Will Move to Fall Bring on the Fall of USFL?

Spring pro football, thrust upon the nation two years and five months ago, disappears in less than two weeks.

Cause of death: bad luck, bad management and public apathy.

The United States Football League was born as a spring diversion for diehard football fans. But after its conference finals this weekend and its championship game the following weekend, there will be no more spring football.

The league goes into hibernation for a year before re-starting in the autumn of 1986--the season football should be played, USFL owners now confess.

But at a time when major concerns should be Doug Flutie’s clavicle and Jim Kelly’s knee, it’s the health of the league itself that’s in doubt. In fact, there are major questions whether the USFL will ever make it to 1986.

In three years, by most estimates, the USFL has lost more than $150 million. Most of that money went to huge salaries, which increased payrolls, projected originally at $2 million to $3 million, to $5 million to $8 million a year.

Millions went to Flutie, Kelly, Herschel Walker, Mike Rozier and Steve Young, bona fide college stars lured away from the National Football League.

But large sums also went to NFL old timers or second stringers like Stan White, Greg Landry, Vince Evans, Ed Luther, Brian Sipe, Jim LeClair and Cliff Stoudt. Huge amounts also were paid to players who have been better prospects than performers -- examples are Allanda Smith, Mark Adickes, Gordon Hudson, Lupe Sanchez, Leonard Coleman and William Fuller.

Despite that, the league itself remains optimistic, although owners like Baltimore’s Myles Tanenbaum concede the USFL’s best hope for survival is a victory over the NFL in the $1.32 billion antitrust suit filed last fall.

“The USFL will remain a major force in professional sports,” said Commissioner Harry Usher. “USFL owners are committed to provide a high quality, competitive brand of professional football.”

“Eighty-six will bring new life for this league and certainly for this franchise,” says Bill Tatham Jr., owner of the Arizona Outlaws. Tatham estimated losses of $8 million this year for a team whose final game drew just 5,731 people to 70,021-seat Sun Devil Stadium.

In fact, nearly everything that happened to the USFL this year was bad:

--Attendance dropped in 11 of 14 USFL cities and the average per game was down almost 10 percent, from 27,272 last year to 24,452. Even teams that did well at the gate, Birmingham and Tampa Bay for example, announced attendance figures for some games that, after checks with the stadium authorities, appeared to be inflated.

As a result, playoff seedings are geared less to performance than attendance to, as league officials put it, “maximize the revenues.”

Denver, seeded third, plays at Memphis, seeded fifth, because the Showboats averaged 30,941 at home this season and the Gold just 14,519. And fourth-seeded New Jersey (41,268) may spend the playoffs at home--the championship game July 14 is at Giants Stadium and the league desperately needs the Generals there as a draw.

--As the league continues to search for a network contract for its switch to fall, television ratings continue to drop both on ABC and ESPN cable.

ABC’s final regular season ratings were 4.1, 25% less than last year’s final 5.5, which included the playoffs, and 33% worse than 1983’s 6.0. Some of that decline was attributable to the league’s move from major markets such as Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit.

During a 17-week span in 1984, ESPN dropped from 2.9 to 2.0, a 30% dive. Moreover, the cable network declined to televise the New Jersey-Baltimore game Monday night, turning down perhaps the most attractive matchup of the weekend to broadcast its replay of the Los Angeles Olympics.

--The size and shape of a league that always had an identification problem is very much in question. In three years, the USFL has gone from 12 teams to 18 to 14 with various mergers and dropouts, and played in 22 different locales under 31 different owners or combinations.

Tampa Bay and Denver, which threatened to pull out if the league switched to fall, now say they will stay but may move or merge with someone else rather than buck NFL franchises in their cities. Houston, which missed its last payroll, is in the same position--it may be sold and moved to Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., or Honolulu.

Los Angeles, which drew just 8,711 fans per game, is being run by the league and has been up for sale for the past year. San Antonio also missed payrolls and Birmingham had to be bailed out by the city.

“The scenery is wide open,” Usher said of next season’s format.

Moreover, many teams may have to rebuild from the top to the playing field when and if the USFL restarts.

Anticipating a year’s hiatus, teams have begun to trim front office personnel and assistant coaches. Many may have new jobs when fall play beings.

“Keeping our jobs for the next 12 months is a real problem around here, but we realize there’s lots of problems trying to move to the fall concept and buck the NFL,” said Pokey Allen, defensive coordinator of the Portland Breakers, who has moved with the team from Boston to New Orleans to Oregon.

“Most of the coaches would rather not switch to the fall. But the big revenues are in the fall, so it’s a situation we’ll have to live with, I guess.”

The USFL’s contract with its players’ union requires that 35 men be kept on each roster during the off-season and get paid starting in March. But some of the best may be gone.

Blue-chippers such as Rozier and Trumaine Johnson, signed during the first 18 months of the league’s existence, already have defected to the NFL. Other, such as Oakland quarterback Bobby Hebert, may soon follow.

Lesser-known players, who have proven their worth in the new league, are also moving on. An example is New Jersey fullback Maurice Carthon, who will join the New York Giants in July.

Primarily because of the lawsuit, NFL teams have announced few USFL signings, but once the spring season ends, there may be a spate of them.

In the long run, the future of the USFL may hinge on the courts, the willingness of owners to continue signing checks and the persistence of players, who might otherwise be unemployed.

“I don’t want to leave Texas,” said Houston’s Gerald McNeil, who grew up in that state and played at Baylor. “But they play with the same football in every state.”