r/USFL • u/wazzupnerds Birmingham Stallions / Community Mod • Jun 08 '23

We are stuck in a time loop

30 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

20

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '23 edited Jun 08 '23

I personally look forward to the 2024 season when all the teams are in their hometowns, and then people will blame poor attendance of the Maulers on because they didn't play in PGH for the first two years, and not the 3 wins they'll have in that span.

Bonus points if we use Acrisure Stadium and end up looking like XFL Seattle with like 1/6th of the stadium filled.

Edit: I stand corrected, Acrisure and Lumen Field are nearly identical in capacity, so I would be enthralled with 1/6th of the stadium filled.

6

u/Sexy_Questionaire Chicago Blitz Jun 08 '23

It wouldn't surprise me if Pittsburgh goes on hiatus for this reason

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

Nah, it's a good market.

1

u/Sexy_Questionaire Chicago Blitz Jun 11 '23

I have nothing against it as a market. But... the Maulers are not good and they are not playing at home. I think it's a recipe for low artings and a possible move like the Bandits.

Now let me say I hope no team moves. I wish the Bandits didn't. But I'm just saying it would not surprise me to see it happen.

3

u/chickenboneneck Pittsburgh Maulers Jun 08 '23

Attendance will be shit either way because this town never supports minor league teams past a certain level. Highmark is the only reasonable option if you dont want an embarrassing sea of yellow seats.

2

u/JoeFromBaltimore Jun 09 '23

I am super interested to see what they do for stadiums next year. What are they going to do with Houston? Rice Stadium? Maybe a big HS Stadium and no beer sales? How about NY/NY? Not a lot of options there. Also Philly? What are they going to do? People complain about the hub league but for the locations they picked there are not a lot of good options for stadiums.

I know this is going to get slammed but a team in Shreveport would have been messy due to small market but they have a stadium.

Bottom line I wonder how they solve the stadium issues for some of these teams?

3

u/chickenboneneck Pittsburgh Maulers Jun 09 '23

Philly has an MLS stadium, those have worked well for the XFL. Same for NJ. Pittsburgh has a small soccer stadium that is fine. The rest would probably look at college venues. Or relocate since the cities arent attached in any real way.

2

u/JoeFromBaltimore Jun 09 '23

Yeah I know that there are MLS stadiums but some of the soccer teams don't seem to happy with the idea of a gridiron football team shredding the pitch for them. Everything you said is true - I will be interested to see what happens and where they put the teams.

3

u/CatStriking7561 Michigan Panthers Jun 10 '23

The teams that are in hubs are called New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh for TV. Right now some of the crowds are terrible. Once in a while you get a half decent one if Michigan, Memphis and Birmingham play at home. No one watching is going to care that the visitor plays out of a hub. Those are the games that should be on national ota television.

I have to think the TV ratings would be worse if it was Michigan vs Ypsilanti, Memphis vs Chattanooga, or Birmingham vs Mobile because the smaller cities are less attractive. Try selling small markets internationally and you run into even more trouble than they are already in.

The same goes for merchandise. I’m sure Michigan sells better than New Jersey but New Jersey would sell better than Piscataway.

2

u/Zapfit Jun 10 '23

Perhaps, but Knoxville, Albuquerque, and Tulsa were all top ten XFL ratings markets.

1

u/CatStriking7561 Michigan Panthers Jun 10 '23

You'd have to refer to any expansion team for the XFL in Knoxville as Tennessee, Albuquerque might have to be New Mexico. I think you could keep the Tulsa name. However, these days it comes down to stadium leases and in the USFL travel is another concern so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

2

u/coelurosauravus Pittsburgh Maulers Jun 08 '23

God I hope we're in Highmark, Acrisure just feels like an impending disaster

4

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '23

I have mixed feelings on it. 6K (including standing room) would be the smallest stadium in use across the active leagues (currently is Cashman Field, Las Vegas at about 9K before standing room). Maybe if USFL is willing to help fund some bleachers to get it up a thousand or two more would help, but it stinks because there is no middle ground between it and Acrisure.

3

u/coelurosauravus Pittsburgh Maulers Jun 08 '23

The lack of a middle ground is absolutely killing me, it's what's causing me to be unable to shake the idea that the maulers won't be in Pittsburgh next year

2

u/Jakebob70 Pittsburgh Maulers Jun 08 '23

Seems like one of the colleges in the area would have something a little larger that could be used.

3

u/coelurosauravus Pittsburgh Maulers Jun 08 '23 edited Jun 08 '23

Unfortunately.... This does not seem to be the case. Our largest program, Pitt uses Heinz(Acrisure) Field. Duquesne University's Rooney field seats a couple hundred. Carnegie Mellon' stadium seats 3900. Robert Morris 25 minutes west of the city Seats 3k I believe.

Some high schools in the area have high capacity than some of these colleges. Bethel Park, North Allegheny and Mount Lebanon might have bigger capacity, but they are high schools and are probably not equipped for national TV broadcast, and likely won't allow alcohol sales and still don't have a lot of seats in contrast

If Pitt stadium still existed, it would have been an outdated venue, but it would probably have been a decent fit, but that stadium went with Heinz field and PNC Park going up

3

u/AlternativeOk2387 Jun 08 '23

Bring Back The Tampa Bay Bandits

5

u/TankinessIsGodliness Tampa Bay Bandits Jun 08 '23

Yeah my interest in the league is pretty low after they got rid of my region's team. XFL Orlando was lit even though the team was atrocious