Earlier this year football fans were shocked by the news that the United States Football League (USFL) would be returning in 2022. The announcement took place during a broadcast of The Spring League on FOX. At the time there weren’t many details other than the league would be targeting a minimum of eight teams that would be associated with cities.
Fast forward to October and we learned that USFL officials were in discussions with the city of Birmingham to host their inaugural season. If a deal is struck Birmingham would host all eight franchises in 2022, with as many as four for the second season. Additionally, part of the deal would see the city get two spotlights per game. Considering the fact that the USFL is in the works of finalizing a deal that would see all the games aired on FOX, FS1, NBC or ABC.
To kick off November, the City of Birmingham and the Jefferson County Commission secured the $3.6M in funds needed to host the league in 2022. Since then, both parties have been working furiously to finalize all of the details.
As the finances were being settled we heard reports that an announcement would be coming shortly. Dylan Smith of Yellowhammer News reported that Alabama State Senator Jabo Waggoner announced to his colleagues in a moment of personal privilege that FOX Sports would hold a formal announcement the following week detailing the USFL’s plans in Birmingham.
The next week he’s referring to was the week that is capping off right now.
So, where’s the announcement?
Well, the good news is; it’s coming. Representatives close to the discussions now believe that everything should be in order for an official announcement next week.
We haven’t heard anything official from FOX or the USFL’s parent company (National Spring Football League), but with roughly five months until kickoff we’d expect to hear the announcement before Thanksgiving.
There’s a lot of excitement around the return of the USFL, and the possible franchises we could see come back into the fold. At the moment the league has many active trademarks of former USFL franchises, but hasn’t specified which ones we’ll see. When the USFL opened their online shop last month it featured four former teams, leading to speculation that these could be the first teams to be revealed. At the moment, the teams that are listed are the Birmingham Stallions (Naturally), Philadelphia Stars, Pittsburgh Maulers and the New Orleans Breakers.
Will you be tuning into the new USFL this spring? Which teams are you hoping to see when they return? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
