You may have noticed in a previous post, I talk about “rival” leagues. This is how I’ll be referring to leagues that emerged with the intention of equaling the status or reputation of the established major leagues. Specifically, I consider the following to be rival leagues:
- Federal League (baseball, 1914-1915)
- American Football League (1960-1969)
- American Basketball Association (1967-1976)
- World Hockey Association (1972-1979)
Each one of those from their founding was set up to either compete with or eventually merge with the established major sports league. And it’s so interesting how three of the four came around in the 60s and 70s (not to mention the threat of the Continental League in 1961 that spurred the AL and NL to expansion).
You might be wondering about the seemingly endless alternative (American) football leagues that have come up in the last 40 years: the USFL, the WLAF, the XFL, the AAF, the XFL version 2, the UFL, the USFL version 2, the XFL version 3, etc. I could be mistaken, but I don’t believe any of these leagues truly thought they could compete with the NFL (except for the USFL in 1986, but it folded before they could move from a spring schedule to a fall schedule). So I don’t count them as “rivals;” while I haven’t decided for sure yet, I may consider them “level 2” leagues, on par with AAA baseball, the American Hockey League, or USL Championship.
