Versus To Air Weekly UFL Game
Monday, March 09, 2009
The United Football League is trying it's best to get the word out. They've got a handful of recognizable coaches (Jim Fassell, Jim Haslett), have teams in large markets (San Fran, NY, Las Vegas), and now have a TV deal. Versus will air a weekly game for the four-team league, and the first contest will air on October 8th. Via UFL PR....
The United Football League announced that 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.I still don't quite understand how a league of just four teams plans to succeed, especially when games are played at the same time as the NFL and NCAA, but I guess anything is possible.
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.”
10 Comments:
I'm almost certain that this is a new comedy show, and not a new football league.
Damn, I was hoping Sports Soup would go away, and here they are signing on to give it a steady stream of new material. Curse you, Matt Iseman! /shakes fist
Nothing wrong with a little competition, best of luck to them. As long as they know not to expect to be popular right off the bad and dedicate themselves to the long-haul, we may have something. Of course, modern TV will declare this a failure purely because it didn't "beat" much in ratings.
According to the UFL website, they have seven teams. I was thinking the same thing myself about only having four teams, but a quick check of the site told me otherwise.
To Tony:
Some of the markets are combined.
"In its "Premiere" season, the UFL will have four teams playing in seven cities. The four teams selected for 2009 are Las Vegas/Los Angeles, New York/Hartford, Orlando and San Francisco/Sacramento."
Obviously, they will be the WFL, the USFL and the XFL. Gone and forgotten.
This will only be interesting if Mike Vick somehow signs with one of the teams.
Boy, they certainly pick a perfect economic climate to start a new league.
Don't worry, it won't succeed BECAUSE Fassel and Haslett are involved.