The Professional Spring Football League (PSFL) was an outdoor football league slated to begin in 1992. The league had a preview show on SportsChannel America in late 1991/early 1992, laying out the ten teams that would play. [1] The league was founded by Vincent Sette, a computer sales executive. Rex Lardner, a television executive, was the commissioner.
As far as sports leagues folding before they began, this league probably got the closest to actually playing without ever playing, as each team had players already in camp and practicing, and rosters cut down to 60 players, before the plug was pulled. A number of current or future notable Arena Football and NFL players were in the teams' training camps, including mid-90s Dolphins RB Bernie Parmalee, AFL QB Ben Bennett, AFL DS Durwood Roquemore, and AFL WR/DB Barry Wagner. Notre Dame QB Tony Rice, Tim Smith RB – Washington Redskins (200+ yards) in the Superbowl and many others that played professional football.
The 1992 PSFL Championship Game, "The Red, White And Blue Bowl", was to have been played at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, July 5.
The folding of the league was announced on February 19, 1992, 10 days before the season opener. The league had over 7 million dollars in escrow from ticket sales as funds were not to be spent until the games were paid and revenues were earned. This protected fans and sponsors from losses or failure. The PSFL tried to regroup for 1993 season, but again the start-up funding did not get secured.
The league was the first Sports LLC which has been the blueprint of leagues since. Most well known is the WNBA. It was one single corporation which made it unique as the league owned the teams corporately with limit partners as "team owners". This eliminated weak financial teams as well as collusion as all players were contracted from the PSFL and then assigned to teams. The teams shut down all on the same day as all invoiced expenses were paid by the league headquarters on a budget system. The start-up funding to get to the first games did not show up for various reasons.
It was responsible for many NFL changes in player relationships, stadium signage configurations, and marketing sponsorship innovations.
Two-point conversions were allowed and overtime was sudden death with each team having a possession (1992).
The league did play a few exhibition games in Florida for the benefit of the Police Departments.