"Breaking the Game Wide Open"
The SOM Football team card postings for the 1974 season are complete, along with replay aids, rules, rosters, stats, and additional players. After the jump...
Dropbox Link to pdf-1974 WFL Season in Review, Complete
Dropbox Link to 1974 WFL rosters and stats
Dropbox Link to 1974 WFL rule changes and playing tips, including the Action Point
Dropbox Link to 1974 WFL cards - PDFs
Dropbox Link to 1974 WFL rosters and stats
Dropbox Link to 1974 WFL rule changes and playing tips, including the Action Point
Dropbox Link to 1974 WFL cards - PDFs
PFRA Article on WFL Alumni
The League In Review
The WFL was born of a form of 'irrational exuberance' – not in stocks or commodities, but an overestimation of the value of sports franchises in the early seventies. The hand to mouth existence of professional franchises in the forties and fifties changed in the sixties, when mass advertisers caught on to the fact that sports marketing could produce immense profits. But the connection between advertising and sports had always existed in some fashion, more money and television exposure just made this relationship easier for teams to exploit.
But the early seventies added another dimension. This was the era of the “Economic Impact Study”, and municipal planners of the period sincerely believed a sports franchise was essential to anchor urban development. (This belief is still alive in some places now, although it is less in vogue after Al Davis’ excesses with Oakland and Los Angeles in the early eighties.) Suddenly every major population center in America was building multi-purpose stadiums to house sports franchises, and suburban areas battled the cities with their proposals. Partly underwritten now by the unsuspecting taxpayer, the value of a sports franchise increased immeasurably, and this combination of high-level hucksterism and corporate subsidy brought hopeful new entrants, maverick investors who wanted to crash the Monopoly board.
Of all the movers and shakers, none had the charisma or success of Gary Davidson, founder of the WHA, ABA, and the World Football League. Davidson’s formula was simple- he would target the leagues where salaries were miserly enough to provide low barriers to entry, seek committed investors in the communities where the new league would form, develop a market presence, and then eventually force a merger with the existing league. The AFL had just merged with the NFL in 1970, and the WHL and WHA would also turn the trick, in the process breaking the existing ownership’s hold on their sports while making some people a lot of money.
Davidson wanted to do it again. While he had made money on the other ventures, in the WFL he and the league partners would sell the franchises and broker the arrangements themselves, potentially netting themselves a huge chunk of the pie. And Davidson’s vision was compelling to the investors of the time because of his track record. He had done this before, and he already had business models and estimates that could theoretically predict the cost of the break-even process. Events would show he had badly underestimated how much it cost to run a solid professional football franchise.
The Oil Shock recession may have led in part to his undoing – there were not as many attractive investors left after the gyrations of the first oil crisis and the subsequent waves of inflation, and Davidson had to cut corners in some markets to find people who could raise a stake. One of his biggest failures was in the Detroit area, where its team was underwritten by no less than thirty one limited partners, none of whom could agree upon where to spend money. This instability spread to the team’s on-field performances, as the long season wore on, and as the owners ran out of money, they missed paydays and some players started to grumble.
It goes without saying that the best and most stable franchises were able to play through these distractions, and in Birmingham, Hawaii, and Memphis the teams were well supported and they had great success. Florida actually used the adversity to build enough esprit de corps to earn a spot in the championship game. But elsewhere, the product was spotty. The WFL was portrayed as a glorified minor league by the sportswriters writers of the time and the stadiums were old and decrepit, limiting attendance. And the pressure to portray the league as a successful startup was very high, and in Philadelphia the owners overstated the early season’s paid attendance and the word eventually got out.
After this revelation everything the WFL did was in question and finding new investors to bail out the old bankrupt ownership teams became increasingly difficult. In Detroit and Jacksonville, the franchises folded, and games were cancelled in Chicago and Philadelphia. The playoff schedule became a political battle within the league hierarchy, with the result that Charlotte, at 10-10 did not make the playoffs while the Bell, at 9-11 did.
The League forced Davidson’s resignation and reorganized under a plan authored by Hawaiians owner Chris Hemmeter, but after the ’74 fiasco of unpaid players, holdouts, and folded franchises in the recessionary seventies the enthusiasm over the WFL idea began to wane. It became obvious that it would take more financial losses than most owners could sustain in order to eventually break even, and the league folded midway through 1975.
Data Courtesy of The World Football League Encyclopedia, Tod Maher and Mark Speck, St. Johann Press, Haworth NJ, 2006.
Another recommended source for information about the World Football League is the site at http://www.worldfootballleague.org/ run by Richie Franklin, Jim Cusano, and Greg Allred.
I compiled the League Stats from the sources above, with the proviso that some items in error needed to be cleaned up (i.e., Chicago is often listed as allowing 620 points, but that is a typo, it should be 602, for SOM purposes it would be 600 points in 19 games, since I would not use their forfeit in my calculations.) Since a third of the teams played 14 or 19 games instead of 20, in the below all pertinent sortings of records use the per game figures, handy for quick comparisons.
OTHER SOM PRO FOOTBALL POSTS:
The League In Review
The WFL was born of a form of 'irrational exuberance' – not in stocks or commodities, but an overestimation of the value of sports franchises in the early seventies. The hand to mouth existence of professional franchises in the forties and fifties changed in the sixties, when mass advertisers caught on to the fact that sports marketing could produce immense profits. But the connection between advertising and sports had always existed in some fashion, more money and television exposure just made this relationship easier for teams to exploit.
But the early seventies added another dimension. This was the era of the “Economic Impact Study”, and municipal planners of the period sincerely believed a sports franchise was essential to anchor urban development. (This belief is still alive in some places now, although it is less in vogue after Al Davis’ excesses with Oakland and Los Angeles in the early eighties.) Suddenly every major population center in America was building multi-purpose stadiums to house sports franchises, and suburban areas battled the cities with their proposals. Partly underwritten now by the unsuspecting taxpayer, the value of a sports franchise increased immeasurably, and this combination of high-level hucksterism and corporate subsidy brought hopeful new entrants, maverick investors who wanted to crash the Monopoly board.
Of all the movers and shakers, none had the charisma or success of Gary Davidson, founder of the WHA, ABA, and the World Football League. Davidson’s formula was simple- he would target the leagues where salaries were miserly enough to provide low barriers to entry, seek committed investors in the communities where the new league would form, develop a market presence, and then eventually force a merger with the existing league. The AFL had just merged with the NFL in 1970, and the WHL and WHA would also turn the trick, in the process breaking the existing ownership’s hold on their sports while making some people a lot of money.
Davidson wanted to do it again. While he had made money on the other ventures, in the WFL he and the league partners would sell the franchises and broker the arrangements themselves, potentially netting themselves a huge chunk of the pie. And Davidson’s vision was compelling to the investors of the time because of his track record. He had done this before, and he already had business models and estimates that could theoretically predict the cost of the break-even process. Events would show he had badly underestimated how much it cost to run a solid professional football franchise.
The Oil Shock recession may have led in part to his undoing – there were not as many attractive investors left after the gyrations of the first oil crisis and the subsequent waves of inflation, and Davidson had to cut corners in some markets to find people who could raise a stake. One of his biggest failures was in the Detroit area, where its team was underwritten by no less than thirty one limited partners, none of whom could agree upon where to spend money. This instability spread to the team’s on-field performances, as the long season wore on, and as the owners ran out of money, they missed paydays and some players started to grumble.
It goes without saying that the best and most stable franchises were able to play through these distractions, and in Birmingham, Hawaii, and Memphis the teams were well supported and they had great success. Florida actually used the adversity to build enough esprit de corps to earn a spot in the championship game. But elsewhere, the product was spotty. The WFL was portrayed as a glorified minor league by the sportswriters writers of the time and the stadiums were old and decrepit, limiting attendance. And the pressure to portray the league as a successful startup was very high, and in Philadelphia the owners overstated the early season’s paid attendance and the word eventually got out.
After this revelation everything the WFL did was in question and finding new investors to bail out the old bankrupt ownership teams became increasingly difficult. In Detroit and Jacksonville, the franchises folded, and games were cancelled in Chicago and Philadelphia. The playoff schedule became a political battle within the league hierarchy, with the result that Charlotte, at 10-10 did not make the playoffs while the Bell, at 9-11 did.
The League forced Davidson’s resignation and reorganized under a plan authored by Hawaiians owner Chris Hemmeter, but after the ’74 fiasco of unpaid players, holdouts, and folded franchises in the recessionary seventies the enthusiasm over the WFL idea began to wane. It became obvious that it would take more financial losses than most owners could sustain in order to eventually break even, and the league folded midway through 1975.
Data Courtesy of The World Football League Encyclopedia, Tod Maher and Mark Speck, St. Johann Press, Haworth NJ, 2006.
Another recommended source for information about the World Football League is the site at http://www.worldfootballleague.org/ run by Richie Franklin, Jim Cusano, and Greg Allred.
I compiled the League Stats from the sources above, with the proviso that some items in error needed to be cleaned up (i.e., Chicago is often listed as allowing 620 points, but that is a typo, it should be 602, for SOM purposes it would be 600 points in 19 games, since I would not use their forfeit in my calculations.) Since a third of the teams played 14 or 19 games instead of 20, in the below all pertinent sortings of records use the per game figures, handy for quick comparisons.
Original Publication Date: December 12, 2009, et. seq.
Good evening, Fred!
ReplyDeleteHave you or anyone else made Strat football sets for other leagues like the XFL or the original WLAF?
Hey Dusty,
DeleteI have the data for 1975 and I've noodled that a bit, but 1974 was the last set I did so far. 1975 has some complicated data structures due to the number of games and small number of teams. I would guess from a customer perspective the 1975 WFL Set and the 1985 USFL remain items people would want and that I should do. Never say never.
If you can get to the notes and stats, I would look those materials over, because I actually spent a fair amount of time researching the teams and their times. Some of the teams (Southern California Sun, Memphis, Birmingham) I knew very well and I think their stories and the cards go hand in hand. I went and saw the Wheels in Ypsilanti as a youngster, and they were terrible. It's a good set, I think the season model I chose produced good results. There are three ways to do Action Points, you might try them all.
XFL requires I think some special rules for the men in motion and coverages....it is a different game from what I have modeled in the past. I will admit I have thought about it! At one point I studied the best of the XFL teams and I had a short list of possible interesting seasons.
At points I 'threatened' a CFL set, too, and I still think about maybe an old season from the Nine Teams, two Roughriders era (maybe 1981, the first true unified season) and a modern set, released at the same time would be fun.
Were you able to get to the teams? If not let me know, I can sent you a link. I also do other sets...Statis-Pro Baseball and Basketball. Right now I'm working on the 1981 NL (Strike Season), and its a blast.
Fred
Good morning, Fred!
ReplyDeleteI have all the stats and rosters for the XFL if you want to give it a go, and I would like to see the link to anything else you have created football-wise (I got the 1974 WFL ones). Also, the WLAF I mentioned was 1991-92 (with Barcelona, Frankfurt, London, etc.).
I may still look at that. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI had printed these out several years ago but on thin paper. I wanted to download them and re-do them with the right thickness paper. Any suggestions on what paper to get? Also, I see a watermark coming up on each page. Is there a way to get rid of that?
ReplyDeleteNot sure about the watermark. I sue 80 weight for my cards.
ReplyDeleteFred
ReplyDeleteJust want to thank you for taking the time to make these cards. I have been looking for WFL cards for many years but no company ever seemed to make them. I've played the WFL season with Second and Ten which is great but really like cards and dice (or cards and FAC). I am going to buy SOM football just so I can play with these! Many of your calculations are the same way I set up the season, using the disbanded teams games played and using that to approximate the whole season. Great stuff!
David
Is there a difference between the April 14 and January 19 folders?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
One version is in word which may only work on computers that are word compatible. The second are on pdf which should work for everyone. The cars are the same.
ReplyDeleteCards sry
ReplyDeleteGreat! Thank you! Really impressed!
ReplyDeleteThe stats package fit this set so far as I could piece together is the most complete available anywhere. What gave me most pause for doing 1975 is there’s not as much available in print in 1975.
ReplyDeleteJust received the SOM football game and tried it out. The basic game is very simple but I like how smoothly it plays. Looking forward to trying out the WFL teams. They print out a little smaller than the SOM versions but I think I can still read them. Great! 1970s are the era I enjoy the most.
ReplyDeleteWow, you did 1975 NFL too?
ReplyDeleteHi Fred. So the recent situation has given me a chance to try out your WFL season and it works great. I like how even the Elementary version of Strat gives you a great feel for the game but is also very quick. (I have 6 kids so playing time definitely limited). The 70's are my favorite decade for replays so I've always played APBA because those seasons are all available but it would be great to try out Strat. Do you still offer the 1975 season for people to download? If so, I would love to do so. Growing up in Minnesota it is a little but of a difficult season to want to relive but, then again, it truly was their most statistically impressive offense. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDavid
what other strat-o-matic seasons did you do
ReplyDeleteIf you scroll through the pages you’ll find design notes for many of them, but 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1980, and the 1983 and 1984 USFL.
ReplyDeleteFrom web version there are tags to the right by sport and the reviews are in ‘SOM Football’. There’s also a link to the last teams I made, 1950 Cleveland and LA.
ReplyDeleteI’ve made teams fit many sports- one thing I’ve recently done and I will post is the 2019-2020 NBA Season for Statis-Pro Basketball. The modern three point game needs a new ruleset and I’m fine tuning this as I playtest the Rockets.