2 posts tagged “football”
Is anyone as disappointed by the complete dominance of just a few teams in the NFL and the unwillingness or inability of some owners to acquire real talent? It has made for many unwatchable games the last few seasons. We know Tom Brady is amazing. But do we have to watch him score 52 points on an opponent week after week to know that.
What this tells me is that the National Football League is in a rut. They don't seem to be able to get themselves out of it either. So perhaps a little competition will do the job instead. That's why I'm excited about the prospects for the United Football League.
Things over in the UFL seem to be coming together. The UFL Live blog is the best source of news on the new league I've found and there have been a few great reveals just this week. For instance, there is a fan vote to see which cities are the first 8 to get teams. Final cities and team owners should be announced in Mid-December. There will probably be another fan vote to Coaches and staff will be hired in January and the first draft will be in March.
In addition to the draft, the talent pool will draw on players with previous NFL experience and probably some of the players from the recently shuttered NFL Europe league. There will be a training camp and pre-season just like a real football league (which should prevent the slow start that hurt the XFL). With the games to be played on Friday nights starting sometime in August and running until a championship match played before the Holiday seasons gets under way.
The league won't be under capitalized nor is it going to rely on TV revenue to start. Plans are to have each team financed enough to last three-seasons, or long enough to build a fan base and possibly expand to 12 or 16 teams if the league is doing well enough. Plus starting out by putting teams in cities where the NFL is currently ignoring is going to help rapidly build that fan base and TV coverage (since there won't be overlap with NFL teams).
What I'm liking best about the UFL are the plans to involve the fans. Not just as co-owners as part of an IPO, but online access to team business, locker rooms, practices, player blogs, etc. It will be nice to a league actually embrace its fans rather than hold them at arms length like the NFL.
What are some of the things you would like to see from the UFL as a fan of football
Visions of Rod Smart AKA He Hate Me dancing in your head at the thought of a rival league to the NFL? Then you might be interested to learn about the UFL, United Football League. The story broke this morning on the NY Times website and has create quite a stir. Check out The UFL Live blog for lots of coverage.
