Here are some “quick hits” from the UFLAccess.com staff on today’s United Football League Sacramento press conference:

Ron Bodine
Sacramento is among the largest media markets not already occupied by the National Football League (behind only Los Angeles and Orlando), which makes it a great location for a UFL franchise.

Hornet Stadium is home to the California State University, Sacramento (or Sacramento State) Hornets, and had previously housed the well-attended Sacramento Surge of the World League of American Football and the Sacramento Gold Miners of the Canadian Football League.

Commissioner Michael Huyghue made reference to, but did not name, new marketing agencies affiliated with the Sacramento team, and that the league is projecting sell out crowds in 2010.

Although briefly discussed in the press conference, the announcement of Angelo Tsakopoulos as a UFL Sacramento investor is significant to the future of the team and league. Tsakopoulos has been greater Sacramento’s largest real estate developer as chairman of AKT Development Corporation, and is a well-respected philanthropist. He has made significant donations to various causes and charities and in 2002 donated a 70,000 volume collection on the Hellenistic Civilization to Sacramento State. Tsakopoulos is a credible and well-financed investor that further solidifies the already strong foundation of the California UFL franchise.

Today’s press conference was well-attended with more than 100 in attendance, and provided many positive implications for the future of the UFL.

Fran Stuchbury
The move to Sacramento for the Redwoods is a good one. A few months ago when the rumored move was wrote about, the local media wrote stories about it and the UFL for a couple of days. The media in San Francisco and San Jose gave the Redwoods very little media attention during the regular season.

Hornet Stadium has a capacity of 21,195, and has had two other professional football teams play there, the Sacramento Surge of the World League of American Football (1992) and the Sacramento Gold Miners of the Canadian Football League (1993-94). One great thing is they will be installing field turf, so the playing surface will be good. Since there is much less sports competition in Sacramento as compared to San Francisco, they will get much more fan support and could draw 10,000-15,000 fans a game. The key will be to do more marketing and start selling tickets as soon as possible.

A nickname change would not be a bad decision, so the Sacramento community will embrace the team much more, and a name the team contest like done in Hartford would be a good move.

Since I was a big fan of the WLAF, I wouldn’t mind seeing Sacramento Surge QB David Archer who led the team to the World Bowl title in 1992, do the first coin flip since they were the last football team in Sacramento to win a championship.

This is a very good move for the team, and the fan support and media attention the team gets will be much better.

Billy Kirk
Ron hit the nail on the head (or sent the ball through the uprights?) when bringing up Angelo Tsakopoulos. What a grab by the United Football League! Tsakopoulos adds additional credibility to the league, is well-known in the Sacramento and California area, and of course brings what any alternative league needs most – mad cash. The only downside is his name may be a little hard to pronounce, but hey, we’ll let that slide.

As mentioned, the press conference had a stout showing of over a hundred in attendance. On the heels of the impressive turnout for Hartford, this continues to bode very well for the UFL. These cities may not be juggernauts like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago (which naturally are important as media markets and receiving large TV contracts), but the homegrown support is there in spades from the get-go. The name-the-team contest for Hartford is already pulling in great participation numbers (it isn’t all just UFL Access, that’s for sure), and there is little reason to believe at this juncture that Sacramento’s name-the-team campaign will be any different.

I also hope many of you witnessed the mayor’s homage to Dennis Green at the beginning of his speech. Sacramento is, it seems, what we thought they were.

Xander Rich
Seeing as how we knew the move was happening a long time ago, it wasn’t a surprise. I was a bit caught off-guard by the earlier announcements about the dropping of the “Redwoods” name and renaming of the team. While I thought this was a mistake initially, I think now that it adds to the finality of the team’s new home and personalizes it with the new fans it will attract.

Logistically, San Francisco clearly didn’t work, and the league addressed this fact by moving the team to a location that has more potential for them to grow along with the product. Good move.

As far as playing in Hornet Stadium – don’t think I like that move. It kind of irks me to see a professional football team playing in a stadium that has a track around it, although it was used for Olympic Trials in 2000. With a capacity of just over 21,000, though, I think it’s a realistic-sized facility and can accommodate the demands that will come along with the UFL and television coverage.

Dennis Green is excited about the move to the state capital, so that’s definitely a plus for the team. Hopefully it’ll be another building block in helping create a legitimate contender and continue the momentum his team was starting to build at the end of the Premiere Season. Team owner Paul Pelosi is all smiles about the move as well, so there’s nowhere to go but up for all parties involved.

The main thing I’ll emphasize about this move is this: Please don’t move the team again for a few years after this. Stay put in Sacramento for a few years. Build the local support from the community and give this football team the time it will need to succeed. Same thing with Hartford, for that matter. 2010 needs to be the year of anchoring locations and staying there for a while. I like the move, but give it time to build tradition now.