Resurgence

The Magic City Mayors got a steal in Eric Ebron in the BDFL's annual Supplemental Draft back in October

Mayors put the magic back in the Magic City

BIRMINGHAM - Try this one in your best Howard Cosell impersonation voice, “The resurgent Magic City Mayors, once given up for dead, have now risen to the pinnacle of the B.D.F.L. by knocking off the high-flying Freebirds and the mighty PowerSleds in consecutive weeks.” If Cosell was still alive, the BDFL’s Magic City Mayors and Birmingham’s “tragic to magic” sports story would definitely be on his radar. It’s an interesting narrative with many different interweaving chapters beginning with a change at the top of the old guard. Out is William Bell, the last of Richard “Tricky Dick” Arrington’s legendary crony empire that held Birmingham's sports industry back for nearly four decades (1979-2016). By the way, the BDFL’s Mayors are indirectly named after this wayward regime that included Larry Langford, Bernard Kincaid and Bell, twice. In 2017, a progressive-minded civic leader emerged as Randall Woodfin took over the reins as the Magic City's new mayor and all of a sudden great things in the local sports community are now happening all over Alabama’s largest city. A new outdoor football stadium for the #25 ranked UAB Blazers (9-1) is on the horizon in North Birmingham’s Uptown District. The Birmingham Iron (which was named by Iron Hand) will begin play in the new Alliance of American Football (AAF) league in February at venerable Legion Field over in West End. The NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans have agreed to put their G-League team (the Birmingham Jam team name has been proposed by Iron Hand) Downtown once the BJCC renovations are completed and the new Birmingham Legion FC will start kicking on the Southside in the United Soccer League (USL) in 2019. Birmingham will always be considered a minor league town until they land a franchise in one of the four major sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL), but in the meantime, there is nothing wrong with being the best emerging professional sports town in the nation. (Don't Fear) The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult (Live 1981)