Let’s just say I’m skeptical anytime I see a press release wildly promoting yet another attempt at creating another professional football league. It’s usually followed months later by a tamer and shorter release saying, “Um, due to blah, blah, blah, everything we said we were going to do, we, um, can’t really afford to do.” 

Well, here are parts of a release that arrived today from the United Football League, which now says it has a TV deal (I’ll believe it when I see it):

NEW YORK, NY (March 9, 2009) – The United Football League, a new professional outdoor football league, today announced VERSUS, a national sports network in more than 75 million homes, will air the League’s “Premiere” season beginning in October 2009. VERSUS will air live weekly games beginning on Thursday, October 8, and continuing through the Championship Game scheduled to air Thanksgiving weekend. Each live telecast will be approximately three hours and all games will be produced and available in HD. The complete schedule will be announced this summer.

“The UFL’s business model is to align with companies who are willing to grow with us and embrace the UFL’s vision of innovation, accessibility, excitement and entertainment,” said Commissioner Michael Huyghue (MY NOTE: Huyghue is a former senior VP of football operations for the Jaguars). “As a national sports network with more than 75 million viewers, we felt there was no better network to showcase the UFL’s “Premiere” season. The UFL is very excited about many of the enhancements our television broadcast will have during the season. Airing our events on VERSUS will allow us the opportunity to provide our at-home audience with a true inside look on game day.”

In its “Premiere” year, the UFL will host teams in Las Vegas, New York, Orlando and San Francisco. There are also plans to play additional games in Hartford and Los Angeles. The season will conclude with a Championship Game tentatively scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas. On Wednesday, the UFL will announce its four coaches at a press conference in San Francisco. League officials are in final negotiations with various stadiums and these agreements will be announced as they are completed.

“We are excited to be the television home of the UFL in its “Premiere” season,” said Marc Fein, Executive Vice President of Programming, Production and Business Operations for VERSUS. “The UFL has put together a great management team and sound plan and we are looking forward to the opportunity to expose these games to a national audience each week.”

Citing an NFL source, profootballtalk.com is reporting that former Saints and Rams coach Jim Haslett will be one of the four UFL head coaches introduced on Wednesday.�

This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.