After some good play and bad weather, one thing has become very clear about football’s latest spring league. The new USFL needs to diversify its locations immediately. Hosting the entire regular season in Birmingham is a death wish.
And that’s a shame because everything else about the new USFL appears viable. Play during the opening weekend was perfectly acceptable all things considered. It felt like real football. Attendance for the Birmingham Stallions home game on Saturday was also respectable.
Sunday, on the other hand, was not so great. Sure, the conditions weren’t ideal. But there was basically no one in attendance beyond a smattering of friends and family. This wasn’t a weather issue. This was an interest issue. Locals aren’t going to attend any of the games not featuring the Stallions.
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It’s not a surprising development. It was something we predicted at The Touchback as soon as the new USFL announced it was only playing games in what is now Alabama’s second largest city. However, people from Birmingham were very vocal about how they would come out in force to watch all the games and support the league as a whole.
So, about that. I’ve seen better attendance in suburban shopping malls on a Wednesday mid-morning. Why even bother playing in Protective Stadium? Any junior high school field in America could have accommodated the handful of attendees who turned up on Sunday. And let’s not pretend this was all about the weather.
I’ve watched enough Sun Belt football to know people in the South will watch games in crappy conditions. There needs to be a reason for them to care though. And there is no reason for anyone in the entire state of Alabama to attend games between random USFL sides. Even if the weather had been perfect, maybe 1,000 fans show up. That estimate is probably on the high side.
Sitting through nine more weeks of teams no one cares about playing in eerily empty stadiums is bad. Like, Christian Hackenberg in the AAF bad. The lack of atmosphere is unwatchable. It makes the games feel like a scrimmage no matter how competitive they may be.
The new USFL needs to diversify its locations immediately if it is to survive long term. Birmingham has failed the league. No amount of skycams or gimmicky rules can hide that reality.
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