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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Maybe you noticed the 15-second commercial during the Packers-Vikings game reminding us that spring football is coming.
Just a few years ago there were two spring football leagues: the XFL, bankrolled by the National Football League, and USFL, where outside businessmen own the teams. It turns out there is not enough interest in two spring football leagues. For 2025 the XFL and the USFL are merged into one. The United Football League, or UFL, wasn’t even mentioned by name in the TV commercial. The league’s name is unimportant. All that matters is that there’s more football after the Super Bowl.
What bothers me is that the federal government inserted its hand into the UFL. Because, of course, the government must be involved in everything. The Justice Department’s Anti-Trust Division got word to the NFL that it was concerned that the merger of the two spring football leagues was anti-competitive, and might be blocked through a federal lawsuit. That would have kept the leagues from combining and would have killed spring football for 2025. So how did the NFL avoid that? They asked the Justice Department to make suggestions. For instance: the Justice Department favored more teams than the current 8, they wanted to see more minority owners in the combined league, and the teams actually playing in the cities they represent. (The USFL, to save money, based all of their teams in Birmingham, Alabama last season). To allow the leagues to combine, the new UFL agreed to all of those terms.
That the government has an interest in spring football is ridiculous. This is a league where in-person attendance averaged around 10,000 people. Viewership for its championship game last year was about 1-million, compared to 122-million for the Super Bowl. This is small to the point of the feds regulating a school bake sale.
But, of course, the federal government gets involved in everything. They’re reviewing a possible merger of Jersey Mikes and Subway as anti-competitive. Of course you could choose to get a deli sandwich at Firehouse, or Panera, or Jimmy Johns, Erbert & Gerberts, or your favorite supermarket deli counter… or you could make one yourself.
Or the government blocking the Spirit-JetBlue airline merger. Instead, Spirit went bankrupt and everyone who bought its stock was wiped out.
The government’s involvement in everything in the business world is a breathtaking overreach. Remember that if you’re one of few people who watch spring football.
Chris Conley
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