United Football League News and Notes

Maybe the UFL does belong in the Fall

The UFL made a lot of questionable decisions heading into, and during their inaugural season. However it seems like they used that season as a Beta test, and are quick to point out that they made those mistakes, and moving forward hopefully the league has learned what works and what doesn’t. If they did than this league is going to be here for a while. The first concession made by this league is that the uniforms were a mistake, and they are right the uniforms were pretty awful in year one. The powers that be amongst the UFL promise that the uniforms will evolve in year two.

2009 UFL season in review: Las Vegas Locos

The Las Vegas Locos won the first ever UFL championship on the strength of a 4-2 regular season record, a great three point victory in the UFL championship game. It is kind of ironic that the Locos are owned by William Hambrecht, who happens to be the found of this upstart UFL league. For their wonderful inaugural season they were awarded the William Hambrecht trophy. Even though they won the first championship, they are as of right now the second best team in this league.

2009 UFL season in review: Florida Tuskers

Without a doubt the Florida Tuskers were the best UFL team in 2009. They completed an undefeated regular season, only to lose to the Las Vegas Locos in overtime of the first ever UFL championship game. Beyond being a great team, this is a fun team. Without doubt the best name, and best uniforms of the new league. In fact the Tuskers are one of the most uniquely named pro-football teams to come along in a long time. Given the many Arena leagues, and other football leagues that have sprouted up in the last decade that is really saying something.

UFL loses 30 million in inaugural season

According to the Sports Business Journal and UFLaccess.com the UFL lost 30 million dollars in its first season on revenues of 56 million dollars. While that news is not shocking, since all new leagues have to lose money while they establish themselves in the marketplace, it does call into question the overall plan for this league.

Locos spoil Tuskers perfect season, win first UFL title

Some things in the game of football are universal. Whether we are talking about the NFL, the UFL, or College a few things always seem to hold true. The first of those things it is near impossible to beat one football team three times in a given season, the next is completing an undefeated season is next to impossible to do. Earlier today the Las Vegas Locos of the UFL defeated the previously undefeated Florida Tuskers to win the first UFL championship.

2009 UFL season in review: California Redwoods

What can we say about the second worst team in a brand new football league?  Through the final weeks of the UFL season they were the most improved UFL team, and although they could only beat the hapless New York Sentinels in back to back weeks they gave the Florida Tuskers and the Las Vegas Locos all they could handle. It seems heir biggest problem was closing games out; this is a team that could play well for a half but never deliver the knock out blow to their opponents.

2009 UFL season in review: New York Sentinels

What can one say about a football team that doesn’t win a single game? The first thing that we could say is that if it were not for the Detroit Lions 0-16 campaign last year that they were the worst professional football team ever, however it seems the Detroit Lions will retain that tile for a while. This winless campaign is more a league problem than an individual team problem, the UFL features two really good teams, and two pretty bad teams. While the California Redwoods where able to make numerous roster changes to help their cause, the Sentinels were unable to do just that , and suffered a long list of injuries.

Florida Tuskers complete first UFL season undefeated

The Florida Tuskers have completed the inaugural UFL season a perfect 6-0, and while that is a great accomplishment, the league has a few other things to be proud of. A lot has been written, or not written about the success of this league, the low attendance, and the low TV ratings, but after watching the game between the Tuskers and the California Redwoods last night, one this is assured the quality of play on the field is a strong selling point for this league. Now they just have to figure out how to get more people in the stands, and more people to watch the TV broadcasts.

Does the UFL belong in New York?

As the premier season of the UFL comes to a close this week, and the league looks to expand into new markets for year two, we have to wonder if this league belongs in the big market of New York. The New York Sentinels have the second worst average attendance behind just the California Redwoods. They are averaging just 6,637 fans per home game and in a town like New York that makes them insignificant. Granted this team is 0-5 and will likely finish year one without a win, but a new league can ill afford its New York team to draw so poorly.

Is the UFL premier season just a Beta test?

In almost every measurable way, the 2009 UFL season has been a complete failure; very low attendance, weak TV numbers, and virtually no attention from the media. However the UFL is a lot stronger league than we give it credit for. On top of that the premier season of this league came together at the last minute, and they may be using this season to beta test their new league.

The UFL cannot catch a break

The UFL will make its debut this week in the New York Market with a game at Giants Stadium. Giants Stadium seats 80,000 fans for Football and the UFL was hoping to put a large number of fans in those seats for their first game in the biggest market in this country. It is really too bad for this new football league that they will be competing with Game Two of the World Series to be held at Yankee Stadium just a few miles away. The obvious reaction to that is we should be expecting record low ticket sales for the UFL.

Can the UFL surive long term?

At the moment it doesn’t appear so, but there may be a master plan in this league somewhere. It seems that this league and its leadership is willing to wait it out, spend zero dollars on marketing and wait for the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement to end in 2011. Then they may stock their roster full of NFL caliber players who are without work and make a go of it.

Is Toledo, Ohio the best spot for UFL expansion?

Toledo, Ohio is a great sport town, and is the home of one of the most famous Minor League Baseball Team in the Toledo Mud Hens. The population of the city is right around 700,000, and it is a part of the Great Lakes region of the United States that 54 million people call home. IN 2009 the city added a Minor league hockey team, the Toledo Walleye, and through the opening part of the season they are leading the ECHL in average attendance. For all those reasons, and a few more, Toledo seems to be a perfect place for the UFL to expand to.

The UFL set to expand

It seems the folks that run the UFL care not about the small TV ratings, or the empty stadiums that have plagued this league in its first season. Of course when one has a 35 million dollar TV contract for the 2010 season, attendance doesn’t seem to matter as much. The simple fact here is the UFL is set to expand in 2010 from 4 teams to 6, and they would like all six teams to play a 10 game season.

UFL flying way under the radar

Did you know that the newest Pro-Football league is three games into their Inaugural season? I am betting you didn’t as the debut of the UFL has gone largely under the radar of most sports journalists and many sports fans. However that may be part of the leagues overall plan, as they look just to survive their first season and grow come season number two.  The league may not want a lot of attention right now, as it has just four teams, it hasn’t fully implemented their rule book, and they are striving to build a nitch audience. The only question seems to be if not is paying the UFL any attention, how could it survive?

The Best UFL game nobody saw

Being an upstart league, without the support of one of the major Television networks, can be very aggravating. SO far the games the UFL games featured on the Cable Channel Versus have been rather boring and they seem to drag on and on. Not so for the game between the Las Vegas Locos and the Florida Tuskers. By far these are the two best teams in this upstart league and if they both can make it to the first championship game, which should be an interesting affair. The Tuskers at 4-0 are already guaranteed a spot in the final game, but the performance turned in by these two teams Saturday night was by far the best UFL game to date.

UFL moves locations of two more games

For the UFL perception is reality, and no matter how much the league blows off the poor attendance numbers, and no matter how many viable arguments there are for why the attendance is so low, the simple fact here is if the games are poorly attended sports fans around the nation will continue to ignore this league.

UFL moves third Locos game back to Las Vegas

What do you do when you have a new product, no solid fan base, and a small share of the market? The answer is taking your product on the road and try to expose as many people as possible to it. That was the plan for the UFL and its four team in their inaugural season. They were going to have each of their teams’ play 7 regular season games to be followed by a Championship game.

UFL ticket sales a little soft

The UFL will kick off its inaugural season this Thursday night with a game between the California Redwoods, and the Las Vegas Locomotives. That game will be held at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, and so far they have only been able to sell some 5,000 tickets. Since the league was projecting crowds of more that 20,000 for each of it’s 13 inaugural season games, this league will have to rely on strong walk up sales to insure it meets that goal.

Las Vegas Locos win premier UFL game

The UFL is off to a start. It is somewhat hard to gauge what kind of start since the expectations for this league are pretty low, but they held their first game last night on the cable channel versus live from Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. In that contest the Las Vegas Locos defeated the California Redwoods 31-17 in what was a pretty entertaining game.

A look at the finances of the UFL

Through the first two weeks of the inaugural UFL season the attendance figures do not look all that good. The league as a whole is averaging just under 11,000 per game. The only good thing about that is this league has spent virtually no money on marketing. Since the first season didn’t come together until late summer many league officials are willing to write of the poor attendance. However, in the sporting world perception is everything and if no one is in the stands this league might have a hard time getting fans interested in season number 2

Why the UFL has a better shot than the XFL did

When we start to understand why the XFL failed, and how the UFL learned from that we must first remember that 50% of the XFL was owned by NBC, and the cable TV market was a lot different way back in 2001. Now days the television audience has been severely fragmented and the low TV numbers that cost the XFL its spot on NBC may be perfectly acceptable for a cable channel like Versus.

UFL names TV broadcast team

When the UFL takes the field and their TV broadcast is aired on the Versus Cable Channel Veteran broadcaster Dave Simms will be the play by play man, with Quarter Back legend Doug Flutie providing the color commentary. Former Pittsburgh Steeler Quarterback Kordell Stewart joins the team as a sideline reporter, with veteran reporter Anita Marks. This is an unusual team of broadcasters in that all of the players played the position of QB both professionally and semi-professionally. It is however a nice mix of people who took very different routes in their football playing career.

The UFL set for its first season

The Florida Tuskers, California Redwoods, New York Sentinels, and the Las Vegas Locomotives will be the four team that launch the inaugural UFL season set to begin in October. Some are wondering if the UFL can survive a down economy playing their games in the fall against the heart and sou of both the NFL and Collegiate football schedule.

Tampa Bay Rays buy stake in Florida UFL franchise

The Tampa Bay Rays baseball team has become the latest benefactors of the United Football League. While the new league spent the past week unveiling team names and uniform color schemes, the announcement of the pending Rays ownership of the Florida Tuskers was the only real surprise.

Simeon Rice signs with the UFL

The UFL has signed it’s biggest name to date. Former three time pro bowler, Defensive End Simeon Rice has signed on with the New York Sentinels. While it may be debatable how big of a name Rice still is, there is little doubt that he is the biggest former NFL star to sign with the upstart league.

What kind of league will the UFL be?

Over the past week the UFL has announced 38 players that will play for their teams in both New York and Las Vegas. Based on these players signings we can start to assess exactly what kind of league we are going to see when the UFL takes the field in October.

UFL names first two teams

The UFL is a new professional football league that will begin play in 2009 with four team playing six games each. The teams will be located in San Francisco, Orlando, Las Vegas, and New York.

UFL names its Las Vegas Franchise

The First UFL team has its name the Las Vegas Locomotives. The first impression many of us is going to have is this is an very uninspired team name, and the uniforms are nothing more than the colors of the UFL logo reworked. In all this first team unveiling the new league has to be ranked as a miss.

Can the UFL make it where so many others have failed?

The UFL has been in the news a little bit lately. For those not in the know the UFL is the United Football League created by William Hambrecht a Wall Street Investor who was once a minority owner in the USFL’s Oakland Invaders football team, and Tim Armstrong a former executive at Google, and now the Chairman and CEO of AOL.