before its launch.

With a short leeway between the reveal of the USFL’s relaunch and the launch itself, skepticism reigned supreme for a moment in time. By and large, the notion of gridiron football in a season other than fall and early winter has been a punching bag for almost everyone.

Last year, right around this time, a sophomore season of USFL 2.0 was confirmed by FOX. With only a single ballgame left on the schedule, one question is being asked away from the field:

What Will the 2024 USFL Season Bring?

As of this writing, there has yet to be any sort of official word on the league’s status beyond this season. A couple of weeks ago, however, the back-to-back USFL South Division Champions, the Birmingham Stallions and the Memphis Showboats each began to accept season-ticket deposits for next year.

Subsequent to the Stallions and Showboats offering deposits on ticket plans, the league’s Canton hub at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium has also started to accept payments on season tickets in advance of 2024.

Fittingly, these payments start at $24 (USD). With hub cities beginning to take reservations on tickets and the fact that the players ratified a long-term collective bargaining agreement with the league ahead of training camp earlier this year, there will be USFL football next spring. What can the league do to improve its product?

No More Houston Gamblers

The Houston Gamblers just missed out on a spot in last weekend’s South Division Championship Game in Birmingham. While a 5-5 overall record is an improvement from the club’s 3-7 showing under Kevin Sumlin in the USFL’s freshman year, Houston fans are already preoccupied thanks to the Roughnecks in the rival XFL.

With two spring football teams already competing for viewership in the same city (even though the Gamblers play in Memphis due to the USFL’s hub model,) one of the teams is going to lose out. If the Gamblers would no longer be Houston’s team in the third season, they could still have ties to Texas.

What About the Austin Gamblers?

Austin, TX is a great college sports town. People in Austin, just as people all over the Lonestar State, love their football. Aside from MLS side Austin FC, tentpole professional sports leagues have been hard to come by for fans in the city.

Given the USFL’s status as a minor league on the sports landscape, it would be perfect for the Gamblers to become Austin’s team next year. Houston would become a Roughnecks town exclusively and Austin gets a taste of spring football that isn’t a Longhorns scrimmage.

This would be a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

Eliminate USFL Games on USA Network

Ahead of the 2023 season, fans of the USFL received a piece of good news in that select NBCUniversal-produced games were no longer to be exclusive to NBC’s subscription-based streaming platform, Peacock. With the news, all games in the league were available on linear television, though NBC’s coverage was still streamed on the service non-exclusively.

In lieu of Peacock’s streams, a few NBC games aired on cable’s USA Network, most often in a weekend afternoon timeslot. Oftentimes, USA’s coverage of USFL football was preceded by Premier League soccer on Saturday mornings.

The problem is that when a game was scheduled for broadcast on USA, it would regularly finish as the lowest-rated of the four contests on television for the weekend. Even though Premier League football tried to be a great lead-in, most viewers clicked away before American football kicked off.

USFL WEEK 8 TV RATINGS
Per @JamesLarsenPFN

Pittsburgh/Houston (USA): 228,000

Birmingham/Philadelphia (NBC): 747,000

New Jersey/Memphis (FOX): 720,000

New Orleans/Michigan (FOX): 774,000

A nice rebound from last week, nice to see the OTA games holding steady.

— Gridiron USFL (@GridironUSFL) June 6, 2023

NBC Proper Should Pick Up More Games

There’s a very simple solution to this problem. Succinctly put, the main NBC network will need to air the league’s contests more often in 2024.

With the Peacock’s feathers placing more emphasis on live sporting events in primetime on Saturdays, highlighted by Big Ten Saturday Nights this fall, that evening should be USFL night on NBC. Ratings for USFL games have been continually strong when they’ve been programmed to air on a broadcast network.

Case in point: In week four, a Saturday night broadcast of the Memphis Showboats vs, Michigan Panthers tilt from Detroit’s Ford Field scored more than two million viewers. This telecast was buoyed by having followed that afternoon’s Kentucky Derby.

#USFL Week 4 TV Ratings:

Philadelphia/Houston (FOX): 521,000
Michigan/Memphis (NBC): 2.063M
NJ/NOLA (NBC): 828,000
Pittsburgh/Birmingham (FS1): 545,000

Streaming numbers not included. No #XFL competition this week. Really impressive numbers for the USFL.

— James Larsen (@JamesLarsenPFN) May 9, 2023

They’ve got something going with Saturday night windows. Saturday is a night for reruns across the board, so NBC should keep the timeslot open in the spring for the gridiron.

It’s Time for Canton to Get Its Own USFL Team

If not for the city of Canton, OH, American football might not have come into being more than a century ago. Every August, the NFL season begins in the city with the Hall of Fame Game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium (formerly known as Fawcett Stadium).

In each of the past two years, the USFL season has ended at this venue, with the ballpark hosting the 2023 USFL Championship Game this coming Saturday night. This season, Hall of Fame Stadium was one of the four hub sites around the league, playing host to the Pittsburgh Maulers and the New Jersey Generals. 

Canton is a football town. Canton is the football town, so the league should give the city its own club.

Northeast Ohio Fans Can Root for a USFL Team

As someone in a family of Cleveland sports fans, there’s been precious little to get excited about historically. When a Northeast Ohio-based football team is in contention for a championship down the stretch, it’s a foregone conclusion that we’re either talking about a local high school or about Mount Union’s NCAA Division III powerhouse in Alliance.

The Browns and their fans are still waiting for the team to score that first Super Bowl ring. At the same time, however, they’re dreading having to say the phrase “Wait ’til next year” for another 12 months if the Dawg Pound doesn’t make the playoffs.

With the USFL in Canton as a hub city again next season, spring football will be a happening in the Northeast Ohio community. Just imagine how much more of a happening it’ll be if the city gets a team to call its own.

Final Thoughts

We’ve spent the last few minutes outlining the changes that the USFL could make to improve its brand heading into next season, but now, we’d like to open up the floor to you, our audience.

What do you think the USFL needs to do to improve going into year three? Let us know in the comments,