What's this I hear about Mark Cubans football league??

[Kris P Lettus]

This morning while disscussing NFL Europa's closing, they meantioned the impact the players can make eles where.. They mentioned the CFL, AFL, and Mark Cuban's football league once it gets going..

What is this all about??

[YOUR Hero]

XFL redux?

[Kris P Lettus]

Yeah, I kinda have that feeling too..

Rich asshole throws alot of money at something they've wanted to do since they were little and it will end in shambles..

[Kris P Lettus]

From ESPN.com

Dallas Mavericks (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/clubhouse?team=dal) owner Mark Cuban is part of a group considering formation of a football league that would compete with the NFL for players drafted lower than the second round.


The league, still very much in the preliminary stage, would play its games on Friday nights. The NFL does not play then because of the potential conflict with high school football.



"It's a pretty simple concept," Cuban said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "We think there is more demand for pro football than supply."


The proposal was first disclosed by The New York Times on its Web site, which said it was the idea of Bill Hambrecht, a Wall Street investor who was a minority partner in the Oakland Invaders of the USFL, which played in the spring from 1983-85. Sharon Smith, a spokeswoman for Hambrecht and Company, had no comment and said Hambrecht was traveling and unavailable to talk about the idea.


NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said he was aware of the proposed league, but had no further comment.

On his blog, Cuban explained how the new league, dubbed the UFL, would actually be good for the NFL.

"The NFL wants and needs competition," Cuban wrote. "They have grown so big and powerful that every move they make is scrutinized by local or federal officials. A competitor allows them to point to us and explain that their moves are for competitive reasons rather than the move of a monopoly."


<!-- end added info from his blog -->
There have been numerous leagues that have tried to compete with the NFL and a few that actually played games, starting with the AFL, which began in 1960 and fully merged with the NFL a decade later. It included such current franchises as New England, Oakland, Kansas City, San Diego, Buffalo, the New York Jets and Denver.
More recently came the World Football League in the early 1970s, which raided the NFL for such stars as Larry Csonka. Then came the USFL, which played in the spring before folding after receiving only $3 in an antitrust "victory" over the NFL.


The USFL featured such future Hall of Famers as Jim Kelly, Reggie White and Steve Young, but lost millions of dollars trying to compete for players. It also had internal struggles among a majority of owners who wanted to stay in the spring, and the best known among them, Donald Trump, who wanted to move to the fall and try to force a merger with the NFL.


The most recent pro football league was the XFL, founded by the World Wrestling Federation and televised by NBC. The XFL lasted just three months in the spring of 2001 and was best known for a player named Rod Smart, called "He Hate Me," who later played as a return man and backup running back in the NFL.


So far, the proposed new league is in its infancy and Cuban is the only potential owner for what the founders hope will be an eight-team league.
Cuban said in his e-mail he believes the salary cap makes it easier to compete financially with the NFL because of the salary imbalance that leaves lower-level players with lower salaries. That would allow the new league to fill its rosters with players taken lower than the second round, as well as late NFL cuts and free agents who escape the NFL draft.
Many such players, including Tom Brady (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?statsId=5228), a sixth-round pick of New England, have become NFL stars.


"That's not to say it will be easy. It won't," Cuban wrote. "We still have to cover quite a bit of ground and have a lot of milestones to hit. That said, if we can get the right owners I obviously think we can make this work."

-The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Gonzo]

I think it would take a lot to get a football league off the ground that would be directly competing with the NFL.

[James Steele]

It won't work, but it will be fun to watch.

[YOUR Hero]

People want NFL style football and quality. Look ,the CFL is good football, but the talent isn't the same and the game is played a bit different. Because of that it didn't succeed. The story posted forgot to mention how the CFL expanded and made a run at the US audience. No luck even though teams from the States won the Grey Cup

The reason, imo why football played at high school and college levels attract large audiences is because it plays the same game as the NFL and it's full of youth and promise that aspires to make the big leagues... As well as the fact it's the best players of their age competing ....

[James Steele]

People dream to play in the SuperBowl and play for the Dallas Cowboys. People don't dream of playing in the Million Dollar Game and play for the Memphis ManiaX

[YOUR Hero]

If Memphis had an NFL team named that, they would

[VonErichLives]

People want NFL style football and quality. Look ,the CFL is good football, but the talent isn't the same and the game is played a bit different. Because of that it didn't succeed. The story posted forgot to mention how the CFL expanded and made a run at the US audience. No luck even though teams from the States won the Grey Cup

The reason, imo why football played at high school and college levels attract large audiences is because it plays the same game as the NFL and it's full of youth and promise that aspires to make the big leagues... As well as the fact it's the best players of their age competing ....

I agree with why other leagues have failed, but the following for high school and college isn't as much about the style because the rules are different.

Most high school games that get big followings are places where
1) Due to the population the competiveness of the teams is top level.
2) There really ain't much else going on.

As for the Colleges a lot of that besides talent level and competitiveness has to do with the size of the schools... the teams that get the big followings tend to be your major colleges.

this all being said, I can't see another league coming close to competing with the NFL, the only chance I'd see is if they played during the spring/summer when there is no football.

Fridays nights, they're not going to get the audience they need, and if they're going to spend money to compete with the NFL for these players they're going to need to be willing to lose a lot, and I mean a LOT of money before they'll come close to breaking even... that's why the XFL folded... had they stayed on track for 4-5yrs they might have given the NFL a run, in which case the NFL would have bought them out.

I do love Cubans pitch about anti-trust... it's a good offering branch to try and keep the NFL from crushing them right out of the gate and possible even helping them a bit.

With the close of NFL Europe there will be some decent talent... nothing great, but who knows.

As I said, I doubt these owners will be willing to lose the money need to make this thing work.

[Stickman]

Why'd NFL Europe fold?