The audience reach of an NFL game is staggering in the United States. This is particularly crazy when the postseason comes around: More Americans watched this year’s Super Bowl than voted in November’s non-presidential elections.
Fully one-third of Americans watch the Super Bowl. It’s borderline obscene how popular the NFL is in America. So why don’t other football leagues work?
You’d think with such a huge appetite for the sport, rival leagues would catch a toehold, but somehow the last 40 years of football in America have been littered with failure after failure. A taste of those failures:
- The World Football League existed from 1974-1975. It folded for financial reasons.
- The original USFL (United States Football League) lasted from 1983-1985. It folded for financial reasons, but resurfaced in 2021. (Bizarre subplot: They sued the NFL in a $1.5 billion antitrust suit, which was successful, but they were only awarded $1 in damages. This award was then tripled to $3 under antitrust law. I am not a lawyer, but this sure seems strange)
- The World League of American Football existed in 1991-1992 with teams on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. But having teams as far-flung as Sacramento and Barcelona, the league had a hard time staying solvent, ultimately folding for financial reasons. It later resurfaced as NFL Europe, which had moderate success.
- The XFL lasted one season in 2001 but folded due to a complete lack of engagement/fans/money.
- The United Football League lasted from 2009-2012. It marketed itself as something of a minor league, played a season the same time as the NFL, and folded due to financial shortfalls during their third season.
- The Alliance of American Football lasted less than one season in 2019. It filed for bankruptcy.
- The XFL came back in 2020. Ratings quickly dropped again, and then COVID-19 began, suspending the league until 2023. There are already questions about the viability of the re-launched league.
The Canadian Football League is the only pseudo-alternative league which has had any measure of long-term success, having been founded in 1958. The CFL is not a direct competitor of the NFL, seeing as the NFL doesn’t have any Canadian teams (though anecdotal discussions of a Toronto-based team are common), and the CFL doesn’t have any American teams… at least not anymore.
The CFL tried to come to the USA!
The Story of the CFL’s Attempted Move to the United States
It’s easy to forget about this failed venture for two main reasons. First, it happened in the mid-1990s, which are now almost 30 years ago. Second, it was a complete disaster. Let’s dive in.
From 1958 to 1993, the CFL stuck to its namesake and operated solely within Canada. In the late 1980s the league faced intense financial pressures due to the end of a TV deal, which put virtually every team in dire straits. With a new commissioner onboard, the league just… went for it.
Commissioner Larry Smith basically said, “We’re looking for American cities to host CFL teams. The season barely overlaps with the NFL, so don’t worry.” Reports suggest that 22 cities considered hosting expansion teams, though they obviously didn’t all materialize. But a few did, sort of. How many? That’s a complicated answer.
After the WLAF folded in 1992, Sacramento and San Antonio’s ownership groups saw the CFL as a perfect rollover for their teams and they were approved to join the Canadian Football League. Apparently, nobody thought about how absurd the contrasting ideals of Canada and Texas were, but it ended up not mattering. The day the San Antonio Texans were supposed to be formally introduced, ownership had some type of dispute and pulled out of the agreement altogether. That was the end of the San Antonio Texans (for now).
Sacramento actually showed up and played out their season, prompting more American CFL expansion for the 1994 season. The Las Vegas Posse, the Baltimore Colts, and the Shreveport Pirates became members. Yes, the Shreveport Pirates. There would’ve been one more team, in Orlando, but they pulled a San Antonio and the ownership group quite literally did not show up for their introductory press conference. Just an incredible move. You have to respect it.
Not to be outdone, the Colts built a following based largely on using the Colts name. For those readers who are unaware, the Baltimore Colts played in the NFL from 1953 to 1983, winning multiple championships, including Super Bowl V. They were relocated to Indianapolis in 1983 in the middle of the night. As such, the new CFL Colts were drawing on that history to help drum up local interest, until the team was forced to stop using that name shortly before their first game, rendering them the Baltimore Football Club.
Even so, Baltimore had the biggest crowds in the league that season. They made it all the way to the Grey Cup, losing on a late field goal, but suggesting that US expansion could take hold. On the other hand, Shreveport lost their first 14 games (there are 18 in a CFL season), finally drawing a decent crowd in their home finale. Sacramento was actually a solid team, but attendance dipped by season’s end. And then there was Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Posse should be their own article, and perhaps they will, because this was a colossal mess. The team played outside of Las Vegas, which hurt attendance, and they practiced in what was more or less the parking lot of the Riviera Hotel. They managed to draw 2,350 fans to a home game – the lowest since the league’s inaugural season – and promptly moved to Edmonton for the last game of the year. It didn’t help. They formally disbanded six months later, but prior to their disbanding, the league granted approval to move the team. Twice. First to Milwaukee, then to Jackson, Mississippi. Both moves fell through. Finally, an attempt was made by a group in Miami to buy the team and become the Miami Manatees. That also didn’t happen.
Oh, and Sacramento didn’t like their stadium and moved to San Antonio.
To recap: 1993 featured the Sacramento Gold Miners and a failed attempt at the San Antonio Texans. The 1994 season featured teams in Las Vegas, Baltimore, and Shreveport. By 1995 Sacramento moved to San Antonio, Las Vegas folded, Shreveport was on the struggle bus, and new teams popped up in Memphis and Birmingham.
The Beginning of the End for the CFL in the US
The 1995 season saw – you guessed it – declining attendance. Somehow the Baltimore Stallions (they became the Stallions) managed to go out and win the Grey Cup anyway, to modest local fanfare. While everyone south of the border was struggling financially, the death knell was the Cleveland Browns being moved to Baltimore, which was announced within weeks of the Stallions winning the Grey Cup. The most successful team in the United States was going to be squashed. Hope was gone.
By February of 1996, all five American franchises were formally dead. As quickly as it came, the CFL was gone from the United States. Estimates suggest that the US-based teams lost more than $20 million combined in less than four years.
Oops.