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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s not easy to start a new project sports league. It takes many years of investment and sometimes ends up in surviving or merging with the competing league (AFL football, ABA basketball). And sometimes it fails (USFL). It’s still too soon to tell with USL Super league [/quote]

I agree with your comment above - getting traction with a new league isn't easy.  What defines success as well?  Because I really can't think of a league that hasn't merged with their big brother. or folded.  ABA to NBA, AFL to NFL, WHA to NHL.

There are a ton of interesting stories out there about these mergers and how they went down. One of the great stories is from the ABA.  The owners of the Spirts of St. Louis negotiated a deal where they collected a small share of television revenue en perpetuity from the 4 ABA teams that were moved over.  What a deal - it ended up being millions and millions of dollars.  [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzie_and_Daniel_Silna[/url]

The USFL is another great case - the book - Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL is a really good read.  I think if the owners would have stayed the course and ran a spring league, they might have had longer term success.  But, of course, there was a developer from NYC who got involved and pushed the league to complete directly against the NFL in the fall and pretty much ran it into the ground.  There's also a 30 for 30 ESPN episode out there where DJT is interviewed and the $1.00 check the league was awarded was shown to him.  Classic!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  Like any new league, there will be ebbs and flows and you may see merge and disband.  What I don't think that you have seen are any top players jumping over to the USL SL, unlike the USFL, ABA, WHA where you had top level talent playing in the upstart league.  What if a Trinity Rodman left DC United and went to the DC Power for bag of cash?  Others do similar.  That would generate some significant interest for sure.

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[b]who is trinity rodman? Therein lies the problem with female sports [[/b]/quote]

Ok.  I kinda get your point.  But, if take a top player out of the NWSL and sign them to the USL.  That will draw interest of those that follow that player to the new league.

If you weren't a hockey fan back when the WHA came around, maybe Bobby Hull signing a 10 year deal with the Winnipeg Jets didn't mean much to you, but it brought a ton of focus on the upstart league and gave them a level of credibility.    Just like the USFL poaching players like Steve Young and Reggie White to their league rather than the NFL.[/quote]

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