The OSC Interview: San Francisco UFL Owner Paul Pelosi
by Fran Stuchbury
Published on June 10, 2009 under United Football League (UFL 1)
OurSports Central and UFL Access contributor Fran Stuchbury spoke to San Francisco UFL owner Paul Pelosi at the UFL press conference welcoming the New York franchise on June 8th. Pelosi has been an investment banker with over 40 years experience in finance and management.
Fran Stuchbury: Are you excited about bringing a UFL team to San Francisco?
Paul Pelosi: Absolutely!!!
FS: When did you start getting involved in that process?
PP: UFL Founder Bill Hambrecht and I have been friends for 35 years. He and I were both investors in the USFL team the Oakland Invaders. I have been following this project with him for a while and I have been involved with this for a couple of years. I agreed to invest, be in the investment group. We were originally looking at San Francisco or Sacramento as the place for it. Giving what is happening to the San Francisco 49ers with them unfortunately trying to leave San Francisco. We were given the opportunity to play at AT&T Park in San Francisco, so we decided to launch it there and maybe play a game in Sacramento.
FS: Did the San Francisco Giants have any problems with the UFL team playing at AT&T Park?
PP: AT&T Park has had football games there before. They have had the Emerald Bowl play there every year in December since 2002, which is fabulous. It seats 40,000 people, the stadium sets up really well for football.
The issue with the San Francisco Giants has been the field. Since our first game will be October 8th and like I said in San Francisco, I would love to have to postpone that game a week until the Giants finish winning the World Series but that doesn't look like that is going to happen this year, so we will begin play on the 8th of October.
Going forward as the Giants again become a World Series kind of team, you have to think about another venue for the first few weeks until mid October, until the technology gets better in terms of being able to readjust the field.
FS: How happy are you to have Dennis Green as the head coach of the San Francisco team?
PP: I'm very happy. I think Dennis is a great guy and he has a wonderful reputation in the San Francisco area, having been the head coach at Stanford and is very well liked in the area. Plus I think he is one of the great coaches in working and developing young people. That's what this is all about. So I'm really happy to have him as our head coach.
FS: Do you feel the San Francisco fans will embrace the UFL product?
PP: Yes I really do, I think that they are going to love it.
FS: Was the strong fan support of the XFL San Francisco Demons who led the XFL in attendance in 2001 with about 35,000 fans a game, another reason why you feel the UFL can succeed here?
PP: They did well; again this is a whole different deal. I think people want to watch football in the fall. This is a fall product and I think its going to naturally draw.
If you have any question or comments about this interview feel free to drop me an email at arenazone@yahoo.com and I will be more than happy to get back to you.
United Football League Stories from June 10, 2009
- The OSC Interview: San Francisco UFL Owner Paul Pelosi - OSC Original by Fran Stuchbury
- The OSC Interview: New York UFL Head Coach Ted Cottrell - OSC Original by Fran Stuchbury
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
