David Dixon, founder of the vanquished USFL, is attempting toform a new spring football league comprised of "fan owned" franchisesin Chicago and seven other cities.
Dixon, a New Orleans businessman who headed a committee effortto acquire the Saints franchise and to build the Superdome, said hisproposed America's Football Teams, Inc. is "very close" to securing atelevision contract and to awarding franchises here and in New York,Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Dallas and Tampa.
The teams would be formed with "founding owners" who wouldinvest $2 million each, Dixon said. Fans would be allowed to buy "stock" in the teams through their ticket purchases, he said.
Players in the AFT would play for a percentage of gross gatereceipts rather than fixed salaries and non-player costs would be paid from television revenues, hesaid.
Dixon, who no longer is affiliated with the USFL, has targetedMarch for the start of his proposed league's play.
"We have three separate groups (in Chicago) who are veryinterested," Dixon said while declining to identify them. "All threeare reasonably well known. They are business people but they havehad connections to sports in the past."
Dixon said he would be "making a decision in the next two tothree weeks" on a Chicago owner.
He said he will complete negotiations "in the next few days" ona television package involving a national cable outlet and somesyndication. "We didn't expect to get any of the three networks but I think we'll have network exposure in our second year," he said.
The latest football league proposal comes on the heels of lastmonth's federal jury decision rejecting the USFL allegation that theNFL monopolized television football rights. The decision left theUSFL without the multi-million dollar judgment it needed to survive.
The USFL announced soon afterward it would not play its fallschedule this year and its owners subsequently released theirplayers.
Dixon insists his new proposal would not suffer the USFL's fate.
"If you really look carefully and intelligently at the USFL,you'll find in the first two seasons it averaged 26,000 attendance inthe face of a no blackout television agreement," Dixon said.
"You can't sell what you're willing to give away free. If theUSFL had a sensible blackout policy, I think it could have averaged40,000 those years.
"Also, it averaged a 6 rating on ABC-TV, and that's pretty good. It's a profitable level for the network and very acceptable foradvertisers. The USFL was really a success story. They justdidn't know how to handle it."
Dixon said he will not start the AFT unless he first secures atelevision contract, then will bring in owners "who want to build theleague slowly. And we want owners with a totally unselfish attitudetoward the public."
He said fan ownership would come about as tickets are purchased,with a portion of the ticket costs giving the buyer a kind of stockwarrant, or right to buy a share.
Dixon said he has a "multi-million dollar" advertising budget topromote the league, adding "when we're in the ring with the NFL, wewon't stand by and be punched. We'll punch back."
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