The United States Football League brings professional gridiron action back to Birmingham this weekend. And it’s not just the Birmingham Stallions who will have home field advantage at Protective Stadium.
All 40 regular season USFL games will be played in Birmingham, which has never happened before, said Gene Hallman, the president of the Bruno Event Team. “The first time in the history of professional football all 40 regular season games have been played in a single community,” he said. “And every single game will be nationally televised. Now roughly half are on network TV, and the other half on national cable television.”
Hallman said that the USFL will bring lots of national eyes to the Magic City, between the games and the vignettes that tell back stories behind the sports playing on the field. That, he said, “will be a tremendous platform for us to tell our story.”
The April 16 opener will also be a first - or nearly a first, Hallman said. “The first game… will have been simulcast on both NBC and Fox. The first time that a sporting event has been simulcast on two networks since Super Bowl I.”
The opening game will see the hometown Stallions taking on the New Jersey Generals in prime time - 7:30 p.m. That will kick off a 10 week regular season for the eight USFL teams. On Sunday, the Houston Gamblers will take on the Michigan Panthers at noon. The same day, the Philadelphia Stars will play the New Orleans Breakers at 4 p.m. The late game will be the Tampa Bay Bandits vs. Pittsburgh Maulers at 8 p.m.
Hallman said that he expects the USFL will be a major catalyst for bringing additional sports to the Birmingham metro, which is already set to host the World Games this summer.
