Below is an interview by UFL Access lead writer Nation Hahn with questions contributed by UFLA writer Fran Stuchbury, conducted with United Football League Commissioner Michael Huyghue following the announcement of the United Football League’s “Premier Season”.

From the United Football League press office: “Michael has over 20 years of NFL management experience and is considered the architect in establishing the Jacksonville Jaguars as the winningest franchise of the NFL within a five-year span in his role as the team’s Senior Vice President of Football Operations. While with the NFL, Commissioner Huyghue served on several of the NFL Commissioner’s prominent committees, including NFL Management Council, the Executive Working Group Committee, the NFL College Advisory Committee, the NFL Europe League and as a Trustee of the NFL Players Insurance Trust.  Prior to joining the UFL, Huyghue was CEO/Founder of Axcess Sports & Entertainment, where he represented a number of NFL, NBA and PGA Tour players.”

Nation Hahn: Michael – thank you for taking the time during what promises to be a busy day for you to chat with us about the announcement. How does it feel to finally get to the point where the UFL can announce substantive details after so much time spent working on the league?

Michael Huyghue: Well, it is nice to be able to have this announcement. Building a league is a process of a lot of factors coming together – we’ve seen them coming together behind the scenes for a while now. So, yes, it is nice to be able to let the public know what we have achieved as a league and what we have coming.

NH: What is the timeline for announcing the stadiums, television deal, and coaches? Are those negotiations near completion stage?

MH: Television and coaches will come in, or by, March. Player signings will begin in July. Stadiums, television, and all of that are either completed or near completion – we had to rework the agreements slightly once we changed the format for year one.

NH: As far as television, when you say national cable network, I assume you mean a channel most people will have access to? Also, you mentioned regional television as well, is that a realistic possibility?

MH: (Laughter) We will be televised on a recognizable cable network. We expect to have a national and regional broadcast each week, we plan on webcasting. Further we hope to have alerts sent to Blackberries etc. during games. The United Football League is fortunate to have Tim Armstrong, of Google, on our team of investors. We expect our league to be at the forefront of digital media and we expect to blaze new trails moving forward.

NH: When did the UFL reach the decision to launch with four teams/seven cities in the “Premier Season” format as opposed to the six teams you spoke about when you did the interview on Fox Business in early January?

MH: It wasn’t a realization we reached over night. It was a realization of the economy hitting the way it did and, you know, that hit us with the burden of adding ownership groups [during a time of economic turmoil], and also from a fan standpoint this just wasn’t the best year to launch the full scaled venture with 6 or 8 teams or more. Playing in a scaled down format made the most sense financially and in terms of looking at the long run. We couldn’t responsibly, as a league, stick our heads in the sand and go full blown ahead with the circumstances we are facing. In the end something of a more contracted opening made more sense in terms of the UFL being around for years to come.

NH: Was this a decision primarily made by the investors or mutually between everyone involved?

MH: It was a mutual decision in terms of not rushing the product. If we couldn’t stick with the [United Football League] concept then we would rather not do it. The ownership we have now is robust and they believe in this venture. When looking at other failures of leagues in the past, getting out in front of ourselves was not what we wanted to do so we do not follow in their footsteps. Internally that just made sense to us.

NH: Can we expect the investor consortium to own individual teams in 2010?

MH: Yes. I think the strength of this league will be ownership in the markets. We will have a local flair for these groups.

NH: Will you describe the process as far as bringing these investors on board?

MH: We put a strong emphasis on experience in business which would bring us networking possibilities. We wanted people who were secure in their wealth, not groups which would rise and fall with the markets. We wanted people who saw the United Football League as more than an alternative to buying some toy, investors who thought that the model financially made sense. We wanted people who weren’t just football fans alone. There is an old adage that you are only as strong as our weakest owner – and we are confident in these owners. We spent a lot of time looking into as many groups as possible and this group will be a strong founding group moving forward.

NH: What happened to Mark Cuban?

MH: He always intended to be involved, but he had a lot on his plate in recent months. We might very well see him involved with the UFL in the future – and you might see a league relationship with HDNet.

NH: What would you say to fans who might look at this “Premier Season” as a one shot deal? How do you avoid being like the ill-fated Spring Football League which attempted a low scale launch back in 2000? [Writer's Note: I imagine many of you had to Wikipedia the SFL because so few of you have heard of it!]

MH: The fans have never failed past attempts, the leagues have failed them. We do not intend to do so. Fans want more football. If we put out a good product, people will come in good numbers we believe. Our coaches are going to be under multi-year agreements, our executives have good résumés and are not trying to be a one year wonder to try to a job elsewhere. We have a vision for a league that will last for a number of years, far beyond this premier season. We have an IPO structure that will kick in when our teams have tenure.

Most importantly we will build a successful league.

NH: Do you think that the league will be able to attract the same talent with a short season?

MH: The more money you spend, the better talent obviously – but having said that the timing of launching in October puts us in a position to find those players who are not in training camp, the cuts in the final weeks of NFL camp and the first weeks of the season, and – really – just the abundance of talented players out there. Our ability to select talent for four teams is going to be good, we feel confident in that. This league will find the best 200 players out there.

NH: Would any signed UFL players be able to leave the team if an NFL team is interested in them?

MH: Not until the season is over. Moving forward we plan on multi-year UFL contracts as well.

NH: How did you decide on these seven markets for year one? (New York, Hartford, Orlando, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.)

MH: They have been the ones where we have had the most success with in terms of ownership interest, ticket sale data from the TicketReserve campaign, our own market research, venues, coaches interest, etc. These were among the best of the best in all areas we examined.

NH: Since Orlando is the only city that won’t be a split team in year one does that mean that a stronger interest exists in Orlando?

MH: Orlando is a great venue, we have a great ownership group represented there. Orlando may yet play one other game elsewhere, but even if all three of their home games are in Orlando it isn’t necessarily a sign of anything. Florida is a hotbed of football but it doesn’t mean that it is a stronger group than the others.

NH: What will your marketing approach be for a city that may only be hosting one game in the premier season?

MH: We are going to heavily market the games. We will pursue group sales, corporate sales, etc. These cities are going to be on the landscape of the UFL in years to come so this is us laying a foundation and providing the fans with the ability to be able to show their interest.

NH: Is there a lot of pressure to have good ticket sales so the games will look good to people who watch on television and, maybe more importantly, so that the investors will invest in a full scaled league in 2010?

MH: Well, we haven’t set unrealistic targets for the Premier Season. Our expectation is that the United Football League will put a good quality product together and that we will have a great price point [Editor's Note: $20 will be the average price]. Our entertaining, affordable product will be there in these markets. We are in a good position and we will play in 2010.

NH: By the time of the UFL Championship game, will the league announce teams that will be playing for the 2010 season?

MH: We would like to announce those in September, actually, but you will hear the news by the end of the season.

NH: What do you expect the media/public reaction to be as far as a scaled back launch?

MH: We were always going to face skepticism, even if we launched with a full scale league. Most people, practically, should view this as a more prudent way to launch the league in these economic times. Caution is certainly the way to go. Hedging expenditures just makes sense and that is the best plan for us moving forward to make sure we are here for a long time to come.

NH: Thanks for speaking with us! Do you have any parting words for the UFLA community?

MH: Go to the website, post your comments here and there. We, as a league, are listening to you. We aren’t just doing lip service to being a fan friendly, fan driven league. We really want to hear from you.

We here at UFL Access would like to thank Michael for taking the time to speak with us. Go join in the conversation in our forums as we discuss what has been a big day for the United Football League.