Michael Huyghue: This Ain’t Their First Rodeo

Michael Huyghue, UFL

In a UFLAccess.com exclusive, Nation Hahn speaks with United Football League Commissioner Michael Huyghue, who explains the UFL’s push back to 2009, their vision for 2008, and why the league’s bigwigs are uniquely prepared to buck the trends of alternative leagues past.

Michael Huyghue has granted me three interviews over the last six months, providing an interesting glimpse into the progress of the United Football League as things have come together since he took over as commissioner of this new venture. The most recent interview was conducted on Friday, February 29^th and for the first time the questions came entirely from the readership of this site.

The driving reason for this interview was the news from last week - news that we were the first media outlet to report – that the UFL had decided to kickoff in 2009 rather than the initial plan to begin in August of this year. Commissioner Huyghue said that, “Shortly after the Super Bowl we expected to announce six teams for kickoff but as we went around to coaching, general manager, and ownership candidates we received a tremendous surge in interest. Suddenly we realized this could be on a larger scale then what they thought initially and it just made sense to push back. Between the looming NFL unrest, the additional interest from different markets, and other things made us realize that we’d serve ourselves well if we pushed back and worked towards something more expansive.”

At the Senior Bowl and the Combine the UFL held various meetings and receptions to try to spread awareness among the agents and players. Huyghue commented, “We met with overwhelming interest. People are excited about the prospect of a new league. Everyone sees it as a win-win. It is an opportunity to create jobs for people. We are going to go after the mid-level player who might have as much talent as anyone but who has been pushed behind the star players who make more money. We are going to develop the quarterback position (in the United Football League). People got it as we met with them and they saw the niche for this league.”

In light of the 2009 kickoff, Commissioner Huyghue went on to say they are still trying to decide on the form of the official launch event, which is expected to come in late March. They will likely do a formal press conference but they want to ensure they fill in as much information as possible right off of the bat. They want to announce the ownership groups, stadium deals, television deal, and as many other details as they possibly can at that point. When asked about the details of these deals Huyghue informed us, “Most of the contracts and deals have been verbally agreed to. It doesn’t move as quickly as you’d like, but that is just the process. We haven’t met resistance in the markets or anything.”

From his comments and from what I have heard from other folks it seems they want to get as many things as they can on board for the announcement because this is one chance to really capture some attention as they begin the process to build the buzz towards 2009.

The initial six ownership groups are in place. I asked Huyghue if the other unannounced owners beyond Mark Cuban had been involved in the sports world before to which he replied, “Some were, but not all of them. Some are just sports fans with no prior team ownership experience.”

Various sources had told us over the past few months that one of the goals of the UFL was to gain as many household names in the local markets as possible to help combat the skepticism that comes with a new venture. Huyghue said he felt as if the ownership groups would be well known and well received in the markets. He also told me he felt as if they had combated the skepticism further in the meetings they had held over the past several months. He said, “People understand, people get it. It is a great statement for us since the history (of alternative leagues) speaks so overwhelmingly against that.”

With all of the news that seems so great coming from the league, at least, it has raised questions about the number of teams they will launch with. They are only going to announce six teams, it seems like, since they only want to announce teams that have everything in place in terms of ownership and stadiums. Huyghue told me, “The process has evolved as a lot more people have come forward with interest. We’re going to launch with as many teams as we can line up and we don’t know the number yet.”

In other words, six is the floor and we aren’t sure what the ceiling will be yet, although we will apparently know by September since the commissioner informed us they expect all of the teams will be up and operational by then, although they don’t have an “arbitrary” deadline or “drop dead” date for those additional teams.

The news in this arena that might particularly interest UFL fans in non-TicketReserve/FirstDibz campaign markets is that some of those additional markets may well be from cities that were not included in that marketing campaign. Huyghue said several additional markets had surfaced with potential ownership groups, so it seems likely we could see a team or two from markets we haven’t paid attention to at this point in time, especially since the commissioner classified the interest from some of these additional markets as being, “tremendous”.

I also pushed Commissioner Huyghue on international expansion, since readers from Portugal, Scotland, Romania and England all sent me emails asking about the possibility of the UFL coming to Europe. In news that should excite those of you in Europe, Huyghue revealed the league has a consultant in London who has spent months pursuing opportunities for the league to play there as well as other cities in Europe. As for a timeline he said, “London and other cities are viable for us and we are looking to get to them soon.”

All of these teams will need coaches and general managers and according to various news reports conversations with various prospects are underway. I asked for confirmation of the $1 million per year salary for coaches and the $500,000 per year salary for general managers that profootballtalk.com reported earlier this week. The commissioner apologized for not being willing to share specifics but said the league will be competitive with what the NFL pays and people won’t look at it as a pay cut. He went on to say that the UFL is trying to attract the absolute best and a lot of the names you see mentioned on NFL head coach shortlists, etc. will likely be on the sideline for the UFL franchises come fall of 2009.

As for the remainder of 2008 Huyghue made it clear that we won’t have a boring time over the coming months. He said, “So much information will come out. You will hear about teams, coaches, GMs, and players. The whole formation process will dominate in 2008.”

Huyghue went on to inform UFLAccess that the league now has offices in New York, New Jersey, and the football operations office in Jacksonville.

One of the details that will come out in 2008 that most everyone seems particularly interested in are the names for each of the franchises. Commissioner Huyghue said, “Fans will be involved with selection team names and other aspects. This league begun with a grassroots effort in the TicketReserve campaign; we had fan involvement from day one. We will have a number of things going on in each market to build a viral effort as we head towards kickoff.”

Once the teams are named they will also need to be “branded”. On that front the commissioner told us that Frank Vuono, the Chief Operating Officer for the league and formerly involved with NFL licensing, will be heading up that effort. He said, “We are putting together groups who have been involved in some of the best branding efforts in our country.”

In other words, expect a highly professional branding effort for the UFL. This would represent a difference from some other recent upstarts.

For my closing question I turned to Commissioner Huyghue’s prior experience with getting the World League of American Football off the ground, as well as the experience other folks involved in this venture have, not just with the WLAF launch but other upstarts as well. Huyghue said, “In many respects this is what we are feeding off of – our experience in getting other leagues off of the ground. This isn’t our first rodeo. I like the way things are developing. That isn’t to say we don’t have a lot of hurdles to clear before kickoff, but I like the path we are on.”

Nation Hahn @ March 3, 2008