Bandits bail on USFL season for 2023, apparently to make way for Showboats

TAMPA, Fla. — Professional football is returning to Memphis, Tennessee – but it seems to have come at the expense of another city.

The United States Football League announced Tuesday that the Memphis Showboats will be reborn for the spring league's second season in 2023.

"Well, we're home," Daryl Johnson, the USFL's executive vice president of football operations, said during Tuesday's news conference in Memphis.

The news came on the same day that the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits announced on Twitter that they'll "be taking a temporary hiatus" for the 2023 season.

Todd Haley, who was once head coach of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, was introduced as the new coach of the Showboats. He led the Bandits to a 4-6 record during the 2022 season.

The league's 2022 renaissance featured eight teams playing every game in Birmingham, Alabama.

Earlier this year, the USFL announced plans to add more teams in 2023 as the league incrementally brings teams back to their home cities.

Tampa Bay residents won't get the opportunity to see the Bandits play a true home game – at least not in 2023.

The team's post promised that the Bandits will "be back," but some on social media shared their skepticism.

Tampa Bay's original Bandits franchise made the playoffs twice in three seasons from 1983-85 before the USFL folded in 1986.

The Showboats will play their home games at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. The Houston Gamblers will also play their home games in Memphis next season.

Memphis was home to the Showboats from 1984-85.

Community and league officials credited Memphis-based FedEx founder Fred Smith with playing a key role in bringing the Showboats back to Tennessee's second-largest city.