USA Today, June 7, 1983
In the world of established major sports leagues you don’t tend to hear much about league or franchise maneuvers until the season has finished, but it appears that the USFL is not playing by those rules. Last night at their NYC offices, the USFL Commissioner, along with several of the upstart league’s owners, held a brief news conference to announce some significant preparations for the 1984 season.
The first announcement was in regards to new stadium contracts. The USFL has had strong attendance in many cities, but has suffered in several markets to fill their stadiums. While for the most part the USFL franchises will retain their current homes, Commissioner Chet Simmons revealed that several teams have arranged 1984 contracts at new locations for the Boston Breakers and Los Angeles Express.
In Boston, the Breakers , who are in the midst of a playoff hunt, have been a popular ticket, but are hindered by the tiny confines of Nickerson Field (Home to Boston U. football) which maxes out around 22,000 attendees. After working with several parties, including the NFL’s New England Patriots, Boston College, and Harvard University, it was announced that the Breakers will play their 1984 games at Harvard Stadium, which seats just over 30,000 seats. While it was not disclosed why this stadium was chosen over BC’s larger Alumni Stadium or Foxboro Stadium, it seems clear that the USFL, while trying to expand Boston’s seating capacity, was not able to arrange for either of the larger local stadiums.
In LA, the problem has been much the opposite. The LA Express, struggling to win games, have been having an equally challenging season trying to fill seats in the enormous LA Coliseum. With no big names on the roster, and now competing for the worst record in the league, the Express have regularly seen attendance below 20,000. That is similar to Boston, but when you have over 90,000 seats to fill, rather than 22,000 it makes for poor optics.
Commissioner Simmons announced that the Express will be leaving the Coliseum for the more intimate surroundings of the suburb of Anaheim, where they will be playing at Angel Stadium, also home to the California Angels of MLB and the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL. Details were not released on how the stadium will play host to both the Express and the Angels for much of the USFL season, though one must anticipate that the Express will now be playing on a mixed field of grass and dirt as the Angels’ infield will remain intact for Express games.
In addition to these two franchises finding new homes within their cities, the USFL announced that it has reviewed more than 20 bids for 1984 franchises and has produced a finalist list of 10 bids from which they will eventually choose their 1984 expansion franchises. It was not disclosed how many of the bids will be expected but the league has stated in the past that they will add an even number of franchises, and rumors have that number at either 4 or 6 franchises.
The finalist list includes these 10 cities, most of which are current NFL hosts as well: Atlanta (GA), Houston and San Antonio (TX), Indianapolis (IN), Jacksonville and Miami (FL), Memphis (TN), New Orleans (LA), Pittsburgh (PA) and San Diego (CA). While Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Memphis, and San Antonio would be non-NFL cities, the remaining cities on the list are locations for NFL franchises. While it could not be confirmed by Commissioner Simmons, it appears that there are no current NFL owners among the bidders, as this would be a violation of NFL policies towards ownership of multiple sports franchises. With the current USFL made up of 12 franchises arranged in 3 divisions of 4 teams each, it is expected that any expansion would lead to a division of the league into 2 conferences, with 2 divisions each, although, an expansion by 6 teams could be accomplished within the 3 division format, assuming that each division were to expand by 2 teams.
In speaking with several USFL representatives after the press conference, it was determined that the USFL plans to hold an expansion draft with players from the existing 12 teams allocated to any new franchises. This would be held prior to the USFL Collegiate Draft in December.
An announcement of the final, approved, expansion franchises is expected in June, with allocation of recently signed 1983 NFL Draft picks such as quarterbacks Jim Kelly, Todd Blackledge, and Tony Eason expected in July. These players signed USFL contracts following the NFL draft and will be able to select from three different USFL team bids for their services, bids which are sure to include several of the expansion teams who will need to stock rosters quickly to compete with the 12 returning 1983 franchises.
The final announcement of the day came when Chet Simmons invited Denver Gold owner Ron Blanding up to the podium. Blanding announced that Denver had been selected as the site for the first USFL Championship Game. The city, which has been at or near the top of USFL attendance despite having one of the most frugal rosters in the league, is viewed as a key market for the new league. The Gold are also the favorite to win the Pacific Division and could find themselves playing at home if they are able to win in the league’s semifinal playoff round.
While the USFL still has a long way to go to become a stable part of the American sports scene, the announcements today paint a pretty positive picture about the future of the league, one in which franchises are supported in their host cities, and even when attendance is poor, alternatives are available without relocating or folding franchises, something the failed World Football League was unable to do.
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