The United Football League has continued to generate positive buzz in light of their major announcements last week. In my conversations with people associated with the UFL they have been pleased with the coverage, especially considering the difficult economic climate the league is launching into.
One of the more pleasant surprises has been the positive coverage coming out of San Francisco, the inclusion of which surprised a lot of UFL fans and observers when the city was initially announced. I have gone on record as saying that I believe San Francisco will be one of the success stories for the league, especially since they are playing at AT&T Park.
Below is an editorial from the San Francisco Examiner which is worth a read:
Anyone who supports the concept that there can never be too much football will welcome the new United Football League. San Francisco is one of the league’s four inaugural franchises, along with Las Vegas, New York and Orlando.
Starting in October, The City’s unnamed team — which is to be determined by fans in an online contest — will play two weeknight home games at AT&T Park and a third in Sacramento. There will also be two away games in a seven-week season ending with a Thanksgiving weekend championship.
Tickets are $20, and league organizers promise an emphasis on “affordable, innovative and exciting new football.”
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However, the UFL is arriving with considerably more credibility than many doomed predecessors. Leading San Francisco’s franchise is Dennis Green, formerly a Stanford head coach and 49ers assistant under Bill Walsh. Green will be competing against two former NFL Coach of the Year honorees, Jim Fassel in Las Vegas and Jim Haslett in Orlando, and defensive guru Ted Cottrell in New York.
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If the United Football League keeps its pledge to be “affordable, innovative and exciting” as a more intimate supplement to the big-stadium NFL, we think it could have a good chance of establishing itself in The City. After all, even The San Francisco Demons from the notoriously inept XFL led that one-season league’s attendance with an average of more than 34,000 people at AT&T Park during 2001.
Continue over to the Examiner to read the full piece.
Suffice to say this coverage is a departure from the coverage the XFL received when it was first announced and better than most other ventures that have announced in recent years. Certainly the league has dealt with negative coverage as well, but it has been more muted than one would expect given the past history of start up football leagues. The league will need all of the positive coverage it can receive ahead of kickoff in October. Free publicity will save the league precious marketing dollars as it attempts to get fans in the stadiums next fall.
Some have questioned our pronouncements that Dennis Green, Ted Cottrell, Jim Fassel, and Jim Haslett give the league the boost and credibility that it needed – I would argue that with each passing day and with each new story our belief that last week was a coup for the league is confirmed.
Does the league have a lot of work ahead of it? Certainly. They have to build on this buzz with appropriate branding, sign up sponsors, build a more intensive website, sign all of the venues on the dotted line, and – most importantly – attract players to match the coaches.
They have a mountain of work ahead of them but the UFL finally has something to build on.
Good Article