Loading ...United Football League Alert - Huyghue West Coast Comments
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
Bookmark this article!
I am thrilled to see some new items reported. Not sure if I am a fan of San Francisco, I rather see San Jose.
I was just wondering when is the month that is projected for the announcement of the teams and owners?
Chunker, originally they had a planned month for those announcements, but have since pushed back and now have refused to give an exact month time frame. However, as seen in our latest front page post today, they are now saying “by summer’s end”. Vague, I know, but something to hold onto.