UFL Access and Our Sports Central contributor Fran Stuchbury spoke to UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue at the unveiling of the New York Sentinels nickname press conference at The Princeton Club in Manhattan.

Fran Stuchbury: Will UFL games on Versus and HDNet be webcasted so fans that don’t get those channels and fans overseas will be able to watch the games on their computer?

Michael Huyghue: Absolutely! Games on Versus and HDNet will be webcasted.

FS: Next season you have mentioned in 2010 there will be six teams in the UFL. How many games will take place during that season?

MH: A ten game regular season, playoff week and a championship game, so it will be a 12 week season all together.

FS: Do you like the Friday 3pm eastern – 12pm pacific start time in Las Vegas for the championship game?

MH: Yes, I think it is good because right around that time people are getting up in the morning because it’s the big shopping day on the Friday. The noon start time locally is good because fans just finished their second helping on Thanksgiving food. They are sitting back and relaxing. Most football fans think of that as an overload of food and an overload of football so it’s a great time to have us on.

FS:  Do you like that the Tampa Bay Rays own the Florida Tuskers franchise?

MH: I think it gives us credibility. I think when you see top tier entities like the Rays buying into a franchise, when you see Citi Field making their field for the New York Sentinels, when you see AT&T Park being made available for the California Redwoods. If you look at how we are trying to approach this league, I think people are able to see high quality is what we are really trying to focus on.

FS: Does the demise of the Arena Football League have any impact on the UFL?

MH: I don’t think it does because most of our players had to come from NFL rosters to begin with. I think there are more expendable dollars; entertainment dollars that fans would have spent who went to watch those games that might help us. From a product or player standpoint I don’t think it has much of an impact.

FS: Will the California Redwoods have a tough time getting home games at AT&T Park if the San Francisco Giants make the postseason?

MH: Ultimately games might have to be played at San Jose State or Sacramento, if they stay there. Also it will be interesting to see how the San Francisco 49ers impact one game we play this season when we play a game on Saturday and the 49ers play on Thursday in the same week.

FS:  Was that the reason the team name was changed from San Francisco to California Redwoods due to games having to possibly be moved around?

MH: Yes, the name is more expansive and will cover our options better.

FS: How about UFL Founder and Chairman Bill Hambrecht, a guy who has invested a lot of money in the UFL, is now the owner of the Las Vegas Locomotives. Why did he make that move?

MH: He was enjoying the task of being a chairman and working as a league owner, then he said he got the bug and when he was selling UFL franchises to people, he listened to his own pitch and then he said, wait a minute this is what I want to do. He will remove himself from the board and own the Las Vegas Locomotives and that is great.

FS: Are there plans to have the UFL Championship in Las Vegas again next season?

MH: We’re going to watch this year and see, but our plans are yes to continue there. We think there is no better place to do events and Las Vegas knows how to put on events.

Note from Fran: If you have any questions or comments about this interview, feel free to drop me an email atarenazone@yahoo.com and I will be more than happy to get back to you.