Sport American football Ceased 1999 No. of teams 13 | Founded 1999 President Edward Litwack Country United States | |
The International Football Federation was a proposed professional American football league. It had intended to launch in spring 2000, but folded while still in its preliminary stages. It is often considered to be one of the shortest-lived high-profile leagues in history, lasting, in the words of one observer, "one press conference."
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League formation and structure
The league was unveiled at a press conference in New York City on June 11, 1999, with Dennis Murphy (a co-founder of both the American Basketball Association and World Hockey Association), league president Edward Litwack, and entertainer Dionne Warwick involved in its launch.
Teams
The team intended to field 13 teams at its launch. These teams would be based in New Jersey (ostensibly, like other professional teams in that state, representing New York), Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Denver, two in Los Angeles, Toronto, San Jose, Texas, Hawaii and Connecticut. Warwick would own a share of both Los Angeles teams, at least one of which would have played at the Rose Bowl. The "New York" team would play at Giants Stadium; Hawaii, the last entry into the league, had plans to play in Aloha Stadium and was to be owned by entertainment promoter Bob Peyton.
Rumors had the names "Toronto Turbos" and "Connecticut Yankees" as two of the team names; no other names were announced or leaked.
Television and radio
The league had preliminary discussions with NBC and Turner Broadcasting but both executives said neither NBC nor Turner would be able to put together a package on such short notice. ESPN was referred to as a league partner. Litwack ran his own cable television systems that he said could be used for a syndicated package and sold individually to local stations or cable networks. He also said the games could be shown on the internet.
Both NBC and Turner looked toward sponsoring another league, deciding initially to back an entirely new league of their own. NBC eventually put its support behind the XFL, which took the field in 2001.