UFL week one leaves many fans out in the cold

I may have a lot to say about how this league chooses to do certain things, but let me make one thing very clear. I am a huge fan of this league, both the idea behind it and the on the field product it produces. If I seem pretty negative about it a lot, well I am trying to play Devils Advocate as to how this league should’ve done things or how it should do them in the future. Of course that is just my opinion. After Week One Game One I am pretty disappointed with this league yet again.

On the surface the decision to have the New England Sports Network air three Hartford Colonials games on its network is a good one. However the UFL is going to have to learn something the NHL is learning, not all TV contract are really worth it. In this case the best thing about this league was its fans could watch all of the games live on the UFL-football website. NESN did not allow the league to broadcast this game online so many UFL fans that have been waiting 10 months for the return of UFL football did not get to see this game.

Of course in the end it doesn’t look like this was that great of a game. The Hartford Colonials beat the Sacramento Mountain Lions 27-10, and that is was 20-0 at halftime so this game was never really in doubt, but sitting here in Detroit, Michigan I very much wanted to watch it. I understand the league push to go local, but it may cost them fans like me who live in areas of the country without a UFL franchise of its own.

It really seems like a game on the NESN to a local audience should not have been the debut of the new season. A lot of things have changed in this league, and the debut game should have been marketed to as big an audience as possible. Then later down the road air some games to the local TV audience.

Related Links:

•UFL Examiner
•The Business of the UFL
•UFL Facebook fan group