With the inaugural United Football League season over, the first true offseason begins. The news is there will be two expansion teams, and maybe a relocation or two, for next season to be revealed in the near future. It is a pleasant surprise to hear that San Antonio is not only back in contention, but seems to be a leading candidate. The issue with San Antonio in the past was lack of ownership, and the most likely proponents are all out of the picture:  Peter Holt, owner of the Spurs, will not invest while paying the luxury tax; Red McCombs, former owner of the Minnesota Vikings, is retired from owning sports franchises; Tom Benson, current owner of the New Orleans Saints, is a National Football League owner and not likely to invest in an unaligned football league.

Major industries in San Antonio include medical, hospitality, finance, and government/military. San Antonio has often been referred to as Military City USA. At one point there were at least 4 air force bases and 2 army bases. Lackland Air Force Base is the basic training point for all air force personnel, and Randolph Air Force Base in Universal City is a flight training school and home to the Air Education and Training Command.. Sam Houston is a regional command center, and home to Brooke Army Medical Center, the future medical training center for all military branches.  San Antonio also houses a National Security Agency data center, an FBI field office for south Texas, US District Court for western Texas, and other federal government offices. The large amount of government and military money in San Antonio provides a stabilizing influence on the economy, and helped it whether the recent financial crisis in remarkable shape.

Surprisingly, San Antonio is one of the top leisure travel destinations, with over 20 million leisure travelers a year.  This places San Antonio around New Orleans in terms of destination spots.  The area has also managed to be a top 10 travel spot for both Thanksgiving and New Years over the last few years. Even through the recent troubles, San Antonio’s tourism based industry remained strong, bringing in much needed external spending.  San Antonio boasts numerous historical landmarks and museums, and is home to Six Flags Fiesta Texas, one of Six Flags few profitable parks, the largest marine-life theme park in the world in Sea World San Antonio, and one of the nations top zoos.

In addition to the many benefits of San Antonio, you can also draw on Austin as well. The central business districts of San Antonio and Austin are only about 90 miles away from each other, and the Alamodome is easily accessible from major arteries connected to Austin.  Commuting between the cities is extremely common, and the cities often support each other.  Austin has a few Fortune 1000 companies of its own, as well.  Combined, the two markets range in the mid to late teens in both metro and market size.

San Antonio  is such an intriguing market that Red McCombs, Tom Benson, and Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys,  all publicly stated their support for an NFL team in San Antonio.  Both the New Orleans Saints and Arizona Cardinals previously discussed relocating to this fair city, although both received renovations or new stadiums to remain where they are.

As for where to play, if you are talking football in the fall, you are talking about the Alamodome.  It is the only significant football stadium in the city not already overloaded with high school games.  The Alamodome is a larger stadium than the UFL would normally be looking at with a listed capacity of 65,500, but it was designed for parts of the stadium to not be used and the upper deck can easily be curtained to limit capacity, protect acoustic integrity, and avoid showing empty seats.  The dome also includes 6,000 club seats and 52 luxury suites, typically cash cows in football stadiums.

The Alamodome was designed with the acoustics of football in mind, and football is where it really shines.  Its unique external structure made it one of the first large domes built with no obstructed view seats.  Since its completion, the Alamodome has housed numerous high school football games, the Canadian Football League?s San Antonio Texans, as well as the highly rated annual Alamobowl, the annual US Army All-American Bowl, Dallas Cowboy?s training camp, and temporarily housed the New Orleans Saints after hurricane Katrina.  Players rave about the quality of the experience playing in the Alamodome.

Recently, improvements have been made to the Alamodome as well.  New electronic signage was installed in the form of replacing the old single color scoreboards with ribbon video boards..  The sound system, corner boards, and external marquee were recently upgraded as well.  Earlier this year the Alamodome?s turf field was upgraded, and uses a system very similar to the new Cowboys Stadium?s.  The turf system is scheduled to be updated again in 2013 to keep it state-of-the-art.

There are a few problems with the dome, though.  Reportedly, the locker rooms are small, at least by NFL standards, and there is only a single tunnel leading off the field.  The single tunnel setup has caused problems in the past when emotions were tense during a game.  There are also less than 3,000 parking spots on site, but this is compensated for with 12,000 parking spaces within ½ mile with protected walkways crossing major roadways, and a fantastic bus terminal for park and ride service.  In 2011, UTSA will field a football team that calls the Alamodome home, and combined with annual events, like the Builder?s Expo,  that take place during football season could make scheduling a little problematic at times.

It is widely acknowledge that football is King in Texas, so many people think it is pretty egregious for a team not to exist somewhere in the Lone Star State.  Not only Texas, but the entire middle of the country was abandoned during the Premiere Season, and it created a difficulty for those of us between the Rockies and the Mississippi to maintain our interest at times.  When the nearest team is over 1,000 miles away, it?s difficult to really get absorbed in the games, even when the quality of play is fantastic.

The UFL absolutely needs to look towards the center of the country to build a full scale national footprint, and San Antonio is a near perfect fit for the venture.

San Antonio is the largest city in the nation without an NFL or NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision team.  The 7th largest US city has an estimated population of 1.3 million, and the metropolitan area ranks 28th at a little over 2 million residents.  The median family income is roughly $46,000, and the per capita income is around $19,000.  Nearly 40% of the population is younger than 25, and the median age is 32, making San Antonio a young city.  Despite ranking 28th as a metro area, San Antonio only ranks 37th in terms of designated media market, although the market extends south all the way to the Rio Grande.

61% of the city, and over 50% of the metro area, is Hispanic.  The UFL previously stated a desire to cultivate the Hispanic community they feel has been ignored by the NFL.  San Antonio is a prime spot for this.  Not only is there a majority Hispanic population, and a football crazy atmosphere, but  San Antonio also has a very close relationship with Mexico.  City and Mexican officials often meet, and Monterrey and San Antonio have many shared business interests.  A team in San Antonio would be very suited for the UFL?s desire to cultivate Hispanic fans.

The metropolitan area is home to 6 Fortune 1000 companies, and a couple more, like HEB, that would qualify if they filed their financial reports in the way the list requires.  In addition, there is a large presence for other large companies like AT&T and Toyota.  Sports in San Antonio have a long history of being supported by a large number of sponsors.

Unfortunately, San Antonio’s history with professional football has been overly sporadic.  The Toros played in the last season of the Continental Football League.  The Wings joined the World Football League just in time for the league to fold mid-season.  The Gunslingers played the final 2 years of the United States Football League, but struggled at the gate due to poor ownership.  When the NFL started the World League of American Football, they placed a team in San Antonio, but the league closed down the North American teams after 2 seasons.

San Antonio also participated in the last year of the Canadian Football League’s US experiment.  They were the only US team to play on a regulation CFL field, and were successful on the field, losing in the Southern Final to the eventual champions.  The attendance was respectable, and they were one of only 2 US teams to not fold after the close of the season.  However, when the NFL put a team in Baltimore forcing the CFL to relocate that franchise, the Texans folded instead of being the only US based team in the CFL.  This is the only non-Arena team San Antonio ever fielded that shut down before the league.

The area has been nothing if not consistent since the early 80’s.  With each of the football teams, the average first year attendance has been about 15,000, regardless of season or stadium.  Even the Arena Football League one year entrant, San Antonio Force, average over 11,000 per game, a remarkable number considering the AFL was still practically unheard of and the Force were probably the worst team of all time.

San Antonio was also heavily considered for entry in the XFL.  However, the Alamodome did not have enough open dates to field a team.  It wasn’t until after being turned down by the Alamodome that the XFL proclaimed to play only outside on real grass.

The city hosted 3 home games for the Saints back in 2005.  All three games produced spectacular attendance figures.  The first game had 58,688 people in the stands, despite the sales window being only a couple weeks.  The next game exceeded capacity as San Antonio had it’s first chance to see Michael Vick play.  The last game was pretty much a battle for worst team in the league, yet it was a near sellout in terms of ticket sales, although many chose to skip the game. There were rumors of the Alamodome suites leasing at 3-4 times the price of Superdome suites, but those have never really been confirmed.

The UFL desires a foothold in the Hispanic market.  The UFL needs representation in the middle portion of the country.  The UFL needs an economically stable, large population market.  The UFL needs a football obsessed city in a football obsessed state.  The UFL needs a proven stadium with high revenue potential.  The UFL needs more corporate support.  The UFL needs a market with proven NFL potential.  Above all, the UFL absolutely needs San Antonio.