The Evolution of the United Football League

How the UFL Arrived to this Point and a Conversation with Michael Huyghue

The United Football League is for real. The UFL is going to kickoff in early October with games televised on VERSUS in HD. Even if ten fans show up at the inaugural game that means the league has accomplished a lot. Do you realize how many “leagues” have announced their existence and never put a ball in the air? At last count more than twenty of these so-called leagues announced and didn’t play over the course of the last two-plus decades since the United States Football League shut their doors.

It wasn’t always such a sure bet the UFL would play, or at the least it didn’t appear to be one to the public writ large. The United Football League was announced in the New York Times Sunday Edition – an atypical launch but one that guaranteed the movers and shakers all over the country would read about the effort in the “paper of record”. At the time it raised a lot of eyebrows because it featured a Google Executive, a long time Wall Street stalwart, and Mark Cuban as a potential owner. That alone managed to earn the league instant media attention, even though at the time it was more of a dream and work in progress than anything else as the New York Times made clear:

Obviously, the U.F.L. is still in the early planning stages. It hasn’t yet hired a single football person and is still hunting for seven more owners with Cuban’s deep pockets and contrarian mindset, so that the league can begin with eight teams. It could easily fall apart before the first kickoff. Indeed, there has already been one setback: Boone Pickens, the oilman turned-corporate-raider-turned-billionaire-hedge-fund manager, recently abandoned his intention to buy a team. But Cuban remains committed, and if all goes according to plan, the U.F.L. will play its first preseason games in August 2008. I kid you not.

In early fall of 2007, following this report, the United Football League announced that former NFL Executive and Sports Agent Michael Huyghue would be leading the venture. That was the first step in hiring “football people” for the venture. Other hires soon followed, a campaign with TicketReserve kicked off to help select markets for year one, and things seemed to be a go.

The August 2008 kickoff? Yeah, that did not happen.  In early February of 2008 the league decided to postpone. Normally this would mean certain death for proposed leagues. Delays equal death. Not so for the UFL.

Throughout 2008 the league was quiet, only promising that they were working hard and that the league would come together in time. At this point you would have been forgiven if you thought the league would never kick off. After all, what evidence did you have to the contrary?

Then came December 2008 – a few months into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, when certainly no one expected a new league to be born – and out came the UFL publicly. They announced they would kickoff in fall of 2009, they announced 8 markets from which teams would come from, and the league announced that Casa Grande, Arizona would host a training camp for the league. They also rolled out a whole new website.

Mark Cuban was gone but the league was here.

The weeks rolled on with rumors here and there. Then came February 2009 when the United Football League announced they would kickoff in the first week of October with four teams playing in seven markets for six weeks. The equation may have been confusing but the league was definitely going to play.

Jim Fassel was reported to be a coach in the UFL by UFLAccess.com’s Fran Stuchbury around the same time, news that would be confirmed in March when to the surprise of the sporting public four former NFL coaches were announced as the leads of the UFL teams. Fassel would coach the Las Vegas entry. Former NFL Coach of the Year Jim Haslett would coach UFL Orlando. YouTube star (and former Coach of the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings) Dennis Green would lead up UFL San Francisco which would play in AT&T Park, and former San Diego Chargers Defensive Coordinator Ted Cottrell would lead the New York franchise.

Oh, and the games would be on VERSUS in HD.

The kickoff date had changed. The owners had changed. The number of teams had changed. The promise of the United Football League, however, clearly remained the same.

The promise of a major second football league.

Where the United Football League is Heading

United Football League Commissioner Michael Huyghue spoke with UFL Access recently and he is clearly pumped about where the league is at this point. He told us, “I think for a startup in this economy versus the bad job other leagues have done, even with skepticism that comes with a new league that we have had a great media reaction. We have more credibility then I think people would have thought. We have established, in my mind, that a niche exists.”

He has reason to be excited. Recently the league rolled out a new website, the majority of the assistant coaches for each team, and a number of social media aspects. Huyghue has been active on Twitter, telling us that “People ask questions, I answer. They can find out what is going on within the league from me rather than waiting for the media. The UFL is going to be interactive, quick, and responsive. It’s the great thing about a startup.”

The media attention has been growing as well. Huyghue pointed out that media outlets have debated, in a serious manner, as to whether or not certain players should play in the NFL or the UFL. The most obvious of those is Michael Vick, the recently released from prison former NFL star who stirred up a lot of UFL stories during his long car trip from Fort Leavenworth to Virginia, but other players such as Rex Grossman have had their football future publicly debated on other outlets. Football fans should note the difference between the treatment the UFL is receiving and the response the XFL garnered. Indeed, at this point in the development of the XFL the debate was whether or not the games would be fixed, not whether or not former NFL stars would be suiting up for the venture.

The media attention will only continue to grow as the first UFL players are signed, something Huyghue promised we would see soon. Forty players or more should be associated with the UFL formally within the next three to four weeks. Many of these players will come from invitation only camps that are going to happen in Orlando and Las Vegas in early June. He was quick to point out that, by his estimation, 900 players who were associated with the NFL last year are not on an NFL roster and are available for the UFL to sign already. Further, NFL teams will be cutting hundreds more in July and August, making the talent pool for the league all the greater. In addition to NFL-quality players, Huyghue told us the referees will come from the NCAA and NFL-ready lists. Larry Upson, with extensive NFL experience, will be leading that department and fans can expect quality officiating as well.

One of the constant themes of the conversation was how much work the league has done behind the scenes. “The schedule is done, VERSUS has reviewed it. We’re ready to roll with it,” commented Huyghue. The league intends to release the schedule around the time they kick off ticket sales and marketing. Tentatively fans can expect that to happen in early July. He also told us to look for more than a dozen announcements in the near future including broadcast information. The league will apparently have coaches’ shows, a preview show, and other media put together by their own UFL Films Division.

Innovations, including the GPS chip the league will place in footballs, will continue to be unveiled in the coming weeks. The GPS chip is something the league is specifically excited about and it will be used in coaches’ challenges to guarantee accurate placement of the ball, among other uses. One of the innovations is how the league website will be used. “It is our intent to have lots of video on the site. You will be able to watch how the uniforms were put together, how we decided on branding. We have, you know, a 10-15 person team working on all of that and you will hear from them. You are going to see videos from our strength trainers and other staff. We want our site to provide fans with an inside look,” promised Huyghue.

June 8th is the next major meeting for the United Football League, which will include a Competition Committee meeting that we may be able to watch online. Following that meeting we will know more about rule changes and timelines for when the names and uniforms will be released – which according to UFL-football.com will be in July.

The meeting will be held in New York City, the one UFL franchise without an announced home at this point. Huyghue told us that, “We will announce that stadium soon. It is a well known venue and we’re glad that our franchise will be playing there in year one.”

One of the questions that skeptics of the venture have brought up is how long the league will last. It is a fair question. After all, many of the previous attempts have lasted one or two years at best. The league seems confident that will not be their fate. According to Huyghue the league is set to not only meet, but exceed their sponsorship benchmarks for year one. “We had a lot more returned phone calls after we announced our television deal and coaches, needless to say,” commented Huyghue with a laugh.

Expansion is also on the horizon. The UFL has one person working solely on the expansion process for the venture. Huyghue revealed that the league has three markets identified, along with potential owners. He also said that we should know those markets by the end of the inaugural season.

When asked about the future of the league the UFL Commissioner replied, “I’ve been in the football business for a long, long time. I know that the fans will be there, we will meet our goals. Our owners are committed, we are funded for two years minimum. The league is going to be here to stay.” (Ed. Note – Check out the Sports Business Journal article we excerpted for more information on what the league is doing in terms of sponsorships.)

Considering what the league has accomplished thus far that seems to be a far safer bet than many would give them credit for.

(Ed. note -Thanks to Fran Stuchbury, Ron Bodine, and Dusty Sloan for helping come up with questions for the Commissioner)