September has been frequently known as the month that football arrives. This year in addition to prep football, the NCAA-BCS combo and the National Football League, we welcome another attempt at grabbing a share of the popularity of football- the United Football League (UFL).
The league’s start up comes at an interesting time- with the country in a severe recession with other somewhat pro football league’s, like the Arena Football League, folding. Originally, the plan had called for six-teams with six different owners. Now, plans have changed to four teams with one owner. Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, led the group of investors that invested $30 million to purchase all four teams. The teams will be “located” in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Orlando and New York but will travel to other markets for neutral games.
Yesterday, was a big announcement for the UFL when the teams hired the coaches for each four teams. Unlike the other secondary football leagues that have come and gone, the UFL managed to get relatively big names to coach the teams. Jim Fassel, Super Bowl winning coach for the 2000 New York Giants; the 2000 NFL Coach of the Year Jim Haslett; and the former Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green.
Dennis Green has found a new home in the Bay Area
Getting these “big” names to coach for a brand new league is one of the few correct steps the UFL has made. Originally, the UFL was set to establish teams in markets that do not have a strong connection with NFL teams. That clearly fell through by establishing franchises in the Bay Area and New York- both of which have two NFL teams. While these teams are going to travel to other markets to test out the waters- markets like Hartford, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama and Los Angeles- this testing of waters will probably hurt the newborn league rather than help it.
Establishing a new franchise consists of making a strong brand presence in that market and would eventually be followed by making a connection with the fans of the market. This is a little hard to do if the team travels to Mobile or Hartford or Los Angeles during the season so the league can test the waters in other markets. The connection between fans and the franchise will suffer for these four teams and the success of these four teams is what determines whether the UFL survives or not.
If the original plan of establishing franchises in markets that do have an established football team- either pro or collegiate- had stuck perhaps the UFL could weather the storm. Establishing teams in smaller cities would draw crowds, but not in records numbers like the NFL. Partnering with the NFL to create a development/minor league affiliate could perhaps work but there are some complications that could arise with that as well. The decisions made from here on out will be interesting and vital to the success or failure of the UFL. I will be keeping a close eye on it and see what develops.
-Dimitri
