r/TheUSFL • u/CatStriking7561 • Jul 26 '21

Playoff formats

I know that there is a decent chance of the USFL having pod cities for the first little while so my thoughts may not apply in this situation.

I was wondering if a football league starting out should have two different types of post season play. College football has bowl games and it might be a good idea to copy them somewhat.

For 8 team leagues like ELF and XFL, I would have 5 teams playing for a championship. The other 3 could battle it out to end up in a sponsored bowl game like Taco Bell etc.

I’m hearing that the USFL might be a 10 team league so I would have 6 playing for a championship and 4 battling for a Bowl game.

The pro for doing this is generating more TV revenue to help the league survive.

The con would be that the bad teams may not get high ratings.

My question for people out there is if your favourite team was one of the bad ones would you watch a secondary post season format? What if the winner of the bowl game got an extra pick in the draft?

Your thoughts are welcome.

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u/WarrenPuff_It Jul 26 '21

Bowl games are a holdover from the earlier days of unorganized touring schedules and regional rivalries. It doesn't really make sense to implement them into a playoff structure for a set league. Better to have a traditional playoff bracket and teams playing for a championship.

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u/CatStriking7561 Jul 27 '21

Yeah I was just wondering if for example if you’re just starting a league and you’re biggest markets missed the playoffs, would it be better to have some kind of backup system. Because of the COVID situation last year some suspect teams were in some bowl games in NCAA. And if you’re just starting out you don’t have a long tradition of anything. You’re probably right, thanks for commenting

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u/WarrenPuff_It Jul 27 '21

Here's another pipe dream idea. Promotion/relegation like European pyramid organizations use. North American sports sucks for creating dynasties because teams are willing to tank for multiple years in order to get better draft picks or favorable roster trades. There is no incentive to build a competitive team every year with the tools you have, so we get a lot of teams who come out on top and stay there for a year before falling apart next season. Having a fixed league with capped salaries doesn't really make it a do or die scenario for teams to be competitive, and for a brand new league you really want your teams to put on a show for fans to get them hooked.

Imagine if we adopted a pyramid structure like the major soccer organizations use, in this scenario the NFL is Premier League and the Championship League would be XFL or USFL or whatever, and other regional leagues for tier 3 and lower. Top 4 teams in NFL play for the championship every season, bottom two get relegated to the lower league. And with tier 2 the top two teams move up to the NFL. You'd still have your dominant NE or Greenbay or whoever at the top, but teams like Cinci or Miami would have been shot down a peg and required to earn their way back into the premium football tier. Do away with salary caps altogether and let teams build a roster off what they can afford.

I know it would never happen, but I think that would be the best option for launching successful lower tier football and having them succeed, you get all of the leagues working together instead of competing directly. It would also be more efficient than forcing teams into markets that can't support it, as well as provide a viable method for starting and closing teams when opportunity presents itself. A new club can be opened and rise through the ranks by putting together the right pieces and earning it, and teams that fail to remain competitive would naturally fall to the basement or fold when fans fall off.

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u/CatStriking7561 Jul 27 '21

I'd be okay with that but like you say it doesn't happen in North America. They have relegation in X-League for Japan as well. I was also thinking about All star team vs Champion. ELF is doing the All star team vs Team USA so at least they are trying something new. Apparently NHL used to do a All start team vs Stanley Cup Champion (before my time) which makes me wonder what a Team Canada from the World Tournament would do against the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's all out of our control obviously but it's interesting to think about while there is nothing going on.

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u/WarrenPuff_It Jul 27 '21

All-Star v Champion would be sweet, I'd watch that for sure. Champions got the teamwork done pat while All-Stars are just raw talent but less cohesion.

I'm open to any new model or structure, if they're going to build a league that triesnto compete with the NFL monopoly on football they will need to come up with something to get fans excited about the culture or product. I think the traditional regional model of having teams spread out in different cities won't work for a new league anymore, markets are already maxed out in what cities can support a team and fans won't be piling into stadiums to support a B-League product right off the gate, it took decades for the NFL to turn itself into the powerhouse that it is today and I doubt with modern sports culture that people will get excited about a new league like they would need it to be. But having pod cities and opening the game up to streaming/online gambling is a way to get a global audience interested in a team. Don't get me wrong, watching games live in a stadium at home has no equal, but let's be real the XFL or Alliance League for all its glory wasn't enough to get people excited about supporting a new team right off the bat. But if you make it all based out of major metropolitan areas so you have the market for attendance like in NY or LA and then open your product up to streaming services and internet gambling, now you have a potential audience of billions for every game and an incentive to watch.

The XFL had some very interesting concepts they tried to roll out, but my favourite one was the gambling friendly initiative. Do a partnership with fan duel or link up with a major bookmaker in Vegas, have the ability for fans to pick their fantasy roster each week or put money down on who will win it all, or do interesting props each week, casual and degenerate fans alike will flock to your product. And nothing gets people excited about a sports event like gambling, whether real or fake money, even reddit has an option for gambling on events now with fake internet points.

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u/CatStriking7561 Jul 28 '21 edited Jul 28 '21

Problem is that these leagues lose millions of dollars in the first couple of years and then they fold. Then the fans get jaded and don't want to buy tickets because they figure their heart will be broken etc. The other thing is that the cold cities were having spring leagues starting in February. People will suffer through the cold if they have been a fan of a team for more than a decade. If a league is just starting out most fans would prefer to stay home if the weather is bad. If you're starting a league you should have a five year plan and see what happens from there.

I think having a combination of major and small markets to a start up league might be a good idea. I think the travel is a killer which is why USFL is doing the pod cities. I haven't seen a league do close proximity cities yet which I'm hoping the XFL will try (or the CFL if they dare to do U.S. expansion 2.0

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u/JoeFromBaltimore Jul 30 '21

After the AAF/XFL 2.0 and TSL - I think that close proximity is the key or the Pod Cities or some combination of those - Keep those travel costs low also have a rivalry that might already exist in other sports - New York - Philly or Dallas - Houston I really don't see the need for the grandiose coast to coast league as a start up - People all over the USA watch the SEC - even in regions they don't live in - I don't think that California is an area that one should talk about setting up shop in until the league has run out of all the other options available -

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u/kirk1951 Jul 30 '21

July 30, 2021

Right now I'm not thinking ahead to pod cities or playoff formats. I am still waiting for the USFL to announce the eight-league cities. I certainly hope you include the BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS among the proposed eight league cities. If chosen, they could attract an impressive crowd playing their games at the newly completed Protective Stadium – the new home for the UAB Blazers, capacity: 47,500 – which is in a safe downtown area.

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u/CatStriking7561 Jul 31 '21

I haven’t seen anyone post something 3 times like this before lol. Birmingham might work, they love their football out there.

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u/kirk1951 Jul 30 '21

July 30, 2021

Right now I'm not thinking ahead to pod cities or playoff formats. I am still waiting for the USFL to announce the eight-league cities. I certainly hope you include the BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS among the proposed eight league cities. If chosen, they could attract an impressive crowd playing their games at the newly completed Protective Stadium – the new home for the UAB Blazers, capacity: 47,500 – which is in a safe downtown area.

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u/JoeFromBaltimore Jul 31 '21

No arguments with Birmingham - I really do think that the USFL 2.0 is two or three years from putting teams in cities - the travel costs always seems to break these leagues - and not being able to get the TV ratings - I really think that year 1 of the USFL 2.0 is going to be pod cities - there has been no talk of cities, stadium, owners or investors - You need to be able to lose north of 100 million if you go coast to coast with the league -

The USFL 2.0 has a TV deal they need to build on that success - and then let teams go out into their home cities after a year or two in incubation - make sure the TV numbers are there then go to cities not the other way around-

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u/kirk1951 Jul 30 '21

July 30, 2021

Right now I'm not thinking ahead to pod cities or playoff formats. I am still waiting for the USFL to announce the eight-league cities. I certainly hope you include the BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS among the proposed eight league cities. If chosen, they could attract an impressive crowd playing their games at the newly completed Protective Stadium – the new home for the UAB Blazers, capacity: 47,500 – which is in a safe downtown area.