United Football League set to Debut in 2008

Posted on May 31st, 2007 by ChrisSloan.
Categories: News.

Starting a new football league; sounds ludicrous considering the numerous failures of other leagues of the past but that’s just what Bill Hambrecht intends to do.

After years of stirring things up out on Wall Street with his unusual tactics, Bill Hambrecht is once again causing a ruckus. At the youthful age of 62, retirement is not on his agenda as he looks to establish a professional football league that is second only to the National Football League, with the hopes to one day rival the NFL. To stay on track he’s partnered with the likes of Tim Armstrong who is a senior executive with Google, and they’ve already put up $2 million each to hire a C.E.O. and C.O.O. with strong roots from the National Basketball Association. While things are still very preliminary at this point the have chosen the name: the United Football League.

At this point no official decision has been made on which cities will have teams, but speculation is that it won’t be any current NFL cities; current proposed cities include San Antonio, Las Vegas, Mexico City, Orlando and (of course) Los Angeles. Another major key in the success of the league will be that of the ownership which will be 3 fold. The league will own 1/3 of each team, and a major owner owning a second 1/3. The final 1/3 will be owned by the fans themselves who can purchase stock in the teams; the UFL leaders feel as though this will be a major advantage over the NFL as fans will have a vested interest in the success of their team. As well, the contributing parties will provide $30 million each giving a cash flow of $90 million for each team. As of yet the only potential owner to be named is Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.

A great deal of speculation currently surrounds the leagues chances based upon the failure of other football leagues; my guess is that great businessmen understand the risk and if they didn’t see a nice upside then they wouldn’t be taking the chance.

8 comments.

Herman Brame

Comment on October 21st, 2007.

With the proper management this league can succeed just like the American Football League of the 1960s. The press tried to kill the American Football League by calling its players “NFL rejects”, but it did not work. The NFL can only provide jobs for 1,600 players for an average of 4 years each, and college football is producing more pro calibre players than the NFL can absorb. All of the arena leagues have real athletes who can run the 40-yard sprint in 4.3 sec. or better, but they can’t get into the NFL.

barry ernst

Comment on November 3rd, 2007.

I would play a schedule from either late April or May thru Sept.
Pro football fans are dying for the sport in those months and there is a strong market for it but not during the NFL season. I hope their is a franchise in New York esp. Long Island.

anthony tarantino

Comment on November 27th, 2007.

Long Island needs a team.

Chris Sloan

Comment on December 19th, 2007.

Hopefully this will be better than the basketball development leagues.

Herman Brame

Comment on January 4th, 2008.

What do the following names have in common? Kurt Warner, Michael Lewis, Tommy Maddox, Rashied Davis, Kevin Kaevisharn, David Patten, Fred Jackson, Mike Furrey etc. Well they all were rejected by the NFL, and played in one of the arena leagues before becoming NFL Super Bowl winners, MVPs, Pro Bowlers and starters. All told over 50 players from the arena leagues have recently made a significan impact on the NFL.
The UFL has a great opportunity to scout these leagues and come up with some great “steals.”

Ron B.

Comment on January 19th, 2008.

It could work if its managed properly. Targeting cities that do not already have NFL teams is a great idea. However, there is a pretty big vacancy at RFK stadium in Washington, DC. RFK lost the Nationals recently. The football team of our nation’s capital is in Maryland? Skins fans are pissed at Redskins owner Dan Snyder for acting as the GM of a poorly managed team. The Redskins could use some competition in the greatest football market in the U.S.

Herman B.

Comment on February 4th, 2008.

I hope the UFL does not get hung up on signing just guys from big name schools. The NFL overlooks many good players from small schools. However, the 2008 Super Bowl Champion Giants have many small college guys on their roster:
Michael Strahan (Tex. Southern),
Kevin Boss (Western Oregon), Awasom Adrian (N. Texas), Chase Blackburn (Akron), Craig Dahl (North Dakota State), Torrance Daniels (Harding), Zak DeOssie (Brown), Domanik Hixon (Akron) Brandon Jacobs (Southern Illinois), Geoffrey Pope (Howard),Dave Tollefson (NW Missouri State), Lawrence Tynes (Troy State),Osi Umenyiora (Troy State), and Derrick Ward (Ottawa-Kansas). I hope the league doesn’t let the press and blogs drive them away from great players from the smaller college football programs and the arena leagues.

Roger Evans

Comment on February 26th, 2008.

GO BEARCATS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great players from the small colleges might be the way to go.

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