A group of investors, including Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban, is considering the formation of a new football league to begin playing as early as next summer, according to Reuters and the New York Times. Wall Street investor Bill Hambrecht came up with the plan along with Cuban and Google Inc. exec Tim Armstrong. The United Football League would consist of eight teams located in markets that currently do not have teams, such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mexico City. Games would be played on Friday nights, so they would not conflict with NFL games. The new league would compete with the NFL for players drafted below the second round in the NFL draft. Free agents and players who were cut from their NFL teams would make up the remainder of the roster.
“We think there is more demand for pro football than supply,” Cuban was qhoted in the Times. That may be true, but new leagues have formed in the past with little success. I doubt the UFL will get past one or two seasons, if they’re lucky. Besides, what’s wrong with the NFL that we have now? If fans need a football fix when the NFL season ends, they can tune in to the CFL (Canadian football), the AFL league, which plays its games through the spring, and several women’s leagues — the Independent Women’s Football League (IWFL), National Women’s Football Association (NWFA) and the Women’s Professional Football League (WPFL). Okay, so maybe the women’s leagues aren’t exactly in the same, well, league, as the NFL, CFL and AFL, they’re still football. In any case, there seems to be enough football leagues already. Does the world really need another one?
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