Knowing where you stand in a crowded sports marketplace

The New York franchise of the upstart United Football League doesn't have an official name or an official home yet, but team officials know which fan base they hope to draw:
New Yorkers. People from Long Island, Westchester County and the five boroughs. This article was written by Andy McCullough and appeared in the Star-Ledger

"We will be playing somewhere in the city," said Bill Mayer, the new owner of the New York team, "so you don't have to go across the river."

Catering to football fans in New Jersey? Not so much. Both Mayer, UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue and New York head coach Ted Cottrell reiterated Monday at a news conference here to announce Mayer's ownership. The four-team league will start its inaugural season on Oct. 8. The other franchises will be located in Las Vegas, Orlando and San Francisco.

And the New York team will be in New York.

"You don't have to go across the river," said Cottrell, an NFL assistant for more than 20 years and a former Jets defensive coordinator. "You don't have to go across the Lincoln Tunnel. You don't have to go across the George Washington Bridge."

"We just think that that's really where our market is," said Huyghue, a former executive with the Detroit Lions and the Jacksonville Jaguars. "I think that's where people really want to have some ownership in a football franchise, that will never feel that way about the Jets or Giants."

In the next "two to three weeks," Huyghue said the league would officially announce where the teams would play. Mayer, a co-founder of private equity investment firm Park Avenue Equity, mentioned Citi Field and Hofstra University as possible venues. Then he pointed toward the back of the room and UFL chief operating officer Frank Vuono.

"I have been told," Mayer said, "that if I mention names with any degree of certainty that Frank is going to cut my tongue out."

Humor helps, because the league may need it. The UFL enters a faltering economy with a product that league officials say cannot compete with the National Football League.

Upstart football leagues, both renegade and developmental, have been crashing and burning for years. The World Football League failed in the 70s, the United States Football League failed in the 80s and Vince McMahon's XFL failed in 2001 after its inaugural season. In 2007, NFL Europe disbanded. Last December, the Arena Football League announced the 2009 season was canceled.

But the UFL aimed to learn from the laundry list of mistakes that other leagues made, Huyghue said.

For one, the league does not hope to compete with the NFL. Games will be aired on Thursday nights on Versus and will feature players that couldn't stick on NFL rosters.

For another, the league is stocked with NFL experience. Former NFL head coaches will run the other three teams: Former Giants head coach Jim Fassell will coach Las Vegas, Jim Haslett will coach Orlando and Dennis Green will coach San Fransisco.

And Cottrell, the New York coach, is no stranger to this area. He ran the Jets defense for three years before being fired in 2003. He has since been fired from defensive coordinator jobs in Minnesota and San Diego. Monday, Cottrell expressed excitement about the opportunity with UFL and described the league as a vehicle to create jobs for everyone from the players to the parking lot attendants.

"We need this, in more ways than one," Cottrell said. "To get people working, get money generated for people, for husbands and wives to feed their kids." This article was written by Andy McCullough and appeared in the Star-Ledger