UFL Salt Lake Bound?

Michael Huyghue, UFL

Earlier this week The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Salt Lake City is receiving more than a little attention from the United Football League. Citing a Reuters report from May 15th, the paper also lists a few other cities that are getting the once over - Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Francisco and Las Vegas. This shouldn’t be a surprise given our earlier reports, although the inclusion of San Francisco may raise a few eyebrows, for obvious reasons.

Despite the base of the information undergoing recycling by the Tribune nearly two months after the fact, additional comments were fished for and public relations specialist Rachel Gary, whom UFL Access has been in talks with in the past, bolstered the original Reuters piece slightly with her response. Gary told the Tribune that Salt Lake was a city being “seriously looked at”. League commish Michael Huyghue declined the paper’s interview requests.

As the slow march towards 2009 continues, skeptics grow in predictable numbers as firm information on the league’s launch remains absent. David Carter, executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute, spoke thusly:

No one is going to be able to come in and take over the popularity of the NFL. They would be doomed to failure. You would have to compare the league to Major League Soccer or the WNBA and it took both of them a very long time to stabilize.

The next couple of years will tell the tale on the feasibility of stabilization - let’s hope the next couple of months yield league launch insight.

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune

Billy Kirk @ July 20, 2008