Last week the news broke that the USFL was in talks with the city of Birmingham, Al to host their 2022 season. Since then things have been moving fast on both sides. Earlier this week the parties struct a tentative agreement to host the season, with the hopes to have everything finalized by the 22nd.
Today we have some more news to report. Roy S. Johnson of AL.com reports that the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau have become the first entity to make a financial commitment to host the first USFL season.
The Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau became the first entity to make a commitment to financially support hosting the first season of the new Fox Sports-owned USFL in Birmingham. At a special call meeting of its board of directors Thursday, the CVB voted to contribute up to $2 million towards costs associated with hosting the eight teams in the city for 12 weeks in the spring of 2022.
The Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center (BJCC) estimates that it will cost $3,666.960 to host the full season in the city.
The BJCC estimates costs to be $3,666.960 to host the league in a “bubble-like format. The breakdown includes weekly overhead ($1,019,600), weekly game day staffing (1,436,150), weekly services provided by the City of Birmingham (635,800), and equipment and labor for field conversions ($1,091,500).
Johnson also reports that the vote came after FOX representatives presented key components of the network’s proposal to the CVB board.
They [Fox Sports] thought [Birmingham] would be a perfect fit,” he said, “a perfect combination.”
Fox is not seeking any incentive,” Davis told the board. “No money goes to Fox or the league. Any pledges [from stakeholders] will go to the BJCC to have operational costs secured in case they have a loss.”
Another interesting tidbit hidden near the end is that FOX said that it was possible that the USFL may host as many as four teams in Birmingham for its second season, with the goal of having as many as four others moved to their home city. By the third season the league hopes to have all the teams in their respective cities.
This tells us a few things. First, the league seems to have a plan in place. Two, it looks like it’s going to be a slow rollout before all the teams are spread across the country.
What do you think of this approach? Do you plan on tuning into the USFL in 2022? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
