UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue yesterday announced that “training camps and the start of the regular season have been pushed back a month,” with the league starting its eight-game season in September instead of in mid-August, according to Steven Pivovar of the OMAHA WORLD-HERALD. Huyghue said that “ongoing financial concerns as well as the imminent settlement” of the NFL lockout “figured into the UFL’s decision to abandon its attempt to start this season about a month earlier than its first two.” He said that those two seasons “cost the UFL’s owners and investors more than $100 million.” Huyghue added that the owners “considered scrapping the season as late as last month,” but they “agreed to spend another $50 million on the five-team league in 2011.” Huyghue: “Our ownership group is committed to going forward.” But Pivovar writes it “remains to be seen for how long.” Huyghue indicated that the UFL “probably cannot survive without attracting new investors or broadcast partners or by forming some kind of partnership with the NFL.” He said, “We had felt that we might experience a windfall from the NFL lockout situation. That did not materialize. That was a strong reason to move our season back.” Meanwhile, Huyghue said that the UFL “will continue to pursue broadcast options that might supply some much-needed revenue.” He said said that as of yesterday, the league “will continue its broadcast arrangement with HDNet and Versus” (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 7/20).
PARTNERING WITH THE NFL: Huyghue acknowledged that a partnership with the NFL “may be the UFL's only chance of surviving beyond this year.” Huyghue: "I would say that if the labor situation is solved on Thursday, I'll probably be in their office Friday" (HARTFORD COURANT, 7/20). UFL Sacramento Mountain Lions Owner Paul Pelosi said, "I would have preferred to stick with the plan, which was to start a month earlier than we have the first two seasons." But he said that the reality is the TV networks “don't want anything to do with the UFL until the NFL labor issue is settled and those contracts have been signed.” Pelosi said that the UFL “will make another pitch to the NFL to create some sort of partnership.” He also said that the UFL is “readying a plan to make an initial public offering and allow fans to purchase shares of as much as 33 percent of each franchise” (SACRAMENTO BEE, 7/20). In Las Vegas, Ed Graney writes under the header, “On-Field Product Aside, UFL Titanic Flop.” Graney: “A lack of available equipment is the latest and yet perhaps least important hurdle facing a UFL on financial life support, kept alive by the hopes and dreams and cavernous pockets of wealthy men who can lose more than $100 million in two seasons and still put up $50 million for a third.” The football part of the UFL “has been good,” but the “greatest assemblage of talent in history won't ultimately overcome pathetic TV deals and inadequate corporate sponsorship” (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 7/20).
