Loading ...The UFL: Year Five
Mark Cuban, Michael Huyghue, UFL
[Editor’s Note: All the information presented below is speculative and for fantasy purposes only.]
Pardon me as I look at the United Football League after five years of operation (mostly because I want to write about something/kill time until the announcement).
Year One was a relative success as Birmingham, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Memphis, Orlando, San Antonio, and Sacramento averaged around 21,000 fans a game. The TNT ratings were solid, if not spectacular. Pacman Jones, Marcus Vick, Colt Brennan, and others provided a level of excitement for those who tuned in – and on the whole the product was solid despite the naysayers on ESPN and a few other media outlets which preferred to slam the league when they did provide coverage.
Year Two was dubbed the year of Mike Vick as the former NFL All Star decided to avoid his year or more of NFL suspension by playing quarterback for the Los Angeles franchise of the UFL. Mark Cuban beamed widely at the press conference announcing Vick and brushed aside the negative questions from certain members of the press. It was also the year of expansion as Michael Huyghue and company added Mexico City, Portland, Hartford, and Raleigh. Mike Vick led the Los Angeles team to the title after shaking off the rust – and the LA team led the league to higher ratings on TNT.
International cachet was granted to the UFL – just ahead of the NBA Euro division – when the league added London and Milwaukee in year three. London attracted high initial interest, especially, and the attendance for the league headed towards the 30,000 mark as the quality of play continued to improve. The first move would occur in the offseason as Sacramento moved slightly down the road to San Jose.
Year Four saw Frankfurt and Hamburg join the league to complete the European expansion of the (now) global United Football League. Year Four also saw the expanded television presence of the UFL as TNT re-upped for Friday nights and Fox Sports signed on for a Thursday night sked. In Year Four Mexico City managed to capture the United Bowl which brought the first international champion to the league.
So, now as we begin the Fifth Year of the United Football League let’s examine where we stand:
UFL – East/Europe
Frankfurt
Hamburg
London
New York
Hartford
Raleigh
Memphis
Orlando
Birmingham
UFL – West
Mexico City
San Jose
Milwaukee
San Antonio
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
Portland
Michael Huyghue announced before the season that the UFL had targeted four pacific rim teams for Year Seven – Honolulu, Tokyo, Sydney, and Melbourne. The league also announced the expansion of the salary cap from $22.5 million to $31 million – including the possibility of a “Franchise Player” who would be allowed to not count against the salary cap. Huyghue also announced a transition plan for a new commissioner now that the foundation for the UFL had been put into place.
(Just for fun folks – but most of these cities and things would not surprise me too much if things go as planned.)
Nation Hahn @ February 17, 2008
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I actually do think it’s a good idea to allow a Franchise player to not count against a cap early on, and then phase it out as the cap nears the NFL or something like that.
The CFL has done that in the past, at least. That’s how they got Rocket Ismail back in the day. It would certainly allow the UFL to draw some big names. Maybe restrict such deals to only 1 year contracts for the first 5 years so that teams don’t get locked into backbreaking deals.
Well you should have Scotland,Barcelona.Amsterdan,Rome and Paris in there as well.
UNITED FOOTBALL LEAGUE
UFL EAST
Birmingham Explorers
Memphis Steam
New York Fireballs
Orlando Wonder
UFL WEST
Las Vegas Dice
Los Angeles Dynamite
Sacramento Comet
San Antonio Showdown
I call the divisions UFL EASR and UFL WEST because it sounds cooler than Eastern Division and Western Division and United Bowl is used by United Indoor Football so your championship game will have to be called the UFL BOWL and your all-star game will be called the STARS BOWL.Bye.
boo we need a Columbus team. Anyhow great article