I feel like one of those people who likes a band before it got famous.
The skinny on the UFL: This year, they have 4 teams, located in Las Vegas, New York, Orlando, and San Francisco. This is kind of a sneak peak season (each team plays 2 games against each other team, so that's 6 weeks) designed to draw interest so that they can have a full season with more teams next year. Even so, it's pretty amazing that they've gotten this far. The All-American Football League had been planned to start in 2007, with teams created and stocked with players, but then the financial problems came. They're currently planning on playing in 2010, but who knows if that will actually happen?
The teams don't yet have names, and until a month ago didn't have any players either. So the biggest draw they had were the head coaches: Jim Fassel (former head coach in New York), Ted Cottrell (Defensive Coordinator for the Bills, Vikings, Jets, and Chargers in the last 10 years), Jim Haslett (former head coach in New Orleans and interim head coach in St Louis), and Dennis Green (former head coach in Minnesota and Arizona). Results of the UFL Draft are here. If you follow any NFL team you will probably recognize some late-round draft picks who failed to make it in. Losman and other players who presumably had ongoing contract talks with the NFL were not included in the draft, so who knows what other surprise names might end up signing in the future?
The salary cap for the entire league in the inaugural season is $16 million, though they plan on increasing it in the second year (when they expect to have more teams and therefore a longer schedule). The games are scheduled for Thursday and Friday evenings and should be broadcast on Versus. Championship game for this first season will be about Thanksgiving. Thursdays and Fridays is perfect because the NFL is forbidden by law from playing games on Fridays, and the Thursday NFL Network games don't start until November 12th.
They are also trying to work with the NFL as sort of a live-action scout team, where their players could be signed as late-season additions.
I just can't see this lasting too long, but stranger things have happened.
"As you may have read in Robert Parker's Wine Newsletter, 'Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan, after a hefty portion of asparagus.'" Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock
The only problem with Thursday and Friday games are competition from the NCAA on TV, and local high school games on Friday nights. I know some places that take HS football more seriously than the NFL.
Also, Thursdays are HUGE ratings for the networks. I think Tuesday and Wednesdays would have been a better choice, but I've never run a sports league.
Originally posted by whateverThey are also trying to work with the NFL as sort of a live-action scout team, where their players could be signed as late-season additions.
They're trying to work with the NFL, but the NFL isn't trying to work with them.
Its almost like the UFL doens't want anyone to know that they exist this year.
I've been following them since they announced the league (since we can always use more football). And their marketing has been head scratching at best.
When they had their draft there was no anouncement, the day of the draft a couple media outlets got wind of it (PFT was where I saw it) and then they started twittering the picks well after the 1st round had started. To top it off, the players who would have garnered the most attention (QB's like Loseman) weren't drafted, but rather allocated to the teams in some other way.
They did make a good move in the last couple days, making it so that players who sign with them prior to August 1st can leave for the NFL any time. The previous set-up of making players wait until the season was over would have limited who would sign with them.
Maybe they will start turning things around when they announce the team names in 2 weeks, but I'm getting the feeling they aren't that confident in their product right now and want to stay as far under the radar as possible this 1st season while they get the kinks worked out.
Originally posted by brickIts almost like the UFL doens't want anyone to know that they exist this year.
I've been following them since they announced the league (since we can always use more football). And their marketing has been head scratching at best.
I'd guess their marketing budget is limited, so what they are doing might be regional stuff focussed on the areas that are getting teams.
I kinda hope they do well. There's enough talent gets cut from the NFL every season that you could put together a pretty good league. NFL Europe managed to produce a fair number of decent players and it was always cool to see them break through after watching them for a season or two over here. I'll probably struggle to find anyone that carries their games in the UK, but that's what the internets are for I figure.
ESPN had a decent article (sports.espn.go.com) on them a while back for those who have a thirst for knowledge on the UFL.
They seem to have some savvy enough people working for them, but many have tried and failed before so the odds probably aren't on their side.
Jeremy Green has talked about them a bit on his Football Today podcast.
Not surprising since his dad is one of the head coaches.
I gather that for players like Losman (and Vick) the idea is that they would be allocated to the team that corresponds to the region of the team that they are linked to. So Vick would be allocated to Orlando because Orlando has the first pick of players from the Falcons' NFL division.