A Sea Of Red

UFL - United Football League

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Foo ... gue_(2008)

4 Teams it appears so far with the following Head Coaches...

Ted Cottrell - New York
Jim Fassel - Vegas
Jim Haslett - Orlando
Dennis Green - San fran

http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/

This was the first id heard of it....Wiki says Nancy Pelosi husband has stepped up heading a group of investors with 30 million to play the first season.

They're apparently talking to Vick to try and get him to be the star and face of the franchise.

No they won't, because they're playing in the fall. If they played in the spring, they'd have a chance.

ToTheLeft wrote:They're apparently talking to Vick to try and get him to be the star and face of the franchise.

Yeah if he is suspended by the NFL and the Falcons let him play there to showcase his skills......could be interesting. Or if he is cut he is going to have to try to repay his debt somehow.....

Also... they apparently already have a TV deal, with Versus.

I'm interested because more football is always a good thing. However, I can't see it lasting in the financial market today.

XFL anyone?

And I hope Vick winds up on a team called The Bulldogs.

XFL was rushed...towards the end there was actually some good football being played...but that was long after people lost interest...XFL was during the NFL offseason though...which is why this just will not work...

This would be fundamentally different from the XFL. The XFL was seemingly started on a dare and nobody ever took it seriously. This league could realistically have a chance since they're not directly competing with the NFL and they've already got a better TV deal than the NHL does. I think the idea of selling team shares to the public can also be a strong selling point for them.

So will this act as a feeder for the NFL?

I know Mark Cuban was an investor for a football league that was supposed to get off the ground but it stalled. I wonder if this is related.

The XFL failed because of marketing. I think it would have been better if you didn't have Vince McMahon screaming about how extreme it was and calling NFL players pansies.

Here's an article from two years ago that talked about this league...

Of course, note that this happened before a massive economic collapse, the likes of which the world has not seen in 60 years...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/sport ... iness.html

This is the league that Mark Cuban pulled out of because he was too busy which, in my opinion, means they're better off.

I should amend something I said earlier, specifically:

they're not directly competing with the NFL

This league would be competing against NFL TV broadcasts but given the UFL's proposed motto "Where the stars of tomorrow come to play" they seem to be putting themselves in position as something of a developmental league for the NFL.

I'm not sure there is any limit to the American appetite for football, as long as it is not on the same night as NFL games. The lineup of head coaches they have is fairly impressive. At least a couple of them would probably be an upgrade for an NFL team or 2.

RagingTireFire wrote: This league would be competing against NFL TV broadcasts.

Well i think it said Thursday and Friday night games....so the NFL doesn't broadcast on Friday, and when does the NFL start Thursday games? Thanksgiving? The championship game of this league is played that week so im really not sure how much direct competition there would be at all.

I thought I had read somewhere that the NFL was going to start scheduling Friday night games this year. I can't find anything about it now so maybe not. I stand corrected, I guess.

I dont think the NFL could ever do that b/c of High School football...but I guess cash is king over families and youth so maybe

I caught some of SVP's show on the way home from the gym. The fill-in host was giving some examples of how they can separate themselves from the NFL since they obviously could never hope to complete with it. The first one he mentioned was to take a page from the fantasy notebook and have each franchise redraft from the player pool every year. And if that's a bit too much to deal with you could throw in some "keepers". I thought that would be a pretty cool idea.

He had some good ideas. I think mic'ing all the players through practice and team meetings, etc...and then broadcasting it on HBO or whatever channel is a great idea. It gives us couch potato's some insight on what goes on during a pro season, behind the scenes.

LUconn wrote:I caught some of SVP's show on the way home from the gym. The fill-in host was giving some examples of how they can separate themselves from the NFL since they obviously could never hope to complete with it. The first one he mentioned was to take a page from the fantasy notebook and have each franchise redraft from the player pool every year. And if that's a bit too much to deal with you could throw in some "keepers". I thought that would be a pretty cool idea.

Agree, sounds cool. And to take a book out of baseball minor league promotions, why not let the fans choose one of the draft picks? How sweet would it be to say that you helped one of your favorite teams choose a player in the draft??

Answer No