A couple weeks ago we watched a documentary about the rise and fall of the USFL. The USFL was the idea that people could watch football not only in the Fall season but also the Spring. They had a quick rise making 4 million in 3 years. They were successful because they drafted underclassmen and those overlooked by the NFL went to the USFL. At first they didn’t want to compete with the NFL; that changed over time. But how do you compete with the NFL when they have the credibility, the experience and the fans?
There were multiple things that contributed to the death of the USFL. First, it started with their with their greed and use of money. They thought that they had a lot more money than they actually did and they used it that way. The owners and players wanted more money but the problem was that they couldn’t make money. They had no fans in the stands and they didn’t have the revenue, the TV contracts and the credibility that the NFL had. In addition to that, they didn’t have fans who wanted to go. They were in between the skill level of college and a NFL team. They weren’t that good so no one wanted to watch them. They were more for entertainment rather than the game itself.
Second, they invested in players they couldn’t afford such as Steve Young. They gave him a salary of 40$ million that they didn’t have. They tried to outbid the NFL with the money they didn’t make so they were losing a lot of money. Another contribution was the expansion of teams too quickly. They went from 12-18 teams but there was no demand for expanding the USFL so it wasn’t profitable and they began to lose more money. With the loss of more money, they thought it would be a good idea to sue the NFL for $1.3 billion for being a monopoly. They didn’t have $1.3 billion to lose. They’re argument was the the NFL has contracts with all the networks and how can they compete if they can’t get on TV. They lost and they weren’t playing during the trial.
Finally, to top all of it off they put their faith in Donald Trump. It was suspected that he wanted the USFL to die so that his team (the better one) would be adopted by the NFL and he would be able to own an NFL team. The NFL didn’t want him to own a team for good reason. Trump’s personal ambitions is what ultimately killed the league just like he wanted. With all the money they didn’t have Trump decided to sue the NFL and “gained” $3 from the $1.3 billion lawsuit. He would never admit that he wanted the USFL to fail, he said that he brought the league farther and without him it wouldn't collapsed sooner. All I want to say is that Trump might be saying the same thing about the USA in a couple years.
I really agree with this post because in my reflection on the documentary I also said that greed was the downfall of the USFL. They tried to work their way up the ladder too fast and didn't take the time that is needed to build a strong fan base that would carry them over to the fall season. They were also led by Donald Trump, who I see as having a vendetta against the NFL and from the beginning wanted the USFL to be its replacement. A question that I had when reading this was, after seeing what had happened to the USFL and learning from the mistakes, do you think another football league will be able to be successful in the US?
ReplyDeleteI think this post did a good job giving a general summary of why the USFL failed. I do agree with the fact that the USFL spent more money than they had, but on the other hand, in order to land top talents such as Steve Young and Herschel Walker, it would make sense to offer them a lot of money. Since the NFL was more established and a more stable option, the USFL would need to spend a lot of money to attract people to their league. In my opinion, it somewhat worked out as people flocked to watch Walker but obviously not enough to save the USFL.
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