Cuban Planning a New Pro Football League

Pittsburgh native, software multimillionaire, Dallas Mavericks owner and all-around loudmouth Mark Cuban let it slip a few days ago that he's a prospective owner in the United Football League, which would compete with the NFL.

Now, I'm part of the minority of sports fans who like Cuban. Sure, he's arrogant and highly opinionated, to say the least, but he's a passionate and dedicated member of what may be the stodgiest group of men in America - professional sports owners. He wants to win. He's not just interested in making money by spending as little as possible while ignoring perennial losing seasons, like a certain MLB ownership group I won't mention.

And Cuban offers up a halfway sane rationale: Because of the salary cap, there's a large chunk of pro-level players who are always scuffling for jobs, floating from team to team or landing roster spots by playing special-teams. This new league proposes to sweep a lot of this mid-to-late round and undrafted talent into its own bin, resulting in a somewhat low-caliber but still professional level of play.  

Still, I don't think this will pan out. Regarding second leagues in American history - many have tried, few have survived. The AFL, of course, survived and prospered, but that was a different era, when the NFL was much smaller, and when teams could be choosier about who they signed from the talent pool. The AFL took pains to separate itself from its older brother and added several reforms to the old-fashioned style of play predominant in the NFL at the time, like two-point conversions and open passing attacks. They were also fully racially-integrated, at a time when the NFL, though integrated on paper, still resisted letting "too many" black players on the field.  

Needless to say, the NFL has expanded to the point where there are few open spots left on the map, and probably not enough to fill eight billets. Los Angeles is probably the number-one target, but outside of that, it's hard to see where they can plant seven more franchises. Portland, Oregon? Sacramento? Virginia?

Which leads me to another problem: Unlike, say, Arena Football, which plays its games in the spring (along with its ridiculously-productive offenses, the main reason it survives), this new league would play its games on Friday nights, when most high-school teams play. So, right off the bat, you can mark off western Pennsylvania and Texas. (They wouldn't be stupid enough to compete with the Steelers, but San Antonio is probably tempting.) Ditto for most of the south and midwest, actually.

So, we have a league that plays on Friday nights in the fall (strike one), is entering a crowded market (strike two), and likely features no unique spin on professional football (strike three, you're out). None of the successfull "other" leagues (Arena, CFL, AFL) had so many things going against them.

Sorry Mark, you'd be better off trying to buy into an existing sports league. Like, say, in your hometown.