Former NFL Competitor USFL Raising $30 Million To Relaunch In 2013 (WWE)

Do you remember the old United States Football League, or the USFL?  It’s back, or it least it is trying to be brought back to life.  This is the league that competed against the NFL from 1983 to 1987 and its stars were Jim Kelly, Steve Young, Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie, and others.  Donald Trump even owned a team called the New Jersey Generals.  If a planned capital raise comes to fruition, the USFL may be back as soon as 2013.

It was in February of this year that EndZone Sports Management in San Diego announced that it had acquired The United States Football League, LLC (USFL).  When it announced the acquisition, the firm said in the press release that it was planning to relaunch the league in the Spring of 2013.

A FORM D was filed with the SEC on Thursday by the United States Football League, LLC looking to raise up to $30 million and the offering is listed as an equity offering.  So you may have read that the league intends to start back up, but now you know how much the league intends to raise to get off the ground.  This offering is also called a new notice and it was noted that the first sale is yet to occur.  Will this capital raise assure that the season will launch in 2013?  That is probably dependent upon too many issues to give a solid yes/no answer and we are awaiting comment from EndZone Sports Management.

The “use of proceeds” noted that $925,000 was being used for payments to any of the persons required to be named as executive officers, directors or promoters.  It should be no surprise that this filing noted “no revenues” considering that it has no current operations.

The USFL’s goal here is take football to more of a year-round event rather than just August to January.  As a reminder, this is not the first time around the block for the USFL.  It is also not the first competition for the NFL.  There was the experiment of the XFL from World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: WWE) founder Vince McMahon, but that effort lasted only one season.  There is still today the Arena Football League as well, and even an Independent Women’s Football League. And can we forget about the Lingerie Football League?

Will the USFL do better, and can it thrive?  It probably all depends upon its finances, what sort of rules and players it has, and ultimately on the overall attitude toward football by the time 2013 gets here. A little luck always help too.

JON C. OGG