Is the UFL broke?
This is more bad news for the United Football League. Sure it is just a rumor, but at some point rumor becomes reality and the perception right now is this upstart league has no future. Profootballtalk.com is reporting that the agent for Omaha Nighthawks’ QB Jeff Garcia (among others) sent out an email on Thursday informing PFT that his clients had yet to be paid. He informs us that the league has told the players that it was a funding issue, but other sources have said that the checks were being withheld in case the players owed money on anything.
What ever the case holding checks is never a good sign for the financial health of any organization. Whatever the case may be it seems pretty clear we now have the why as to why the UFL drew a line in the sand over transfer fees. It would appear that it had too, cash reserves may have run out. Of course that puts the future of this league in serious doubt.
In 2010 there were 260 UFL players. We know that the starting QB’s for each team made 200 grand, and that the average UF L salary was 50 grand. That means this league probably shelled out 3.5 million dollars in salaries for players. In an email conversation I had with an unnamed UFL employee a few weeks ago I was told this league needed all the help it could get. I assumed that meant in a PR sense, but this information shed a different light on that conversation.
Related Links:
- The Business of the UFL
- UFL Examiner
- Joshua Lobdell.com
