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The United States Football League (USFL) kicks off on April 16. While the NFL reigns supreme in terms of North American football, upstart leagues like the USFL and the XFL continue to jockey for positions behind the NFL, hoping to offer football fans a different product.
One of the biggest reasons that the NFL is king is the corporate sponsorships, television network contracts, and ticket sales. In turn, this allows the league to pay its players big money. With a direct feed from the NCAA's very best college football athletes, the NFL is in a prime position to hire elite football athletes.
USFL Salaries:
For the USFL, the rebooted league needs to work its way up from the bottom, winning over fans and potential football athletes alike. For this reason, salary structure is one aspect of growing the USFL. According to USFL News, the pay structure is simple and uniform: Every player has the same base salary: each player receives $4,500 per week if they are on an active roster, $1,500 per week if they are on a practice squad, and $600 per week if they are at training camp.
The USFL pay structure also includes bonuses for teams that win and teams that win the championship. Victory bonuses are $850 per win, and the championship bonus is $10,000. Players on both the active roster and practice squad of a team will receive a victory bonus for each win. Additionally, any player injured, suspended, or inactive will not be eligible for the bonus, as decided by the USFL.
Potentially, an active player on a team that goes undefeated (there are 12 total weeks in a USFL season, including 2 weeks that make up the playoffs) would potentially receive 11 victory bonuses, 12 weeks of being on the active roster, plus four weeks of training camp, and the championship bonus: this amount totals to $75,750 for that player in this scenario.
The USFL League kicks off with eight founding teams
In a rebrand of the defunct USFL from the early 1980s, the 2022 USFL will have eight inaugural teams. The team names will use the previous USFL team names. The entire season will play at one site at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. The semifinal games and championship game will be played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio.
The 2022 USFL team names are as follows:
Birmingham Stallions
Houston Gamblers
Michigan Panthers
New Jersey Generals
New Orleans Breakers
Philadelphia Stars
Pittsburgh Maulers
Tampa Bay Bandits
Former Dallas Cowboys fullback Daryl Johnston is the executive vice president of football operations, and Fox Sports (National Football League Enterprises Co, LLC) currently owns the USFL.
