Commissioner Michael Huyghue is on a European tour this week as the United Football League continues to plan for the future. Huyghue alerted the world via his twitter stream which we here at UFLAccess.com highly encourage you to follow for news, as he tends to loop around the constraints the UFL media team might try to put on him. Our forums were buzzing over the news yesterday as UFL fans discussed the pros and cons of the move.
Today the mainstream media caught up as Reuters issued a report about the news:
Only a few months away from beginning his U.S. football league’s inaugural season, the United Football League’s commissioner is already talking about overseas expansion.
The UFL, set to begin play in October with four teams competing in seven cities, is eyeing teams in Europe for next year or the year after, Commissioner Michael Huyghue said.
“Foreign expansion for UFL very likely for year two or three,” he wrote in a Tuesday post on Twitter, a fast-growing micro-blogging service. “Some fantastic soccer stadiums that would work perfectly.”
UFL spokeswoman Rachel Gary confirmed Huyghue’s comments and that he is in Europe. She said the UFL is looking at expansion both overseas and in the United States over the next two years.
Huyghue previously said the league will expand by at least two to four teams in 2010, and the UFL has discussed putting a team in Mexico.
Huyghue, who wrote he had visited London, Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin and was on his way to Barcelona, Madrid and Italy, said there was strong interest in American football despite the failure of the National Football League’s European league.
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If nothing else Huyghue’s European trip has stirred debate and alerted people to the global ambitions of the upstart league, and we certainly wouldn’t count out at least one European team to join the UFL ranks in the near future.
We look forward to firm announcements on the schedule, team names, and more soon.
Don’t even think or even talk about overseas expansion. To do so will be a precursor to other bad decisions, stay focused on your market and producing a product that sells. There are so many areas here in the USA who want and can support a UFL team that expansion overseas should be about…20 years in the future if at all. There are so many pro football(soccer)teams in Europe and other countries that to try and import the sport of American Rugby(throwball) there, would be foolish.When we have 2 or three ongoing professional leagues here then see about going elsewhere. The following States have No Pro Football team, Virginia,Oregon,Washington State,Idaho,Montana,Alabama,Mississippi,Kentucky,Rhode Island,Delaware,Vermont,Maine,New Hampshire,Connecticut,Wyoming,Utah,Oklahoma,Nebraska,South Dakota,North Dakota,Iowa,Arkansas,South Carolina,West Virginia, did I miss any? That’s 24 teams right there and no direct competition from the NFL. That would send shivers up their spines.
washington does have a football team… the seattle seahawks.