Feature: Where We Are, Where We’re Going

Michael Huyghue, UFL

As we approach the announcement of the United Football League, I thought it might be helpful to provide a primer on the league and some of the key developments up until this point.

Last May I was at home – taking a vacation from my job – and I logged onto the NYTimes.com and saw this preview of an announcement of a new football league. As someone who had always been interested in alternative leagues this immediately piqued my interest, and then I read the article and saw the names involved – William Hambrecht, Tim Armstrong, and Mark Cuban – and I realized that this effort might be different from others we have seen recently. After all, not many new leagues actually receive coverage in the New York Times.

NY Times Article

Hambrecht has been thinking unconventional thoughts about pro football for a long time. Back in the early 1980s, he was a minority partner in the Oakland Invaders, one of the original franchises of the late, unlamented United States Football League, a spring league that played its games during the N.F.L.’s off-season. The U.S.F.L. folded in 1985, after three seasons. “It was started by a bunch of guys who were riding high because of the S.&L. boom,” Hambrecht recalls. “As soon as the boom turned to bust, the league went broke.”

Most of us would go through such an experience and conclude, Never again. Not Hambrecht. He was convinced that the U.S.F.L. could have worked with a smarter game plan and owners who were more patient. At various times he discussed a new league with NBC, CBS and Fox, but those talks went nowhere. Then one day last year, Hambrecht told Tim Armstrong, whom he met when his firm helped manage Google’s initial public offering, about his dream of a new football league. The more Armstrong heard, the more excited he got. By October 2006, the two men had committed their $2 million, hired their first three executives (Bill Daugherty, the C.E.O.; Jon Brod, the C.O.O.; and Andrew Goldberg, a senior analyst) and begun an extensive study to see if the idea was really feasible.

…from the NYTimes.

Throughout the column Hambrecht makes the point that this is going to be a fun, rebellious venture – but it is one that has gone through serious studies and has been well prepared. When you consider that this league has had executives and has been in the planning stages since October of 2006 you might realize that while only five months and some odd weeks remain till the league kicks off – and that is a short time indeed – this isn’t something that is being thrown together on the fly.

The initial coverage was filled with skepticism – rightfully so, considering the past “success” of such alternative leagues – but no one wrote it off considering the names involved.

One of the best articles – at least from the league office’s standpoint – was one that ran on CNNMoney.com in August. In it the writer quoted Mark Cuban from his blog.

“Their CBA structure is not designed for a competitive environment. Competition for top players, even if the UFL gets just a few, increases prices at the top end for all teams. Every star will get paid more, but still have to fit under the cap. That forces teams to use more low cost players, at the expense of signing the middle of the roster. That gives us access to quite a few very, very good NFL players.”

And the writer went on to say that:

This argument is the most compelling one I’ve seen for an idea that most football fans would be quick to dismiss, and it’s enough convince me that these efforts aren’t a Hail Mary pass.

Finding the right owners and right corporate partners will be tough. Finding good players and coaches for the new league won’t be as tough as you think.

CNN Money Article

Time after time sports economists and outsiders point out that while the odds are long, they do have a shot if they get the right owners, sponsors, and stadium deals. According to Commissioner Huyghue those things are in place for at least six teams, and hopefully eight. We will see if that is true when the announcement comes – hopefully this week.

For many months information was scarce, but finally on September 17th the league announced that Michael Huyghue would be the Commissioner of the effort. In the press release the league said the following:

Michael Huyghue, a former professional football executive and player agent, was named the first commissioner of the new United Football League, scheduled to begin play in August 2008.

Huyghue, 45, spent the last two decades working as an attorney with the National Football League’s management council, an executive with the Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars and an agent representing players including Carolina Panthers first- round draft choice Jon Beason and suspended Tennessee Titans cornerback Pacman Jones.

Huyghue, who also ran his own agency and consulting firm, said he’s assembling a management team for the New York-based league and relying on experience he gained working with the then- expansion Jaguars and other start-ups.

“I’ve seen what it takes to be successful and I’ve seen what franchises and leagues have done that made them unsuccessful,” he said in a telephone interview. “So I think I have a good feel for what steps we need to take for this to be effective….”

Perhaps the most interesting part of the press release – and one that went relatively unnoticed in the coverage afterwards – was the fact that the UFL blatantly had a section entitled “NFL Competitors”. In this section they discussed past alternatives and then concluded thusly:

Huyghue said the UFL would compete with the NFL by maintaining a high level of play at affordable prices and focusing on cities without NFL teams.

“When teams start reporting wait lists for tickets of 30,000 or 50,000, you know there’s a demand for the sport,” he said.

UFL 2008 Press Release

So, Huyghue was on board – now which cities would they play in? They discussed around two dozen cities that they were considering – and we will look at those options later – but then in mid-October they announced that they were partnering with ticketreserve.com (now www.firstdibz.com) to help decide the markets. Those initial markets were: Austin, Birmingham, Columbus, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Raleigh, Sacramento and San Antonio. Later they would add New York as Charles Wang expressed interest in a team.

Since then information has came out in trickles, including my own initial interview with Commissioner Huyghue.

In this article I revealed a good bit of new information, in addition to laying out more of the reasons and ideas behind the league. From late October forward I relied on a few sources and connections to find out how progress was moving forward, and it was at this point that Billy Kirk, E-mpire, and myself began working on the concept and design of uflaccess.com.

During this time various rumors were floated, among them that ownership groups had been decided upon for Las Vegas, San Antonio, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Memphis, and New York. The other city I heard that was very likely was Orlando – with the eighth market to be determined. We will see if those rumors hold true, but the thing that we must all understand is that new ventures see constant change in the early stages.

We must also understand that while news has at times been scarce, the league has been hard at work. We ran our interview with Huyghue last week in which he revealed that they have locked down ownership groups and stadium deals in six cities as of mid-January, and that in recent weeks they have been attempting to lock down the other two. Further, we revealed that they have signed a television deal, which is a significant development.

So, yes, news has been scarce and I understand how impatient many of us are to hear the announcement and real news from the league – and, yes, it is troubling that it has been delayed time after time – but they have been working hard and it is my hope that we will have the official announcement to report upon in the next day or two.

Nation Hahn @ February 12, 2008