Loading ...Recently UFL Access contacted Rachel Gary, public relations wiz for the United Football League. We inquired whether the dearth of news and announcements from the league should give fans any cause for alarm as the summer months progress.
Her response? In a word, no.
“Things are progressing nicely with the UFL. Although we have not yet made any announcements, our silence should not be any indicator to you. Rather, as I have mentioned in the past, we continue to do our due diligence in seeking partnerships with people who are fully invested in the league and are interested in its overall success. We hope to make some type of announcement before the summer’s end.” [Emphasis added]
Reassuring words, but unfortunately there isn’t any real “meat” to go with them. We’ll continue to push for league news, so keep checking back with us and make sure to sound off in the forums.
Billy Kirk @ July 3, 2008
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Michael Huyghue, UFL Comments (3)
News at last! The United Football League isn’t giving press releases out but an intrepid Reuters reporter caught up with UFL Commisioner Michael Huyghue as he exited a meeting in San Francisco, locking down some new information in the process.
“I think we’re going to have an announcement, probably next month, relative to the first three or four (teams) on the West Coast,” United Football League Commissioner Michael Huyghue told Reuters on Thursday. “Once we do that, you’ll know more about where we stand with respect to the rest of them. The UFL, with initial funding from investment banker Bill Hambrecht and Google Inc executive Tim Armstrong, said in May 2007 it would begin play with eight teams in August 2008. However, it postponed the launch to 2009 to allow more time to attract owner-investors, negotiate a TV broadcast deal and build league branding, Huyghue said in an interview at the Sports Lawyers Association conference in San Francisco.”
This fits in with most of our information – with the exception of the fact that we were told that the league would announce everything at once with a big roll out. This might indicate that the league wishes to get things rolling with a few teams while they line up the rest.
Billionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the National Basketball Association’s Dallas team, is among the owners, and Hambrecht, the San Francisco area-based founder of WR Hambrecht + Co, may join him, Huyghue said. Huyghue, a former executive at several NFL teams, declined to reveal other owner names, but said “they’re well known, very financially strong people who either have some (ownership) interest in soccer or football or baseball primarily.”
Again, mostly stuff we have reported as rumors – especially Hambrecht being an owner. Apparently Huyghue decided to leak that as well.
The league will run from August to just after Thanksgiving on Thursday and Friday nights. The plan is to begin with eight teams — although it may start with six — in markets not served by the NFL, such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas. On top of those two, Huyghue said markets would also likely include San Francisco and Salt Lake City, Utah, based on feedback from fans signing up to reserve tickets. Orlando, Florida, was a strong East Coast contender, while San Antonio, Texas, appeals to the Hispanic fans that the UFL plans to court aggressively, he added.
Salt Lake and San Francisco are new to the rumblings – but fit in well with what we reported about non-firstDibz markets being included in the original lineup of teams. He went on to discuss something else that we reported – they want to use MLS stadiums when possible and they have reached verbal agreements with six stadiums.
Beyond the two new markets the other information that is new to us (although it was nice to see this information confirmed by a mainstream media outlet that has led to this article being featured in over twenty newspapers) is that they are looking at putting microchips in the ball to aid with accurate placement and other innovations.
Source:Â Reuters
Nation Hahn @ May 16, 2008
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United Football League news has been scarce of late, as the league continues to work feverishly toward procuring eight teams for their inaugural kickoff in 2009. Updates from the league office have been slow in coming, so UFL Access contacted Public Relations specialist Rachel Gary today.
While we weren’t able to turn up anything enlightening, Gary did repeat that we should expect a big summer announcement, and that they were “hard at work at creating a league” from scratch.
In related news, FirstDIBZ, the ticket-selling entity behind the UFL’s advance season ticket campaign, has distributed this letter to ticket holders for the proposed 2008 UFL season:
 Dear Valued Customer,
Due to the postponement of the United Football League’s inaugural season FirstDIBZ has closed the marketplace for 2008 and issued a full credit of the amount paid for UFL DIBZ to your account. If you have any questions regarding your refund or the UFL marketplace please do not hesitate to contact us.
We look forward to continuing to bring you new and exciting market opportunities in the near future.
 Thank you,
FirstDIBZ
888.205.1611Â
Billy Kirk @ April 30, 2008
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After our story the other day, sources have stepped forward to UFL Access and can confirm that Ed Reynolds is indeed heading up Security and Administration for the United Football League.
Reynolds was a former National Football League executive, acting as NFL assistant director of football development. He also took the field for the New England Patriots and New York Giants between 1983 and 1992.
Billy Kirk @ April 10, 2008
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Michael Huyghue, UFL Comments (0)
NFLPlayers.com has reported that United Football League Commissioner Michael Huyghue attended the NFLPA seminar last week in Glendale, Arizona.
Michael Huyghue, commissioner of the new United Football League, was also on the agenda for the seminar. Huyghue told agents that the league is scheduled for kick off in August 2009, playing a fall schedule on Friday nights. Huyghue said the UFL will sign veteran players who had signed an NFL contract at least once in their football careers. The league will also compete with the NFL for rookie players drafted in rounds 3-7 of the NFL’s annual college draft. Player salaries will range from $75,000 to $1 million. The league is targeting major U.S. markets that currently do not have an NFL team, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis and Orlando.
As we have reported numerous times Michael Huyghue continues to make the rounds to reach out to agents and players. The United Football League seems to have made a very concerted effort to reach out to agents, viewing them as the gateway to the players they are seeking to add to UFL rosters.
I would argue that the mention of Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, and Orlando might very well be a sign that those four are four teams that are locked in. I would assume that Memphis would play at the Liberty Bowl, Vegas at Sam Boyd Stadium as we have reported, Los Angeles perhaps at Home Depot Stadium, and Orlando at either the new UCF stadium or the Citrus Bowl.
It is good to see that the UFL continues to move forward with outreach and behind the scenes work.
Source: NFLPA.comÂ
Nation Hahn @ April 10, 2008
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Word has it that Ed Reynolds is in charge of Security and Administration for the United Football League - no confirmation on whether or not this is the Ed Reynolds that played for the Patriots and Giants at LB and graduated from UVA. All the same, in the next few months the UFL will be hiring front office personnel, as well as additional scouts. The league will begin the hiring process for other front office positions shortly.
The plan still remains for an announcement in the coming months, and the plan seems to still be in place for the teams and franchises to be fully operational by September. We’ll bring more as we receive it.
Nation Hahn @ April 8, 2008
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In the fall of 2009, the United Football League plans on opening up in 8-10 markets where the NFL is non-existent and one NFL market where the two NFL teams are playing in a nearby state (New York). These are the markets where the NFL has never been or that the NFL has been but has never returned. I have decided to analyze these markets that could be in the United Football League (American Cities only).
Minh Quan Dang @ April 1, 2008
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The United Football League is looking at a long, slow climb to be able to compete head to head with the National Football League. This path is vulnerable to the machinations of a dominant entity controlling the largest and best markets, and which has flexed its muscles in the past to toss aside competitors. With the NFL occupying the best markets in the United States, this climb, if it is even possible, could take decades of toiling in small markets and smaller profits before they can fully compete freely with the NFL, but there is another way. The UFL brain trust has already mentioned their interest in foreign markets, and it is a very smart decision.
The internationalization of American football has been underway for decades. Organizations such as the International Federation of American Football, European Federation of American Football, and American Football Fans of Europe, which has a welcome presence here on the UFL Access Forums, have helped to spread love of the game across the world. There are clubs, leagues, or college programs available on all 6 populated continents and in at least 50 countries. Some of the most successful are ONEFA (Mexico’s equivalent to NCAA), the X-League in Japan, and the German Football League in Germany. Every 2 years since 2003, a World Cup event has been held for American football, and at World Games 2005, the American football invitational was the most heavily attended event. The NFL itself, even after closing NFLe, continues to invest in foreign markets with NFL Youth programs in Europe, Japan, China, Canada and Mexico.
Expanding into foreign markets to both take advantage and build on these efforts is a tremendous endeavor. It opens up an abundance of large and wealthy markets, as well as a new stream of television and radio contracts and advertising opportunities otherwise unavailable to the UFL. There are several foreign markets that deserve strong consideration, and have a solid history with American football. More on page 63
Jason Gillow @ March 19, 2008
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