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United Football League (2024)
The United Football League (UFL) is a professional American football minor league scheduled to start play in March 2024. The league was created following the merger of the XFL and USFL. Background In 2017, Vince McMahon, who had previously launched the XFL in 2001 as a partnership with NBC Sports, registered a trademark for the United Football League name. An unrelated United Football League, founded by Bill Hambrecht, had played four abbreviated seasons from 2009 to 2012. McMahon ultimately did not use the UFL trademark, as response to the ESPN Films '' 30 for 30'' documentary "This Was the XFL" in 2017 showed that the XFL brand was still viable, and in February 2020, McMahon relaunched the XFL with a similar business structure (though, unlike the 2001 XFL, operated as a sole proprietorship of McMahon's separate from his professional wrestling corporation, WWE) and an emphasis on speed and innovation. The XFL, which was largely successful with its attendance and televisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2024 UFL Season
The 2024 UFL season will be the first season of the United Football League (UFL), which was created following the merger of the XFL and USFL, and the fifth in the combined history of the two leagues, following the 2020 XFL season, 2022 USFL season, and separate 2023 seasons for each league. The season will begin on March 30, 2024, with a matchup between the 2023 XFL champion Arlington Renegades and the 2023 USFL champion Birmingham Stallions. Offseason Pre-merger USFL On June 27, 2023, USFL President of Football Operations Daryl Johnston initially confirmed in an interview that the league would return for the 2024 season. USFL average viewership in 2023 was down 16% from its debut season to 601,000 and 3% lower than the 2023 XFL season, despite having 28 over-the-air network games compared to eight for the XFL. The championship game also saw a significant decline in viewership from 2022 as the game averaged 1.2 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, and NBC Sports digital platfo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and the highest professional level of American football in the world. Each NFL season begins with a three-week preseason in August, followed by the 18-week regular season which runs from early September to early January, with each team playing 17 games and having one bye week In sport, a bye is the preferential status of a player or team that is automatically advanced to the next round of a tournament, without having to play an opponent in an early round. In knockout (elimination) tournaments they can be granted eit .... Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference (four division winners and three wild card teams) advance to the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
30 For 30
''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series under the ''ESPN Films Presents'' title in 2011–2012, and a series of ''30 for 30 Shorts'' shown through the ESPN.com website. The series has also expanded to include ''Soccer Stories'', which aired in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and audio podcasts. Background The idea for the series began in 2007 from ESPN.com columnist and Grantland.com founder Bill Simmons and ESPN's Connor Schell. The title, ''30 for 30'', derived from the series's genesis as 30 films in celebration of ESPN's 30th anniversary in 2009, with an exploration of the biggest stories from ESPN's first 30 years on-air, through a series of 30 one-hour films by 30 filmmakers. Volume I premiered in October 2009 and ran through December 2010, chronicling 30 stories from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ESPN Films
ESPN Films, formerly known as ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE), is an American production company which produces and distributes sports films and documentaries. It is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). Created in March 2008, ESPN Films produces films covering sports-related stories. Projects from the subsidiary include ''30 for 30'' (and its offshoots ''30 for 30: Soccer Stories'' and the digital series ''30 for 30 Shorts''), the critically acclaimed ''Nine for IX'' series and ''SEC Storied''. History ESPN Films traces its history to 2001, when ESPN Inc. formed ESPN Original Entertainment, a programming division which produced various talk shows, series, documentaries and made-for-TV films that aired on ESPN and its related networks. The subsidiary ceased operations for several months starting in 2007. The company's logo did not appear as a vanity car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2009 UFL Season
The 2009 United Football League season -- referred to by the professional American football league as the ''UFL Premiere Season''—was the inaugural season of the United Football League. The regular season featured 4 teams playing 6 games each (twice against each of the other teams), and both began and ended at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Sam Boyd Stadium was the site of the 2009 UFL Championship Game on November 27, a game that saw the Locomotives defeat the previously unbeaten Florida Tuskers 20–17 in overtime. Pre-season and off-field preparations Preparations for the UFL Premiere Season kicked off in the summer with player signings and a draft. Training camps for the players began on September 9 in Casa Grande, Arizona for the Western teams and September 10 in Orlando, Florida for the Eastern teams. The league announced its game schedule in the first week of August, a schedule that features games in teams' primary cities as well as secondary sites (a few of which are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Hambrecht
William R. Hambrecht (born 1935) is an American investment banker and chairman of WR Hambrecht + Co which he founded in 1998. He helped persuade Google to use an Internet-based auction for their initial public offering (IPO) in 2004, instead of a more traditional method using banks and other financial companies to find buyers. He is credited with popularizing this "OpenIPO" model, using Dutch auctions to allow anyone, not just investing insiders, to buy stock in an IPO, potentially raising more money for startups. Some of the companies he has helped have an IPO like this include Overstock.com, Ravenswood Winery, Andover.net and Salon.com. Hambrecht is also credited as one of the first major investment bankers to recognize the value of technology and biotech companies, helping to take Apple Computer, Genentech and Adobe Systems public in the 1980s with his earlier San Francisco-based company Hambrecht & Quist, which he founded in 1968 and which also backed the IPOs of Netscape, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Football League (2009–2012)
The United Football League (UFL) was a professional American football minor league based in the United States that began play in October 2009 and played four seasons, the final one being cut short in October 2012. The small league, which never had more than five teams playing at one time, played most of its games in markets where the National Football League (NFL) had no current presence. Unlike most alternative professional football leagues since the 1980s, the UFL played all of its games in the traditional fall season, competing directly with the NFL, college football, and high school football. The UFL occupied the second tier of professional football in the United States, behind the National Football League.Destroyers and UFL back for another go ''WAV ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others. The trademark owner can be an individual, business organization, or any legal entity. A trademark may be located on a package, a label, a voucher, or on the product itself. Trademarks used to identify services are sometimes called service marks. The first legislative act concerning trademarks was passed in 1266 under the reign of Henry III of England, requiring all bakers to use a distinctive mark for the bread they sold. The first modern trademark laws emerged in the late 19th century. In France, the first comprehensive trademark system in the world was passed into law in 1857. The Trade Marks Act 1938 of the United Kingdom changed the system, permitting registration based on "intent-to-use", creating an examination based process, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its dedicated national sports cable channels. Formerly operating as "a service of NBC News", it broadcasts a diverse array of sports events, including Major League Baseball, the French Open, the Premier League, the IndyCar Series, NASCAR, the National Football League (NFL), Notre Dame Fighting Irish football, Notre Dame Fighting Irish college football, the Olympic Games, professional golf,the Tour de France and Thoroughbred racing, among others. Other programming from outside producers – such as coverage of the Ironman Triathlon – is also presented on the network through NBC Sports. With Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, its own cable sports networks were aligned with NBC Sports into a part of the division known as the NBC Spo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
XFL (2001)
The XFL was a professional American football league that played its only season in 2001. The XFL was operated as a joint venture between the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and NBC. The XFL was conceived as an outdoor football league that would begin play immediately after the National Football League season ended, to take advantage of the perceived lingering public desire to watch football after the NFL and college football seasons conclude. It was promoted as having fewer rules to encourage rougher play than other major leagues, while its telecasts featured sports entertainment elements inspired by professional wrestling (and in particular, the WWF's then-current "Attitude Era"), including heat (wrestling), heat and kayfabe, and suggestively-dressed cheerleaders. Commentary crews also featured WWF commentators (such as Jesse Ventura, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler) joined by sportscasters and veteran football players. Despite the wrestling influence, the games and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy McMahon (; born August 24, 1945) is an American media proprietor and retired professional wrestling promoter, executive, and performer. From 1982 to 2022, he served as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling company, of which he is still majority owner and wields the majority of voting power. He is also the founder and owner of Alpha Entertainment. Born in Pinehurst, North Carolina, McMahon graduated from East Carolina University with a degree in business in 1968 and began his tenure in professional wrestling as a commentator for the then-World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) for most of the 1970s; McMahon bought the company from his father, Vincent J. McMahon, in 1982 and almost monopolized the industry, which previously operated as separate entities across the United States. This led to the development of the annual WrestleMania, which became one of the most successful professional wrestling events. W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minor League Football (gridiron)
Minor league football is a loose term for pro football (gridiron) which is played below the major league level (also known as ''Secondary Football'' or ''Alternative Football''). There is a major league designation to the National Football League (American football) and the Canadian Football League (Canadian football), but contrary to the other major sports in North America (MLB, MLS, NBA and NHL) no formal development farm system is in use, after the NFL severed ties with all minor league teams in 1948, and again with the cancellation of NFL Europe in 2006. Since 2018 the CFL has a partnership agreement with the Professional American Football League of Mexico (LFA) for player development, but do not consider it as a minor league in the traditional sense. There have been professional football leagues of varying levels since the invention of the sport, and over the years there was an attempt to organize a development or farm leagues such as the Association of Professional Foo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
