The UFL set to expand

October 30, 11:50 PMSports Business ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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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.

When a league starts to talk about expansion, the debate becomes where exactly should the league expand too? As it stands right now it seems the UFL would do well in areas of the country that do not have a strong NFL presence, or where College Football isn’t the most popular thing going.

It seems a virtual lock that this League will place a team in Los Angeles, that city is void a NFL team and is a staple of a start up football league. The XFL, USFL, and the Arena league all placed teams in the city of Angels. It seems the UFL will do the same, but one has to wonder if there is market there for that.

LA ranked fourth among attendance figures of the XFL, and was able to draw an average of 22,679 but that number is flawed a bit as the Los Angeles Xtreme were the XFL champions.

Where the other team will end up is anyone’s guess but as we look at the placement of the other UFL teams we see they have the south covered wit the Florida Tuskers, the East covered with the New York Sentinels, the West covered with the Las Vegas Locos, California Redwoods, and the supposed LA team.

The only area of the country not covered is the MID West, and there is a strong argument that a Mid West Town would be the best fit for a UFL franchise. The Mid West is football country, with many pro and college teams, but football fans there are eager to support sports teams of all kinds.

Detroit, Michigan has a long history of supporting other professional leagues as the USFL’s Michigan Panthers were one of the more successful franchises in that league, and the Arena League Detroit Drive won four Arena Bowl’s and had very strong attendance. The XFL was also considering, placing a team there had that league survived to year two.

The main problem there is the Detroit Lions, no matter how bad they are, draw fairly well, and there is also the Red Wings, Tigers, and Pistons to compete with. It seems a more logical spot for a UFL team would be Toledo, Ohio.

Toledo is less that a hour’s drive from Detroit, and is about two hours from Cleveland, and it far enough away from the major university in both Ohio and Michigan to draw well.

On top of that Toledo was recently named the 18th best Minor League towns in America by The Sporting News. They are the home of the Toledo Mud Hens who draw well, and the new home of the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL who so far in 2009 are leading that league in average attendance with just north of six thousand fans per home game.