The USFL and XFL are merging. If/when the deal is finalized, the combined spring leagues will pivot toward spreading equity beyond those who currently own the two operations.
Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, former Fox Sports executive vice president Larry Jones (who still serves a consultant to Fox) mentioned during a Columbia sports management conference that, in three years, the unified spring league will “go out to sell teams.”
Fox owns the USFL, and a group led by Dany Garcia and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson own the XFL. It’s unclear what the combined league will look like, who will own it, how many teams it will have, where the games will be played, and which networks will televise the games.
The far more important question is whether one spring league will fare better together than two did individually. While they each survived, neither created the impression that it thrived.