Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

single wing wrote: Official dates for MLFB's inaugural draft have been finalized!
January 27th Franchise player
January 28 territorial Draft
January 29 National Draft

Many of recent failed projects (don't want to call them leagues since they never really got to that point) have announced draft dates - some have even made it to the point of holding the drafts - and then never made it to their first game.

rhickok1109 wrote:I think we'll have a professional league before another professional football league.

https://www.thenrfl.com/

I would love to see a professional rugby league in the United States, and I have been hearing announcements of various leagues since the 1970s. Logically, you'd think that it would be more popular than soccer, given that it's played with something similar to a football, and you have equivalents for touchdowns and field goals and lots of hard hits, but it's only had a limited following here.

It's interesting to note that a week before the Bears opened the 2015 season against Green Bay, there was a crowd of more than 23,000 that turned out at Soldier Field to watch the U.S. rugby team lose, 47-10, to Australia. The year before that (November 1, 2014), there was a crowd of 61,500 at Soldier Field to see the U.S. team play rugby against New Zealand, about what the Bears drew a couple of weeks later against the Vikings.

Mark L. Ford wrote:I would love to see a professional rugby league in the United States

One of my good friends has played rugby ever since she was done playing soccer in college. She's currently on the Armed Forces 7's team.

I've been telling her brother for years that for a (mens) pro league to work in America it would have to be 7s because that would likely be the most entertaining - and shorter games - to the general public. The problem is that the best players play for USA throughout the year in the World Rugby 7s Series, and of course the World Cup. It's setup more for international competition rather than having a league, and the club competition is setup more for invitationals/tournaments than a yearly league.

The college 7s Championship gets decent TV ratings.

Reaser wrote: for a (mens) pro league to work in America it would have to be 7s because that would likely be the most entertaining - and shorter games - to the general public. The college 7s Championship gets decent TV ratings.

I've watched a few of those college 7s rugby tournament telecasts, and my problem is that those shorter games are way too short-- TWENTY minutes. Even middle school basketball goes longer than that. And the clock doesn't seem to stop for anything during a ten-minute quarter. Even when a team scores, the clock keeps running, and the whole thing fits into a half hour telecast. Even in that short time, there's a lot of scoring.

Mark L. Ford wrote:I've watched a few of those college 7s rugby tournament telecasts, and my problem is that those shorter games are way too short-- TWENTY minutes.

Well, I'm sure you know, they're playing multiple games in a day. The last tournament my friend played in, her team played at 6am, 9am and noon on Saturday and 6am, 9am Sunday. 5 games in two days.

Major League football MLFB just signed a TV contract. See below

The Two-Year broadcasting deal between ASN and MLFB includes broadcasting all 40 Regular Season games and all Post Season games for Major League Football in 2016. In year two, with the anticipated expansion teams growing from eight to twelve franchises, ASN and MLFB will provide football fans with the ability to view every single regular season and post season game on multiple television outlets and digital media platforms for the next two MLFB seasons.

Looks like St. Louis is available for a franchise. I'm all in favor of a new pro football league-- anything that gives a chance for guys to make a living, and I wish them well. But the only thing "Major" about it will be the name.

Would be nice if they could make it work, but each time this thread is updated I expect to see someone post "yep, they folded".

single wing wrote:In year two, with the anticipated expansion teams growing from eight to twelve franchises

The whiff of a Ponzi scheme gets stronger.

First day of their draft
They say 340 more players to be picked tomorrow
They another 340 on Friday

Franchise Campo Joe Adams WR/KR 5'11" 185 Arkansas
Franchise Collins Chris Bonner QB 6'6" 232 CSU-Pueblo
Franchise Cottrell Taylor BelsterlingWR 6'4" 204 Huntingdon
Franchise Ford Casey Pachall QB 6'4 215 TCU
Franchise Geis Emmanuel Stephens DE 6'3" 246 Ole Miss
Franchise Hall Stephen Garcia QB 6'2" 235 South Carolina
Franchise Kirksey Dan LeFevour QB 6'2" 215 CMU
Franchise Miller Darron Thomas QB 6'2" 204 Oregon

Still have not released where the teams will play they say because one team changed sites.