Event Date: August 27th, 1989
Event Description: Spring Hopes
Source: Sun Sentinel (UPI)
No one could be happier about the delay of the international football league than David Dixon, the gadfly entrepreneur who helped found the USFL.
The announcement that Commissioner Tex Schramm's World League of American Football had slipped its inaugural date from 1990 to 1991 gives Dixon's latest venture life.
Dixon has been trying to negotiate a $40 million television contract to support a 10-team league he quaintly calls America's Football Teams.
And, he said, he had almost completed a deal with a cable network this spring when news about the NFL's international league broke.
Dixon's deal dried up fast.
Now, it's a race again.
"I knew Tex would never get that thing going this year," Dixon laughed. "Everything was so hurried. It's now clear that they didn't know very much about European stadiums and the fact that many of the spectators have to stand up.
"Gee, if Tex had called me, I could have told him that. It took him months to figure it out. My son and I made a tour of European stadiums last year and we figured it out in two weeks. It won't work. No one wants to stand up for a three-hour football game."
"I still give us only a 50-50 chance of getting this new league going," he said. "We still have to get a TV contract and the influence of the NFL in television is everywhere."
Dixon won't identify the network with whom he is negotiating, but said it's a cable station and that it isn't Turner or ESPN.
Anyone could have guessed it wasn't ESPN, whose contract with the NFL is up after this year. The NFL wouldn't be too delighted if ESPN was also broadcasting a rival league's games in the spring.
"We're just going to go ahead as much as we can," Dixon said. "They've tried to cripple us with the announcement they wanted to start up in 1990, but we still have a good chance of getting America's Football Teams off the ground.
"Basically, things have been in a state of suspension since this international league talk got going."
Dixon envisions an 8- to 10-team league with the league controlling spending. Corporations or financial institutions would produce startup capital, then sell majority ownership to the fans.
"I'm estimating we'll need about $6 million per team annually to run a club," Dixon said.No one could be happier about the delay of the international football league than David Dixon, the gadfly entrepreneur who helped found the USFL.
The announcement that Commissioner Tex Schramm's World League of American Football had slipped its inaugural date from 1990 to 1991 gives Dixon's latest venture life.
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