Yeah, I'm Sure It'll Work This Time

Undaunted by the disasters that were the World Football League, the United States Football League, and the XFL, some more people with money to throw away are going to attempt to start a new professional football league.

From of all places, True Hoop:

The New York Times Sports Magazine reports in its June 3 issue that Wall Streeter Bill Hambrecht and Google executive Tim Armstrong are launching a professional football league to compete with the N.F.L., and have lined up billionaire Mark Cuban as their first team owner.

This concept sounds familiar as Donald Trump was an owner in the USFL. And that league came away with three whole dollars for their money and efforts.

Cuban owns the N.B.A.'s Dallas Mavericks. Undaunted by the monopolistic N.F.L., which has squashed four competitors, he tells Nocera, "There are quite a few good-sized non-N.F.L. cities that can support a pro team." So far, the league has picked Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mexico City. San Antonio and Orlando are among other top markets without N.F.L. teams.

The XFL played in Los Angeles, Vegas, and Orlando. I'm sure those towns will be fired up to get another minor league football team.

According to U.F.L. executives, [author Joe] Nocera reports, the new league will emulate the old American Football League -- one of whose major characteristics was revenue sharing. Each owner will put up $30 million, worth a half-interest in a team; the league will own the other half. Eventually, the plan envisions that fans will become stakeholders - because each team will sell shares to the public to raise an average of $60 million per franchise.

UFL stands for United Football League. Once this league fails, it's going to be really hard to come up with an original name. How about the No Chance Football League?