Being a fan of alternative football leagues is a lot like believing that a third party candidate will win in the United States. It could happen, maybe, but history isn’t in your favor.

To use another analogy I use frequently, opening up a new football league is very similar to opening up a restaurant in a building where other restaurants continually fail. I am not sure if you have any experience with this phenomena but in my home town their was a location where every year a new restaurant moved in, briefly, before failing. It seemed like no matter how good the food might be few people would give it a chance because they assumed the location would mean failure.

For those of us interested in a non-NFL league that seems to be the same fate for every venture.

Fortunately for us people keep on trying and, perhaps most fortunately, we now have the United Football League.

This first year was similar, in some ways, to an effort by a venture called by the Spring Football League earlier in the decade. They had bold plans that were tempered by an economic downturn so they launched an exhibition season – although even that failed miserably. The UFL’s Premiere Season was a scaled back version of what the league originally intended to launch primarily due to economic difficulties flushing away some of their original investors. The UFL’s Premiere Season was far more successful with an average attendance just a shade under 10,000 and an average viewership of 124,000 per game on VERSUS.

Now that we’re moving away from the “Premiere Season” we are looking forward to 2010 when the league will launch in full.

In many ways 2009 was a beta test, 2010 will see that beta tag removed.

After a fairly short first season that, in some ways, was virtually buzz free beyond the local markets many have asked why I believe that the United Football League can be successful. The answer is a long one.

For one, the product was really, really good. The games in the closing weeks of the season were competitive and hard fought. The Championship Game was one of the best games of professional football played during the year of 2009. The talent level has been proven in the week after the close of the UFL season as many of the players have been signed by NFL squads or, at least, worked out by NFL teams.

Agent Scott Rochelle, who had several clients in the UFL this year, wrote about the UFL’s success in year one on our forums this week:

“The UFL has succeeded in establishing itself as a feeder program to the NFL. The amount of attention that these guys have been getting since November 20th (the first date in which the NFL could contact players) has been amazing. Expect complete chaos during the offseason as agents scramble to get their players on UFL rosters.

“Of all the things that have gone right or wrong this year, one thing we can all agree on is that the UFL’s scheduling scheme, which allows its players to be available midseason, well scouted, and in game shape, has worked as planned. Expect a lot more marginal NFL players to choose to get six games of pro football exposure over a long shot tryout with an NFL team, especially rookies.
Scott isn’t the only agent expressing that view following year one of the league and as long as they continue to feel that way you will see increased talent in the UFL from year to year.”

The fall is the right time to play and the product proves that.

Numerous UFL officials were clear that they feel as if the talent level would have been dramatically reduced had they played in the spring.

One said that, “you would have to be robocop to play a full spring season and a fall season as well.”

Tatum Bell, Brooks Bollinger, and others who felt that playing in the fall for the UFL would lead to them getting a shot in the NFL would not likely have played for a spring league. It was a view expressed by many UFL players in recent months.

Now whether or not the league will prove to find a niche in the fall remains but anyone who argues that the spring is void of competition is ignoring reality. A spring league goes against baseball, the NBA playoffs, the NHL playoffs, March Madness, NASCAR, and the start of soccer. It also competes with the emergence of warm weather and a desire of many to spend time outside.

The owners have patience and they are invested in the league beyond their monetary investment.

One of the most striking moments of UFL media day, in my mind, was seeing three of the four owners in the front row of the Commissioner’s State of the League Address nodding their heads as he spoke.

Paul Pelosi has traveled to, seemingly, all of the major United Football League events over the course of the first season. He is clearly loving owning a team and he is excited about the future. He also contrasts the UFL favorably with the USFL telling me during our talk on Media Day that, “the difference between the USFL and the UFL is night and day.”

William Hambrecht has worked on this concept for ten plus years and he isn’t likely to give up on the league easily.

After all, the league would have likely died in the wreckage of the economic downturn in October of 2008 were it not for a well timed, major investment from Hambrecht that kept the league alive. Even beyond that the league would have died had Hambrecht not traveled the country widely selling the league to the investors who funded the league in year one.

His efforts were rewarded when his Las Vegas Locos won the Championship Game in year one and he was given the game ball by his team.

The investors and others involved believe in the leadership. Other alternative leagues have had inept leadership in many ways. That, fortunately, has not plagued the UFL.

Their leadership team is full of individuals with NFL experience – major NFL experience for many of them.

Commissioner Michael Huyghue has offered excellent leadership as well. He is a great spokesman for the UFL and an excellent advocate for the idea. After his address at Media Day Paul Pelosi looked at me and said, “How could you listen to Michael Huyghue and not believe in this league?”

The belief in the leadership will only help keep the league moving forward.

One of the advantages in starting small and laying a foundation is that they can correct mistakes and exhibit flexibility moving forward. The league is confident that they can showcase a much improved venture in year two when more people will, hopefully, tune in.

Unlike past ventures they didn’t expend great time and energy getting people to watch the first game, only to have them tune out.

Some have been critical of this move saying that by starting small they have doomed themselves to staying small or never having people tune in.

If you believe that then you believe that bands need to start out with a major record deal to ever have success. The UFL, in this analogy, is much like an independent band starting out playing in night clubs while they fine tune their sound and then moving on to the stadiums in time.

The league has acknowledged that the uniforms in year one were probably a mistake and they are working on changing those uniforms for year two.

The league has said that not having consistent scheduling was a mistake so they are already working on having a schedule in place that would be more consistent from week to week, making it easier for fans to tune in.

The league has stated explicitly that not having teams in the local market hampered their efforts and that will change in year two as well.

All of those changes should help – especially combined with an upgraded web presence, local staff, more marketing, and team websites.

Last, but not least, the people involved believe in the UFL. Numerous employees worked long hours, made less money than they could have with other ventures, and spent weeks away from their families because of a feeling that they are getting in on the ground floor of something that could be very big one day.

I can’t tell you how often I heard that sentiment expressed during the week of the Championship Game – and even before.

Belief and hope are some of the key principles of this holiday season. They are also key for the United Football League and I believe that we will see many, many UFL Championship Games kicking off the holiday season in the years to come.