UFL Season in jeopardy?

[preeths]

[quote=""tops804""]A terrible admission that the league had no vision or leadership. What possibly could he think the NFL would see or want by acquiring the UFL?

It's like offering to sell bottled water to somebody standing in the middle of a flood.[/quote]
The big questions I have are can the NFL do anything about it at that point and why would they want to? Let's assume for a moment that the NFL, despite all appearances to the contrary, is remotely interested in a relationship with the UFL. I think that any official developmental league would have to be discussed with the players union and be worked into the CBA. What have the NFL and NFLPA been working on the last several months? A new CBA! I can't see either side wanting to open that back up, literally or figuratively, the day after it's completed. The UFL needed a seat at the collective bargaining table or at least someone in its corner. It sounds pretty clear that they had neither.

Let's also not forget that the only developmental league the NFL has ever had was Paul Tagliabue's baby. Despite mixed ownership feelings about WLAF/NFLE, he was able to keep the league alive. Goodell killed NFLE virtually right after he became commish.

[Sam Hill]

[quote=""logoguru""]That has to do with the NFL lockout getting resolved and not financials.[/quote]

The hell it does.

This league has been a money pit from the beginning. It's always about finances with this league. If they say they're committed to losing another $40M or more, great. But this doesn't look like it. Saying "this is consistent with last year" is BS and the idea that a month is going to make a difference in getting them a real TV partner or new investment is ridiculous.

[Sam Hill]

[quote=""south florida basketball""]
They should immediately sell each franchise for nothing to credible owners who have the ability to own and operate the individual teams. If they do this the league survives and prospers .[/quote]

Despite all evidence to the contrary. So you think there are five to seven people out there not only with the ability to own and operate individual UFL teams, but with the desire to do so? You assume they haven't been looking for additional investors for three years now? You think the only thing holding these transactions back, the only thing keeping them from happening "immediately" is an unwillingness on the part of the UFL? And - here's the big one - you think they'd immediately "survive and prosper?"

Even if they got five completely new, rich owners, they'd still have a product with a limited appeal to a limited amount of people and without a television contract that actually pays them money (something they're unlikely to get, given the amount of football available on TV), they're a money-losing proposition. A big, gaping, money hole. It's unfathomable to me that you could believe there's a simple fix to this.

[Sam Hill]

[quote=""preeths""]The big questions I have are can the NFL do anything about it at that point and why would they want to? Let's assume for a moment that the NFL, despite all appearances to the contrary, is remotely interested in a relationship with the UFL. I think that any official developmental league would have to be discussed with the players union and be worked into the CBA. What have the NFL and NFLPA been working on the last several months? A new CBA! I can't see either side wanting to open that back up, literally or figuratively, the day after it's completed. The UFL needed a seat at the collective bargaining table or at least someone in its corner. It sounds pretty clear that they had neither.[/quote]

Yep. Unless there's language in the new CBA giving the NFL the right to explore a spring developmental league, I wouldn't count on it. Everybody seems to think the NFL is just over-the-moon keen to have such a spring league, develop it, pay for it, operate it. I just don't think that's true.

Let's also not forget that the only developmental league the NFL has ever had was Paul Tagliabue's baby. Despite mixed ownership feelings about WLAF/NFLE, he was able to keep the league alive. Goodell killed NFLE virtually right after he became commish.

Goodell took over September 1, 2006. NFLE was officially put down June 30, 2007.

[preeths]

That's right; it got in one season under Goodell. Not sure if it was too late to pull the plug when he took over in September or if he just had bigger fish to fry, but one year of $30+ million losses was enough for him to kill NFL Europa. There may have also been a contractual issue to contend with as the NFL signed the league to an extension following the 2005 season. Tagliabue, on the other hand, really believed in the league, not only as a developmental circuit, but as a way to spread American football in other places on the globe. The point still remains that pitching a developmental league, I believe, is tougher under Goodell, potentially crippling CBA ramifications aside.

[nksports]

[quote=""preeths""]one year of $30+ million losses was enough for him to kill NFL Europa.[/quote]

That's the short sightedness of the NFL. Also a drop in the bucket -- maybe five or six top-line NFL starters.

[SignGuyDino]

The UFL is about finished, guys. The NFL supposedly approved an "agreement" and the union doesn't like it. No way is "working with the UFL to slip in a developmental league" anywhere on the radar for both sides.

50-50 odds they play at all this year, folks. Despite what they tell you now, they were trying this gambit to get into the NFL on the cheap. Remember talk of a team in LA? A team in NYC itself? How did that turn out?

[preeths]

Hartford Colonials may be first up on the chopping block:
http://www.courant.com/sports/football/ ... 6388.story

[Sam Hill]

That's it, then. This is exactly the type of talk you hear in the dying weeks of a league. They're toast.

[preeths]

It looks for all the world like they're trying to decide which team is more expensive, Hartford or Virginia, and looking to cut the more costly franchise. Huyghue has stated that Hartford is by far their most expensive stadium situation, but they're having to invest a lot to get the facility in Virginia ready.

The problem is that all a team-folding move does is cut league expenses by maybe 20 percent. Great, now they're only going to lose $40 million instead of the $50 million they projected, and that's the best case scenario. Folding a team does nothing to generate revenue and in fact further erodes already paper-thin confidence in the league.

The UFL tried. We can question their plan, and many of us have, but they gave it a good, honest effort and lost a lot of money. If this comes down in any way to a business decision, the UFL is done. Its ownership may be the only group that doesn't realize the party's over.