Fall Experimental Football League

Fall Experimental Football League
Sport American football
Founded May 7, 2014
CEO Brian Woods
Inaugural season 2014
No. of teams 4
Country United States
TV partner(s) Regional channels
plus ESPN 3
Official website www.fxfl.com

The Fall Experimental Football League is a professional football minor league that began play on October 8, 2014. This league is the latest to attempt to be a feeder system for the National Football League.

History

In the summer of 2013, Brian Woods began work on a business plan for a future football development league.[1] With NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent indicating in an April 2014 interview a need for a developmental football league, Woods, a sports lawyer and executive director of the Medal of Honor Bowl, put that business plan in action to launch such a league in October 2014 that envisioned six franchises primarily based in minor league baseball stadiums.[2][3] The Fall Experimental Football League was announced by Wood on May 7, 2014.[4] Original targeted markets for teams were New York, Boston, Omaha, Orlando, Portland, and either San Antonio or Memphis with Wednesday games. The league is expected to own two teams outright and four franchised teams.[2] By June 20, Tommie Harris and Eric Bassey were announced as the first owners for a franchise in Austin, Texas, the Texas Outlaws, with other teams announced without ownership were New York, Boston, Omaha, Portland, Oregon and an unselected Florida city.[5][6]

On August 20, 2014, Woods announced that the league would consist of just four teams — Brooklyn, New York, Boston, Massachusetts; Omaha, Nebraska; and Miami, Florida — with players released from NFL teams to allocated and reporting on September 24 with games to start October 8th. Cities in which interest in franchises came from Columbus, Ohio, and Springfield, Missouri.[7] The Miami team became a traveling team.[1]

The FXFL debuted on time with the inaugural game in Omaha on October 8, 2014 between the Omaha Mammoths and the Boston Brawlers at TD Ameritrade Park with the Mammoths winning 41-18.[8] By Week 3 of the 2014 season, Nivea had became a sponsor of the league, with sponsor logo on the left shoulder and helmets; additionally, a reality web show on the FXFL appeared, sponsored by Nivea.[9]

The inaugural 2014 season was cut short after the November 7 contest, with one regular season game and a championship left unplayed.[10][11] In a report from the Associated Press, commissioner Brian Woods said that he was satisfied with the season and said he envisioned a bigger FXFL in 2015, with more affiliations with minor league baseball teams and stadia, targeting such cities as Memphis, Austin, Oklahoma City and somewhere in Florida. Woods also expects Brooklyn and Omaha to return.[11] Woods later backed off plans for expansion and said that 2015 would most likely only have five teams at most.[12]

Rule differences

As its name implies, the league plans on adopting several experimental rule changes differing from those at other levels of the game with some at the request of the NFL.[13] Initial plans for the league had punting, the PAT and kickoffs taken out of the game,[14] but this proposal was scrapped prior to the start of the season.[1]

Business plan

Woods was quoted as saying about the new league: "Our long-term goal is to establish a partnership with the NFL and we feel can do that on many platforms. It would give them a way to work with younger players that they don't currently have. We can help them train prospective NFL officials - in the NBA, every referee entering the league (in recent years) comes from NBA Developmental League. We can be a testing ground for proposed rules, too."[17] The league has an agreement with the NFL to use officials from the elder league's training academy for FXFL games.[13] If the FXFL were to succeed in establishing a formal partnership with the NFL, it would be the fifth such time the NFL has established a partnership with a minor league, following the Association of Professional Football Leagues of the 1940s, the Atlantic Coast Football League in the 1960s, NFL Europe of the 1990s and 2000s, and the NFL-owned teams in the Arena Football League (prior to 2008).

Rosters

Each team employs 40 players on their roster, with a base salary of $1000 per game and a maximum potential payout of $1250 per game.[2] The league is mainly recruiting those who released from NFL training camps in August and were not assigned to practice squads with the players being pooled then allocated to the teams[7] and transferable at the league's direction.[18] Those that cannot go or will not go to college can be considered, but the league will not actively recruit NCAA players. The league also does not pursue experienced professional players and will not allow any player to play more than three years in the league; one anecdote had the league turning down Maurice Jones-Drew on account of his career being near its end (the anecdote may not be true, since Jones-Drew was already signed to a three-year deal with the Oakland Raiders before the league was founded).[19] Each team has territorial rights to players, so any player in a team's territory is first choice is to that team. The league and team owners originally planned to arrange host families for the players, similar to other minor leagues;[14] players instead ended up being housed in suburban hotels.[16][20]

Finances

The league is operating under a budget of $8 to $9 million for the first season[2] and expects to be able to be viable with minor or development team attendance of 3,000 plus.[8] The league has reported receiving enough financing to operate for the first season. In the long term, the FXFL does not expect to be profitable without official NFL support.[1]

A franchise cost was set at $500,000.[3] The Brooklyn Bolts is a joint venture between the league and Jeff Wilpon, owner of the New York Mets and Brooklyn Cyclones. The Blacktips and Omaha Mammoths are league owned and operated.[18] The Brawlers were initially reported as being independently owned[18] but no owner was ever identified and the league later admitted that it is still seeking an owner for that team.[16]

Broadcasting

The league syndicates its games to a collection of 14 regional channels: Sportsnet New York, New England Sports Network, NESN National, Cox Sports (New Orleans), Cox San Diego, Altitude, Tuff TV, Soul of the South, Untamed TV and The U Too. In addition, ESPN3 holds streaming media rights.[1][21][22][23] The broadcast deals provide no guaranteed revenue to the league but does offer a share of advertising;[1] it is not known if the league has to pay for production expenses or airtime as the UFL had to do.

Teams

Team City Stadium (capacity)[24] Debut season[7]
Boston Brawlers Boston, Massachusetts Harvard Stadium (30,323) 2014
Brooklyn Bolts Brooklyn, New York MCU Park (10,000) 2014
Blacktips No home city Traveling team[1] 2014
Omaha Mammoths Omaha, Nebraska TD Ameritrade Park Omaha (24,505) 2014

Prospective teams

Teams that were originally on the list, but will not play in 2014

2014 season

Date Visitor Score Home Score Attendance
Wednesday, October 8 Boston 18 Omaha style="background:#9F9;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"|41 est. 3,000[8]
Wednesday, October 15 Blacktips 19 Omaha style="background:#9F9;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"|20 est. 1,500[26]
Boston 20 Brooklyn style="background:#9F9;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"|27 1,940[27]
Friday, October 24 Blacktips 10 Boston style="background:#9F9;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"|28[28] 945[16]
Omaha 13 Brooklyn style="background:#9F9;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"|15 [29]
Friday, October 31 Brooklyn style="background:#9F9;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"|23 Boston 16
Wednesday, November 5 Boston 8 Omaha style="background:#9F9;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"|10 est. 4,000[30]
Friday, November 7 Blacktips 13 Brooklyn style="background:#9F9;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"|26
Wednesday, November 12 Brooklyn at Omaha, 8 p.m (Canceled)[10]
Wednesday, November 26 Omaha at Brooklyn (championship) (Canceled)[10][11][31]

Final standings

Team Wins Losses Win pct. PF PA Net points Home Road Streak
Brooklyn 4 0 1.000 91 62 29 3–0 1–0 W4
Omaha 3 1 .750 84 60 24 3–0 0–1 W1
Boston 1 4 .200 90 111 -21 1–1 0–3 L2
Blacktips 0 3 .000 42 74 -32 0–0 0–3 L3

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Seifert, Kevin (October 8, 2014). "Inside slant: FXFL set to debut, ready or not". ESPN.com (ESPN). Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Seifert, Kevin (June 4, 2014). "Time is right for minor league football". ESPN.com (ESPN). Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Grossi, Tony (May 23, 2014). "Coming soon: A professional developmental football league that just may succeed". ESPNCleveland.com (ESPN). Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  4. ↑ Lariviere, David (May 7, 2014). "New Pro Football Launch May Eventually Serve As NFL's D League". Forbes. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "New York, Boston among FXFL sites". espn.com (ESPN). Associated Press. June 20, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Solomon, Dan (June 20, 2014). "The NFL-Style Developmental Football League Launching This Fall Will Base Its Texas Team in Austin". Texas Monthly (Emmis Publishing). Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Seifert, Kevin (August 21, 2014). "New FXFL to begin play in October". ESPN.com (ESPN). Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Kaipust, Rich (October 9, 2014). "Omaha Mammoths bruise Boston Brawlers in FXFL's inaugural game". Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Morgan, Richard (October 25, 2014). "FXFL scores a new major sponsor from Nivea for Men". New York Post. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Kaipust, Rich (November 7, 2014). "Mammoths, Bolts to play for title; game in Omaha off". omaha.com (Omaha World-Herald). Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "FXFL satisfied with mini-season".
  12. ↑ Larivere, David (December 4, 2014). Developmental Football League Draws TV Contract, Major Sponsor in Inaugural Season. Forbes. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Kaipust, Rich (October 4, 2014). "FXFL to try adjusted rules". Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Wilner, Barry (June 21, 2014). "New developmental league launching in fall". AP.org (Associated Press). Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  15. ↑ Bukowski, Peter (July 7, 2014). "New league hoping to bring a true minor-league system to pro football". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 "In FXFL, Boston Brawlers keep NFL dreams alive". The Boston Globe. November 6, 2014. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
  17. ↑ Jason Marcum, Jason Marcum (June 21, 2014). "FXFL To Launch In October; NFL's answer to Developmental League?". Journal-News (Cox Media Group). Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Beaton, Andrew (October 7, 2014). "FXFL brings pro football back to Brooklyn". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  19. ↑ Delessio, Joe (October 20, 2014). FXFL: Football's new experiment. Sports on Earth. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
  20. ↑ Robichaud, David (November 7, 2014). Boston Brawlers, FXFL Players Hope For Shot At NFL. WBZ. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
  21. ↑ "FXFL games to be online on ESPN". espn.com (ESPN). AP. October 1, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  22. ↑ Heitner, Darren (October 1, 2014). "ESPN agrees to broadcast new FXFL football league". Forbes. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  23. ↑ "FXFL To Be Carried on ESPN3" (Press release). New York: FXFL. PR Newswire. October 1, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2014 – via NBC Right Now.
  24. ↑ "About the FXFL". fxfl.com. Fall Experimental Football League. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  25. ↑ Kasinitz, Aaron (June 24, 2014). "Experimental Football League founder Brian Woods explains interest in Portland". The Oregonian (Oregon Live). Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  26. ↑ Olson, Eric (October 16, 2014). FXFL offers fringe players a chance to get to NFL. Associated Press. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  27. ↑ Krupnick, Matt (October 17, 2014). "Latest Fledgling League Gives Players Another Run at the NFL". New York Times. p. B11. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  28. ↑ Bradley, Pat (October 25, 2014). "Joe Clancy, Blacktips fall to Boston Brawlers in FXFL matchup". Newburyport News. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
  29. ↑ "Brooklyn hands Mammoths first loss". Omaha World-Herald. October 24, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
  30. ↑ "Mammoths avert misery, steal victory at end". Omaha World-Herald. November 6, 2014. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
  31. ↑ "2014 FXFL television schedule". espn.com (ESPN). October 21, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2014.

External links