USFL vs NFL - A Challenge to the King | 3
Business Wars
Audible
4.6 • 13.5K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2019
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
By most measures, the USFL’s debut season is a success. The games post solid numbers--in both ticket sales and television ratings--offering undeniable proof that there’s an audience for professional spring football. Still, the league is hemorrhaging money. At a post-season meeting, the twelve franchise owners vote on what to do with their fumbling investments. Eleven of the owners decide to stay the course, and even expand the league to bring in more capital, but the owner of the New Jersey Generals, J. Walter Duncan, has had enough.
Duncan puts the Generals on the market for eight million dollars, hoping the low price will launch a bidding war. But only one man makes an offer: a young, brash, egomaniacal Manhattan real estate developer named Donald Trump.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars, add free on Amazon music. |
| 0:04.8 | Download the app today. |
| 0:14.1 | October 17, 1981. |
| 0:17.0 | It's a year and a half before the USFL's first season begins. |
| 0:21.6 | Twelve men, all white, all middle-aged or older, gather around a large rectangular glass |
| 0:26.9 | table inside a conference room at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel. |
| 0:31.6 | It's the unofficial first full United States football league ownership meeting. |
| 0:36.5 | If you've got money, power, and an ego, this is the place to be. |
| 0:41.9 | The league's founder, David Dixon, feels excited. |
| 0:45.6 | He's sitting at the head of the room, surrounding him, or a dozen of the wealthiest, most powerful |
| 0:51.2 | men in American business. |
| 0:54.1 | Some of the faces he recognizes. |
| 0:56.3 | Some, he does not. |
| 0:58.7 | There's a craft of coffee and a tray of pastries. |
| 1:02.0 | They chat about football, about life, about industry. |
| 1:06.4 | They're a bit edgy. |
| 1:08.7 | Will this league work hard to say? |
| 1:11.8 | But they're all here ready to talk about spring football, salary structures, and the |
| 1:16.4 | house and whys of running a successful league. |
| 1:20.4 | The meeting is scheduled to begin at 12.30 and at 12.35, 12 of the 13 chairs are filled. |
| 1:27.8 | The only man missing is the one who agreed to purchase and run the New York New Jersey |
| 1:33.0 | franchise. |
... |
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