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Hey, fine folks of AHSports! I need some help. I stumbled upon this article:
It got me thinking about a world where a league like this come to fruition. Here's what I was thinking:
The year is 2072. And the past 50 years have been pretty interesting for American football.
In 2029, after losing fans to the XFL3 and their NFL deal, the USFL2 just fizzled out and FOX killed it a la NFL Europe.
In 2034, the Los Angeles Chargers moved back to San Diego. (*UrinatingTree voice* "#### you, Spanos.")
In 2041, the XFL3 finally made it into the NFL. The teams were accommodated like so:
Arlington Renegades → Memphis Pharaohs
Houston Roughnecks → Oklahoma Roughnecks
Vegas Vipers → Utah Vipers
Orlando Guardians → Orlando Guardians
St. Louis BattleHawks → St. Louis Archers
San Antonio Brahmas → San Antonio Bulls
Seattle Sea Dragons → Portland Dragons
DC Defenders → Birmingham Kings
AFCE: +ORL
AFCN: +IND
AFCS: +MEM, +OKL, -IND
AFCW: +UTA
NFCE: +BIR
NFCN: +STL
NFCS: +SA
NFCW: +POR
And that was how football was for 30 years. Though NFL expansion was more than likely done at 40 teams, more competitors popped up, from the second Alliance of American Football to the Federal Football League to a slightly better-performing Major League Football. Each hoped to become a dedicated minor league. None lasted more than two seasons.
That is until now. In 2072, a new football league emerged promising to change football from the ground up, rather than the top down. And so far, it seems to have succeeded. This is the story of the [name of league redacted for now].
So, what do you think? Do you like the XFL3 merger? Should I change any of the cities? Or just stick with 32 teams? Oh, and don't worry, medical advancements would allow for a minor league to co-exist with a 40-team NFL.
Last edited by Mathemortician (10/27/2022 9:13 pm)
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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE
Here's where I'm at:
I'm leaning towards just setting this in a not-as-distant future where the XFL3 and USFL2 are both no más. The focused-upon league will be mostly like the one in the blog post, with some updates to accommodate things like the Raiders moving to Las Vegas and personal preferences for markets (Sorry, Greenville).
So what do you guys think of this?
Atlantic Conference
Northern Division: Columbus, Grand Rapids, Hartford, Milwaukee, Quad Cities, Rochester
Southern Division: Birmingham, Louisville, Memphis, Norfolk, Orlando, Raleigh
Pacific Conference
Eastern Division: Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Omaha, San Antonio, Shreveport, St. Louis
Western Division: Albuquerque, Boise, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego
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I have the names, which I am keeping secret. Currently working on the colors, which will also be secret.
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You have a good start here. The idea is there, and frankly, write something that interests you, that will likely lead to a better series, and this seems to be something you are interested in. Also, just make sure you are going off on enough of a tangent from your source of inspiration, don't want to just rip what they are doing, but it sounds like you do have a new set of names and colours coming anyways.
I think the one question, overall, is, what makes this league different? You mentioned how it was building from the ground up instead of top-down, what does that mean? If that is the case, why are there 20 teams? Is this the first season of your league or is it pre-established?
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Wallflower wrote:
snip
Basically, this league will focus on grassroots growth instead of lucrative broadcast deals. I've changed the lore so that it took 30 years (and a bequeathing to the originator's next of kin) to make this league a reality. I made this change so a Dixon-esque plan could have more time to come together.
The league functions more like 4 leagues with an agreement, with each team playing 12 games, 10 against the 5 in its division, and 2 against a team in the other division of the conference. This helps save on travel costs. The league also realizes that they're not gonna draw big crowds, so to make sure games don't feel empty, they mostly play in high school and college venues... for now.
The league wants to be known as a league you can have fun going to see a game live. With the NFL, you have to shell out a bunch to a scalping company, drive through awful traffic to get the stadium on the outskirts, and pay another bunch for concessions.
On the other hand, this league promotes tailgating, has affordable concessions, and hopes to one day get their own AAA baseball-sized stadiums inside city limits.
Anyway, gonna post the names and colors tomorrow.
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Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on the teams and colors of the Grassroots Football League!
Oh yeah, the league's called Grassroots Football League. Or GFL, for short.
Last edited by Mathemortician (11/02/2022 7:20 am)