The World Football League (WFL) was a disastrous attempt to set up a fall-season rival to the National Football League (NFL) in the mid-1970’s. It opened to much fanfare in July of 1974, but was soon undone by scandal and financial issues.
The Philadelphia Bell were one of twelve original franchises in the World Football League in 1974. The Bell made several efforts to poach high profile stars and draft picks from the National Football League during their brief lifespan. But the team was best known for “Papergate”, an attendance reporting and accounting scandal that helped to demolish the fledgling WFL’s credibility barely than a month into its debut season.
The Baltimore Elite Giants got their start in Nashville, before moving to Columbus, Ohio for one year, then to Washington, D.C. They moved down the road in Baltimore in 1938 and played there until 1950, before spending their final season back in Tennessee.
The original Winnipeg Jets were charter members of the WHA in 1972. They moved to the NHL in 1979, along with three other WHA squads. In 1995, they were sold and moved to Phoenix for the 1996-97 hockey season. The name was revived when the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Manitoba in 2011 and assumed the Jets name but not their history.
The Atlantic City Surf were one of the six original franchises in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. The Atlantic League was (and remains) the most ambitious league to arise out of the independent baseball boom of the 1990’s. The Surf played at the Sandcastle, a 5,900-seat ballpark built on the grounds of Atlantic City’s municipal airport, Bader Field. The stadium was built with $11.5 million in Casino Reinvestment Development Authority funds and $3 million in taxpayer bonds.
Major League Soccer (1996-1999) Born: June 15, 1994 – MLS founding franchise Re-Branded: October 27, 1999 (San Jose Earthquakes) First Game: April 6, 1996 (W 1-0 vs. D.C. United) Last Game: October 6, 1999 (W1-0 vs Kansas City Wizards) MLS Cup Championships: None (during Clash era) Stadium: Spartan Stadium (26,000) Team Colors: Cloudy Jade,
The Kansas City Command was a short-lived revival, after a two-year absence, of an earlier and far more popular Arena Football League franchise known as the Kansas City Brigade.
The American Basketball Association (ABA) was formed in 1967 as a competitor to the established National Basketball Association (NBA). It started with 11 teams, and within a few years was angling for a merger with the older league. In 1976, the NBA took in four ABA teams, while three other surviving teams disbanded.
The Birmingham Barracudas were the final American expansion team awarded during the Canadian Football League’s failed incursion into the United States during the mid-1990’s.
