Last year The Spring League not only expanded to eight teams, but had every game televised across the FOX family of channels. For the 2021 season the league played out of Indianapolis and Houston, each hosting its own division.
At the conclusion of the season the two best teams met at Rice Stadium in Houston, TX for the league’s championship game, the Mega Bowl. Up until then, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN had been the only venue that was open to the public.
During The Spring League season it was revealed that the USFL would be returning in 2022. The new league will be run boy FOX and Brian Woods, founder and CEO of TSL. Needless to say, there hasn’t been any information on if and how TSL will exist in the future.
Not that this is any indicator of either, but it seems that The Spring League is about to head into litigation.
LBJ.com reports that B&D Associates, the ownership group for the Crowne Plaza Union Station and the Capital Improvement Board of Marion County filed lawsuits in Marion County Commercial Court against Spring League LLC.
The suits allege that The Spring League accumulated a bill of $1.1 million during its stay at the hotel, along with another tab of nearly $235,000 for six games played at the stadium.
According to the Crowne Plaza suit, TSL booked over 4,700 room nights during the 2021 season. The bill also includes food purchased from the hotel’s convenience kiosk, parking, banquet room use, breakfasts and other meals.
According to the suit, Brian Woods told the hotel’s general manager in an email that he expected the invoice to be paid by the end of August.
The Spring League planned on “closing a significant capital raise in the next 2-3 weeks. Accordingly, we will be using those proceeds to pay the Crowne Plaza on or before October 15 for the entire balance.” The suit alleges that payments have yet to be received.
It’s hard to say how this will all play out, but we wouldn’t expect this to impact the upcoming USFL one bit. That being said, we do hope to see the vendors receive their money as originally agreed upon.
We’ll keep you posted as more information on this matter comes to light.
