The organization of the United Football League’s “Premiere Season” is such that it is unwise to grade the league on many of the normal parameters of the success or failure of a sports venture. The “Premiere Season” launched with little fanfare and with little media backing as part of an overall plan for this season to be the marketing for the league moving forward, meaning the success or failure of the opening season was meant to be graded different internally then many outside prognosticators would guess. Ultimately the investors and partners behind the league were looking at a wide ranging number of factors including the product on the field, fan satisfaction, how the league would fare against competition, which nights were best for games, sponsor satisfaction, total television and webcast viewership, and – yes – attendance. No single factor will make or break the grade for year one.

Attendance has been a burning issue for many fans and sports industry figures who have criticized half empty stadiums. The league itself set it up for criticism when some officials trumpeted a 20,000 per game attendance figure as the number they were trying to reach. A league source admitted that this number was an outdated one, projected when the league was planning on a longer period to sell advance tickets and other factors. Before kickoff the league adjusted their expectations and told investors and partners that they anticipated averaging 10,000 – perhaps a bit more – and acknowledging that 20,000 would be a home run figure.

Thus far they have had success and failure within those projections. Across all ten games they are averaging 9,151 fans at this point. Las Vegas has been a bright spot with an average attendance of 13,184 through the first two games, with a regular season finale and the Championship Game to come. Florida has also been strong with an average attendance of 11,526 across three games – including a home game in St. Petersburg. Both of these markets, non-NFL markets it should be pointed out, have provided a strong foundation for the league moving forward. In addition to the lack of professional football competition both markets have had higher media coverage which helps. Florida, in particular, has had strong attendance considering all three home games went up against major college football games that were important to the area.

New York has represented a mixed bag with a 7,355 average for the two home games in the New York metro area. These numbers are better than they might first appear due to direct competition with two Yankees World Series games, a major event in New York – particularly considering the Yankees had not been to the World Series in an unusually long stretch for the franchise. Hartford was the third New York “home game” but as they are an expansion market we should look at their numbers on an individual basis. Hartford drew 5,201 fans with little, to no, advertising and no media coverage until the day of the game. The league didn’t view the Hartford game as a test for the market. The game was more of a test of the venue and a chance to show the product off to Hartford to lay the foundation for expansion.

California has represented the lowest attendance in the league with an average of 5,326. The first game in AT&T Park drew 6,341 fans while their second game in San Jose drew 4,312. UFL GM Rick Mueller indicated that despite the poor showing San Jose would receive more home games next year. San Jose’s attendance suffered a bit due to it being a late addition to the schedule with zero marketing. Many have speculated that San Jose is likely to receive a fuller slate of Redwoods games going forward and observers believe that San Jose could represent a stronger long term market for the UFL than San Francisco proper.

Mueller reacted to a question about attendance from ProFootballWeekly.com with a focus on the positives, “I think that fans have been great. We’ve got some loyal fans and built it up. Especially in cities like Orlando and Las Vegas. Those cities have been great. And I think everybody that comes, I think our crowd’s probably been a little disappointing in the number of people that we’ve had out, but I think the people that do come see that it’s great football on that field that you can bring a family of four or five for under $100 to one of our games and really enjoy it and have a good time and enjoy some good football; see some players that are really talented. So, although our crowds haven’t been great, I think if you watch it on TV, anything that Versus has done has been outstanding, HDNet has done a great job, so the TV production has been great. And I think that those fans that come back and bring a friend the next time because I know the second time around our crowds have been good everywhere. I know that’s going to come. We’ve got to build that fan base. We’ve got to put a good product out there. Maybe everyone was hesitant, didn’t know what it was going to be, but I think once they see the quality of football out there, I think the fans will come and hopefully we can get the word out there.”

Mueller also noted that Bill Hambrecht, the owner of Las Vegas and founder of the league, told him during their first meeting that he and the other investors were in it for the long haul.

The league takes heart in the attendance figures because those who have been in attendance have enjoyed the product and the environment. Surveys of fans have shown an incredibly positive reaction to the product and an inclination to further support the league moving forward. Merchandise sales have also been strong in stadium and online. According to people within the league merchandise sales have been on target with projections. The VIP Experience package that UFL Executive Ralph Vuono offered to UFLAccess.com readers has been a hit as well

The television production has received high grades as Mueller alluded to during his response. The latest internal rating information I have received indicated that through last week 144,000 viewers had tuned in to the broadcasts on VERSUS, hitting the internal projections drawn up before the season. Webcast numbers have been strong as well, with 20,000-plus tuning in during the inaugural game. The numbers have to grow, obviously, and one of the ways that the league will try to do so in year two is to have more consistent scheduling week to week in terms of which nights the league will play on – something which Michael Huyghue has admitted on several occasions.

The league will succeed or fail based more off of television viewership/revenue and corporate sponsorship than butts in seats. Thus far this year they have managed to sign on far more corporate partners than many would predict given the economic environment. Going into the year the warning signs were there as established leagues struggled with adding sponsors and Women’s Pro Soccer (the other league to launch in 2009) fell significantly short of their sponsorship goals. The UFL, however, has signed more than two dozen corporate sponsors and partners. Paying sponsors range from Title to Le Vai to Motorola – while partners such as Wilson have allowed the league to control costs further through their partnerships. This is an encouraging sign for the league and many of the sponsors have signed on for year two.

The sponsors have been happy with the product and the “deliverables” that they have received from the UFL according to a source, with many of the sponsors pointing to the ANC Digital Board as a way that the league has added significant value for their sponsors and partners.

The product itself has been compelling with the quality of football receiving high grades from scouts, agents, and media figures. In marked contrast to ventures such as the XFL the product has been praised in a public fashion by many knowledgeable sports officials. The players in the league are also attracting NFL interest as Mueller mentioned during the PFW piece mentioned earlier, “On a weekly basis, I probably talk to about half the teams in the league one week – at some point in time I’ve probably talked to a member of every NFL team throughout the past month or so. We have had scouts at our games. We’ve had scouts at our practices. We make our film available to them. We want our players to get this exposure. They are here for a reason. They’re here to make a career out of it. Obviously, it helps our league if that happens, so we have an open-door policy and we’ve been very accessible to anyone in the NFL that wants to come and look at our players or talk about our players or evaluate our players in games or practice. And our coaches are all on board with that and they’ve been great about it too. We’ve had a lot of interest from the NFL. Like I’ve said, between me and my staff, we’ve spoken to every NFL team at some point in time and there’s guys I talk to on a weekly basis wanting to know what’s going on with this league and who’s playing well and who’s not.”

Mueller went on to tell Pro Football Weekly that a number of players who had passed on the UFL opportunity this year had expressed interest in joining the league in year two. We had the opportunity to speak with two agents last week who said that the UFL product had been an eye opener. One agent, who preferred to remain nameless, told us that, “I had two higher profile clients who I mentioned the UFL to who said that they would rather not look at a non-NFL league. Both of them have since expressed interest after seeing the games on television and seeing some of the guys playing in the league. I think that has been true for many other agents and their clients as well.”

The product and the production which have received high marks should only continue to improve which should excite fans of the UFL and readers of this site. The important factor for folks to remember is that while the records will carry over and the teams will be back this was a glorified exhibition season. It offered the league an opportunity to make mistakes and test out different ideas in front of a live audience but without a significant investment in marketing that would have led to higher attention for any mistakes they may have made. The principle behind the league was similar to launching a beta product in the tech world in order to work out the kinks before unveiling the final product for the entire world. Now that the product has been proven and mistakes have been fixed we will see a splashier launch when the league rolls out two more teams and a ten game season next year.

In 2010 the UFL will remove the beta tag and the parameters of success (and failure) will change for the venture. We will see what that means for year three, and beyond, but for now fans should relish the opportunity to see a second season for the league – something fans of leagues such as the XFL would have loved to see.