| Revision as of 14:02, 17 October 2014 edit66.52.208.193 (talk)No edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 18:07, 17 October 2014 edit undo66.52.208.193 (talk) →2014 SeasonNext edit → | ||
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| ;Wednesday, October 8: Boston 18 at <u>Omaha 41</u> (attendance: est. |
;Wednesday, October 8: Boston 18 at <u>Omaha 41</u> (attendance: est. 3,000) <ref>Kaipust, Rich (October 8, 2014). . ''Omaha World-Herald''. Retrieved October 16, 2014.</ref> | ||
| ;Wednesday, October 15: Blacktips 19 at <u>Omaha 20</u> (attendance: est. |
;Wednesday, October 15: Blacktips 19 at <u>Omaha 20</u> (attendance: est. 1,500)<ref>Olson, Eric (October 16, 2014). . ''Associated Press''. Retrieved October 16, 2014.</ref> | ||
| ;Wednesday, October 15: Boston 20 at <u>Brooklyn 27</u> (attendance: |
;Wednesday, October 15: Boston 20 at <u>Brooklyn 27</u> (attendance: 1,939)<ref name=nydn1016>Tasch, Justin (October 16, 2014). . ''New York Daily News''. Retrieved October 16, 2014.</ref> | ||
| ==Footnotes== | ==Footnotes== | ||
Revision as of 18:07, 17 October 2014
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| File:FXFL Logo.png | |
| Sport | American football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 |
| First season | 2014 |
| CEO | Brian Woods |
| No. of teams | 4 |
| Country | United States |
| TV partner(s) | ESPN 3 Soul of the South Network |
| Official website | www.fxfl.com |
The Fall Experimental Football League is a minor professional football league that began play on October 8, 2014. It was founded in May of 2014 by Brian Woods, a sports lawyer. This league is the latest to attempt to be a feeder system for the National Football League.
Woods was quoted as saying about the new league: "Our long-term goal is to establish a partnership with the NFL and we feel can do that on many platforms. It would give them a way to work with younger players that they don't currently have. We can help them train prospective NFL officials - in the NBA, every referee entering the league (in recent years) comes from NBA Developmental League. We can be a testing ground for proposed rules, too." The league has an agreement with the NFL to use officials from the elder league's training academy for FXFL games. If the FXFL were to succeed in establishing a formal partnership with the NFL, it would be the fifth such time the NFL has established a partnership with a minor league (counting the Association of Professional Football Leagues of the 1940s, the Atlantic Coast Football League in the 1960s, NFL Europe of the 1990s and 2000s, and the NFL-owned teams in the Arena Football League prior to 2008).
Mission statement
"The FXFL is a professional developmental football league that serves as a platform for the development of players, coaches and referees and provides high quality professional football at an affordable price in family-oriented venues. The FXFL employs advanced technologies to offer fans a truly interactive game day experience."
Rule differences
As its name implies, the league plans on adopting several experimental rule changes differing from those at other levels of the game.
- Extra points will be attempted from the 17-yard line, as opposed to the 2- and 3-yard lines at other levels of the game. (The NFL experimented with a similar rule in its 2014 preseason with a 20-yard extra point.)
- Kickoffs will be administered from the kicking team's 25-yard line, as opposed to the 35-yard line used in college and the NFL. In addition, eight players on the receiving team must line up between the kicking team's 35-yard and 45-yard line. Once a kickoff passes the 45 yard line, fielding rules become similar to punts in that the kicking team will not be allowed to recover and regain possession.
- Field goals must be attempted from outside the hash marks.
- Games will be played on Wednesday nights to avoid competition with high school football (Friday and Saturday), college football (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) and the NFL (Thursday, Sunday and Monday).
- Players do not have their names on the back of their jerseys.
Initial plans for the league had all kicking removed, but this proposal was scrapped prior to the start of the season.
Finances
Each team will employ 40 players on their roster, with a base salary of $1000 per game and a maximum potential payout of $1250 per game. The league is primarily recruiting those who have recently left college and who are still in college but no longer eligible to play under NCAA rules; it estimated that the vast majority of its players came from those cut from the most recent NFL training camps, and it has expressly rejected hiring veteran players that are near the end of their professional careers. The league is operating under a budget of $8,000,000 for the first season and expects to be able to be viable with 4,000 to 5,000 fans in the stands for each game. In the long term, the FXFL does not expect to be profitable without official NFL support.
The Brooklyn Bolts (a team owned by the New York Mets baseball club, through its Brooklyn Cyclones subsidiary) and Boston Brawlers are independently owned. The Blacktips and Omaha Mammoths are league owned and operated.
Broadcasting
The FXFL will have their inaugural games televised on ESPN3, the online portal of ESPN Inc. The league also claims partnerships with Sportsnet New York and New England Sports Network for regional coverage. The broadcast deals provide no guaranteed revenue to the league but does offer a share of advertising revenue; it is not known if the league has to pay for production expenses or airtime as the UFL had to do.
Teams
| Team | City | Stadium (capacity) | Debut season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Brawlers | Boston, Massachusetts | Harvard Stadium | 2014 |
| Brooklyn Bolts | Brooklyn, New York | MCU Park | 2014 |
| Blacktips | No home city | Traveling team | 2014 |
| Omaha Mammoths | Omaha, Nebraska | TD Ameritrade Park Omaha | 2014 |
The Florida Blacktips changed their name to simply 'Blacktips' after announcing on September 22, 2014 that the team would only play a three-game road schedule.
Future teams
Teams that were originally on the list, but will not play in 2014
2014 Season
| Current Standings | ||||||||||
| Team | Wins | Losses | Ties | PCT | PF | PA | Net Points | Home | Road | Streak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 27 | 20 | 7 | 1-0 | - | W1 |
| Blacktips | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 19 | 20 | -1 | - | 0-1 | L1 |
| Boston | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | 38 | 68 | -30 | - | 0-2 | L2 |
| Omaha | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 61 | 37 | 24 | 2-0 | - | W2 |
- Wednesday, October 8
- Boston 18 at Omaha 41 (attendance: est. 3,000)
- Wednesday, October 15
- Blacktips 19 at Omaha 20 (attendance: est. 1,500)
- Wednesday, October 15
- Boston 20 at Brooklyn 27 (attendance: 1,939)
Footnotes
- Coming soon: A professional developmental football league that just may succeed, Tony Grossi, ESPNCleveland.com, May 23, 2014
- New Pro Football Launch May Eventually Serve As NFL's D League, David Lariviere, Forbes.com, May 7, 2014
- Plan Announced to Create Developmental Football League, Mike Chiari, The Bleacher Report, May 23, 2014
- Coming soon: A professional developmental football league that just may succeed, Tony Grossi, ESPNCleveland.com, May 23, 2014
- Report: FXFL wants to “establish a partnership with the NFL”, Mike Wilkening, NBCSports.com, June 20, 2014
- Time is right for minor league football, Kevin Seifert, ESPN.com, June 4, 2014
- New league hoping to bring a true minor-league system to pro football, Peter Bukowski, Sports Illustrated/SI.com, July 7, 2014
- Upstart FXFL Aims To Be Supplemental League For NFL Franchises, Sports Business Daily, July 8, 2014
- Peter Bukowski: ‘FXFL Could Be Low-Risk Venture For NFL’, CBS Sports Network, July 9, 2014
- Could the FXFL be the developmental league the NFL needs?, James Brady, SBNation.com, July 9, 2014
- FXFL To Launch In October; NFL's answer to Developmental League?, Jason Marcum, Journal-News.com, June 21, 2014
- ^ Kaipust, Rich (October 4, 2014). FXFL to try adjusted rules. Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
- The FXFL is set to debut this fall: Are you ready for some minor league football?, Lester A. Wiltfong Jr., Windy City Gridiron at SBNation.com, May 21, 2014
- ^ New football league coming soon: no kickers allowed
- ^ Tasch, Justin (October 16, 2014). Brooklyn Bolts win opener in Coney Island, top Boston Brawlers 27-20. New York Daily News. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
- Kaipust, Rich (October 4, 2014). Ready or not, Mammoths and FXFL are returning pro football to Omaha. Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
- ^ Inside slant: FXFL set to debut, ready or not. ESPN.com. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
- Beaton, Andrew (October 2014). FXFL brings pro football back to Brooklyn. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
- Developmental Football League Signs Deal With ESPN, Jim McCoy, theDove website, October 1, 2014
- Heitner, Darren (October 1, 2014). ESPN agrees to broadcast new FXFL football league. Forbes. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
- FXFL Blacktips Become Travel Team, Jackson Scofield, Sportsblog/Sportsblog.com, September 22, 2014
- More football in Portland?, Matt Rauch, Portland State Vanguard, July 1, 2014
- Experimental Football League founder Brian Woods explains interest in Portland, Aaron Kasinitz, The Oregonian/OregonLive.com, June 24, 2014
- New FXFL minor league football is coming to Austin this fall, Ryan Lakich, Culture Map Austin, June 22, 2014
- The NFL-Style Developmental Football League Launching This Fall Will Base Its Texas Team in Austin, Dan Solomon, Texas Monthly, June 20, 2014
- Kaipust, Rich (October 8, 2014). Omaha Mammoths bruise Boston Brawlers in FXFL's inaugural game. Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
- Olson, Eric (October 16, 2014). FXFL offers fringe players a chance to get to NFL. Associated Press. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
Further reading
- Matt Krupnick, "Latest Fledgling League Gives Players Another Run at the NFL," New York Times, Oct. 16, 2014. Print version: Oct. 17, 2014, pg. B11.