United Football League possibly forming

[Fran]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/sports/playmagazine/0603play-business.html?em&ex=1180670400&en=66c386967e9d78aa&ei=5087%0A



Bill Hambrecht is a rich old Wall Street guy who has made his money tilting at windmills and disrupting the establishment. “That’s what I do,” he says. “It’s fun.” Almost a decade ago, at 62, he founded WR Hambrecht + Company, whose fundamental premise is that companies don’t need to use Wall Street investment bankers — and pay their outrageous fees — to go public. Hambrecht + Company has since become so threatening to traditional underwriters that they often refuse to be involved in any I.P.O. in which his firm takes part.



And now, at an age when most people are well into retirement, he has decided to tackle the establishment again. This time, though, the establishment isn’t Wall Street. It’s the National Football League. Bill Hambrecht, you see, is starting up a professional football league. So far, he and his partner, Tim Armstrong, a senior executive at Google, have pledged $2 million each. They’ve hired a C.E.O. and a C.O.O., both of whom cut their teeth at the National Basketball Association. They’ve got a name: the United Football League. And they’ve lined up a wealthy, well-known businessman as their first owner: Mark Cuban, the billionaire who owns the N.B.A.’s Dallas Mavericks. Like Hambrecht, Cuban loves nothing more than confronting the status quo.



Obviously, the U.F.L. is still in the early planning stages. It hasn’t yet hired a single football person and is still hunting for seven more owners with Cuban’s deep pockets and contrarian mindset, so that the league can begin with eight teams. It could easily fall apart before the first kickoff. Indeed, there has already been one setback: Boone Pickens, the oilman turned-corporate-raider-turned-billionaire-hedge-fund manager, recently abandoned his intention to buy a team. But Cuban remains committed, and if all goes according to plan, the U.F.L. will play its first preseason games in August 2008. I kid you not.

[Aaronhere]

Odds of succeeding: 100 to 1
What network would broadcast the games?

CITIES ON THE LIST OF POSSIBLE CANDIDATES:
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
New York
Chicago
Orlando
Memphis
Birmingham
San Antonio

[logoguru]

SPRING SPRING SPRING SPRING!!!!!!!!

The list of cities are THE right cities for the most part.

New York...bring back the Knights?
Chicago...will never work as long as the Bears are in town. What are they thinking?

Wheres Sacramento??????? I loved the Surge!
And Hartford, too!!!!!!!!! (I now live in CT)


This league will survive in the Fall, but is more likely to succeed in the Spring.....because they have cash.

Minor league outdoor football in America, who'd a thunk it?
________
ShyLorelai (http://www.girlcamfriend.com/cam/ShyLorelai/)

[feverfresh]

Odds of succeeding: 100 to 1
What network would broadcast the games?

Success all depends on if they can find 7 other Mark Cubans. Trump, maybe? But 8 egos like that will not play nice together.

TV will not be a problem where there are 80 gazillion channels. They could start their own for that matter.

CITIES ON THE LIST OF POSSIBLE CANDIDATES:
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
New York
Chicago
Orlando
Memphis
Birmingham
San Antonio

That's the XFL, only in San Francisco instead of SA.

I don't think Birmingham and Memphis are a good idea. Nothing says "failed league" quite like Memphis and Birmingham. Better to go to a couple of NFL cities where the fans want and deserve a better team: Detroit and Cincinnati, for starters. In the event of merger, they can relocate to Grand Rapids and Columbus.

[jwalters]

It's time for new cities.

El Paso- Sun Bowl 52,000
Little Rock- War Memorial 53,000
Jackson- Vets Memorial 60,000
Columbia(SC)- Memorial 80,000
Toss up between Syracuse- Carrier Dome 49,000 and Utah Valley Eccles 40,000 and Edwards 62,000

The other cities such as Vegas, San Antonio, L.A., and Mexico City I agree with. Tucson is another possibility but you don't want the league to have too much of a western flair. But for goddness sakes will somebody please hire Mouse Davis, John Jenkins, John Gregory, and Jim Bates. That's not too much to ask. Oh yeah, Shoot'em up UFL.

[ca]

as we could use a pro team around here ! as for the other markets why not los angeles , las vegas , san antonio , memphis , birmingham , orlando and new york

[Pounder]

Everyone's got a tangent on this subject, apparently.

The ARTICLE mentioned Los Angeles, Las Vegas... and MEXICO CITY. None of the others... yet.

It also reads as "taking on the NFL," NOT establishing a minor league (no matter if it ends up that way or not).

Mind you, FIRST this thing needs more than 2-3 investors, then we can debate the rest.

[Fez]

The interesting thing is that it isn't clear this is a Spring league. The S.I. article (printed below) mentions that the games will be played on Friday nights-- an NFL no-no because they don't want to interfere w/ high school games. This makes it sound like it might be a fall league. I, for one, am excited. Deep pockets = better chance than the lame XFL.

Here's the SI article.

Cuban hopes to create football league
Mavs boss part of group looking to compete with NFL
Posted: Wednesday May 30, 2007 6:03PM; Updated: Wednesday May 30,

NEW YORK (AP) -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is part of a group considering formation of a football league that would compete with the NFL for players drafted lower than the second round.

The league, still very much in the preliminary stage, would play its games on Friday nights. The NFL does not play then because of the potential conflict with high school football.

"It's a pretty simple concept," Cuban said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "We think there is more demand for pro football than supply."

The proposal was first disclosed by The New York Times on its Web site, which said it was the idea of Bill Hambrecht, a Wall Street investor who was a minority partner in the Oakland Invaders of the USFL, which played in the spring from 1983-85. Sharon Smith, a spokeswoman for Hambrecht and Company, had no comment and said Hambrecht was traveling and unavailable to talk about the idea.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said he was aware of the proposed league, but had no further comment.

There have been numerous leagues that have tried to compete with the NFL and a few that actually played games, starting with the AFL, which began in 1960 and fully merged with the NFL a decade later. It included such current franchises as New England, Oakland, Kansas City, San Diego, Buffalo, the New York Jets and Denver.

More recently came the World Football League in the early 1970s, which raided the NFL for such stars as Larry Csonka. Then came the USFL, which played in the spring before folding after receiving only $3 in an antitrust "victory" over the NFL.

The USFL featured such future Hall of Famers as Jim Kelly, Reggie White and Steve Young, but lost millions of dollars trying to compete for players. It also had internal struggles among a majority of owners who wanted to stay in the spring, and the best known among them, Donald Trump, who wanted to move to the fall and try to force a merger with the NFL.

The most recent pro football league was the XFL, founded by the World Wrestling Federation and televised by NBC. The XFL lasted just three months in the spring of 2001 and was best known for a player named Rod Smart, called "He Hate Me," who later played as a return man and backup running back in the NFL.

So far, the proposed new league is in its infancy and Cuban is the only potential owner for what the founders hope will be an eight-team league.

Cuban said in his e-mail he believes the salary cap makes it easier to compete financially with the NFL because of the salary imbalance that leaves lower-level players with lower salaries. That would allow the new league to fill its rosters with players taken lower than the second round, as well as late NFL cuts and free agents who escape the NFL draft.

Many such players, including Tom Brady, a sixth-round pick of New England, have become NFL stars.

"That's not to say it will be easy. It won't," Cuban wrote. "We still have to cover quite a bit of ground and have a lot of milestones to hit. That said, if we can get the right owners I obviously think we can make this work."

[logoguru]

With Google and Cuban you DONT need any other owners!!! =)
Thats some deep cash already.

But the first rule of business is to never EVER use your own money.
________
Wellbutrin classaction (http://www.classactionsettlements.org/lawsuit/wellbutrin/)

[tony-o]

The three biggest leagues to take on the NFL (USFL, WFL, and XFL) have all had teams in Birmingham, Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, New York/New Jersey area, and Orlando. Surely we will see most of those cities again. Other cities that have had two of the three leagues play there are Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Portland and San Antonio.

If they try to avoid NFL cities(besides New York and Chicago, cities that have proven they can support two major league teams), I imagine that the league would look like this:
West Division
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Mexico City
Portland
San Antonio
East Division
Birmingham
Chicago
Memphis
New York
Orlando

[MichiganPanther83]

Ah, well if I'm back on OSC, it MUST mean it's time for a new football league! :)

I remember getting my "new league info" from what turned into OurSportsCentral back in 96-97? Back then it was the "Original" AAFL. Good ol' Bernie Glieberman.

Anyway, enough memory lane crap. This proposed league could have some teeth, and call me sentimental, but I think spring would be the only option for this league. Do you think anyone will notice this league if they're going head to head against the NFL? I don't care if they play on Friday. More people will watch the pregame shows and the fantasy matchup shows than these games if they go in the fall. I hope they go in the spring, and I hope they don't ignore Detroit (you could probably tell that already, though).

[SignGuyDino]

Seemingly all the posters and pundits all look at "August 2008" and scream


SPRING!!!!!

[logoguru]

Seemingly all the posters and pundits all look at "August 2008" and scream


SPRING!!!!!

I would hope the league does their research and understands why. Do we really know more than a few billionaires? I think we do on this one, but hey they may prove us all wrong.
________
1SnowyBeauty (http://www.girlcamfriend.com/cam/1SnowyBeauty/)

[Shootmaster_44]

I think August is a bad time to start a league. First, unless the league intends to play its first season purely with poached NFL draft picks and a few AFL/indoor players, they won't have a good set of players for the first month. Since the CFL starts mid-June, the players playing for those clubs won't be eligible to play in the UFL, as they'd be in the midst of the CFL season and under contract to the member clubs. So that kills a good portion of the talented players available. As well, since NFL training camps are going on during August, any of the cuts from the NFL wouldn't be available to the teams at that time of year. Lastly, I have this feeling that since the AFL and NFL have strong ties, and this league intends to take on the NFL, AFL players will be locked into ironclad contracts that forbid them to play in the UFL.

So basically, what would be left for players would be the odd few NFL players in the twilight of their careers looking for one last hurrah, whatever NFL draft picks the UFL can poach, non-allocated NFL Europa players, national players from NFL Europa and players in the NIFL/UIF/AIFA etc. Essentially, I think this league would end up being about four steps below the NFL based on who would be available as far as players go. The only way they could improve their talent base is to either sign NFL draft eligible players prior to the NFL draft, go after NFL/CFL/AFL free agents when their contracts expire or somehow find a new area of talent to explore.

The problem with attempting to pick up CFL free agents is that all CFL contracts are one year plus an option which means essentially a two-year deal before you are a free agent. Thus, the UFL will not have a major talent pool to look at next winter/spring. This past off-season saw a good number of the CFL stars re-sign contracts which means that the UFL won't have access to a number of these players.

All-in-all, I wish the UFL luck, but I really can't see this league being any better quality than the XFL was. The only thing is, this time the UFL won't have the gimmicks the XFL did.

As far as cities, I have this feeling that Fort Worth or another city very close to Dallas will be in the league, simply due to Mark Cuban's involvement. LA and New York are gimmies to be in the league. There will likely be a Florida team and one in the Illinois/Michigan/Ohio area. A Mexico City team sounds in and I bet they will attempt to go north of the border somewhere. I'd say put a team in Ottawa instead of trying to go head-to-head with the CFL.

This also has me wondering whether this means the AAFL will be dead. They didn't have the cash behind it, that the UFL seems to. If it does start up, that means Birmingham is out does it not? Seems to me Legion Stadium (Field?) is also UAB stadium, which means that unless this league wants to run on week nights it won't have a stadium in Birmingham to play in. As well, I could see the AAFL signing exclusive pro deals to the stadiums to ensure the UFL doesn't try and come in and ruin their party.

However, I think this will likely turn into the NBC-Turner league where it has great intentions but falls very short of its intended goals. If Mark Cuban were smart he'd purchase a team in an existing league instead of pouring his money into a new league. Perhaps he should look at buying the Intense League instead of starting the UFL. Set your sights lower and try and compete with the AFL first before going after the most profitable league in North America.

[firewolff]

I agree with your city choices. Chicago is huge and Soldier Field is right on the water so a team based farther inland may be able to draw from the 'burbs.
I would also suggest Hartford and Columbus, Ohio (perhaps in the Spring; not sure if a team could compete directly with the Buckeyes).

[Pounder]

Colin Cowherd said it best this morning:

"There is more demand for ELITE football, not a new league."

That means more NFL exposure... and for that matter, more major college football. Not another league.

The quote in the article saying "only 29 out of the top 50 markets have NFL" is a sure sign that someone is a little off the wall in their salesmanship. Think about that one.

I argue that a consortium offering $20 billion to add 8 NFL teams would get a better return on their money than 8 owners spending $2 billion on a new startup.

[reds1935]

www.uflnews.info has news on the ufl and other stuff about it.