The eight teams of the rebooted USFL will carry the names of the original octet of franchises from 1983. Only one of them will be geographically accurate.
The Birmingham Stallions will play their home games in Birmingham. The rest of the league also will play their home games in Birmingham.
Via Roy S. Johnson of AL.com, USFL officials acknowledged earlier this week that, on January 25, the Fox-owned venture will announce that all 43 games for 2022 will be played in Birmingham, Alabama.
The approach eliminates all travel costs, an important consideration given that the primary purpose of the games will be to put them on TV, and to use them as the impetus for legal gambling in the states that allow it. Where the games will be played doesn’t matter. Whether anyone attends the games doesn’t matter.
What matters is that, after football season ends, gamblers will have football games on which to wager.
As noted by Johnson, the initial eight teams could begin playing games in the cities for which they are named. That obviously will depend on whether and to what extent the USFL generates sufficient revenue to justify those expenses.
NBC will televise 21 of the 43 USFL games played in 2022.
