Did you know that the newest Pro-Football league is three games into their Inaugural season? I am betting you didn’t as the debut of the UFL has gone largely under the radar of most sports journalists and many sports fans. However that may be part of the leagues overall plan, as they look just to survive their first season and grow come season number two. The league may not want a lot of attention right now, as it has just four teams, it hasn’t fully implemented their rule book, and they are striving to build a nitch audience. The only question seems to be if not is paying the UFL any attention, how could it survive?
Actually the leagues media plan has been very unique, and to call it a cliché it has been outside of the box. For the most part, the league has turned over the promotion of this league to the online journalists/bloggers out there. Their official digital media partner is AOL Fanhouse , but many other online sports sites have launched UFL pages including Examiner.com, and Bleacher Report . While USA Today and the Associated Press covered the formation of the league, so far the in season reporting has been lacking.
There is no word yet on the TV numbers, since some of their games are broadcast on a newer Cable Channel, HD net, and the rest on versus the numbers cannot be all that high. For the first two games around 26 thousand fans attended the games live, which was far short of league projections. Through three games the league is averaging just 12,000 fans. That is not going to get it done, but since big money backed this league it may be enough to insure season number two.