Rumor Mill: NFL makes offer to buy UFL?

There have been a lot of rumors flying over the last week concerning a possible bid by the NFL to purchase a stake in the upstart UFL. Depending on whom, you believe the NFL made an offer to purchase 51% of the league, or the UFL offered to sell the NFL 49% of the league. While this is only a rumor, even though many sites across the web have been reporting on it, it is a move that makes a lot of sense for both leagues.

The NFL needs more live football games to broadcast on its NFL network. It will broadcast some Arena games this spring, but having more traditional football to air in the fall would go a long way to building a large audience for that network. Since we are unlikely to see a shortened 2011 NFL regular season, due to labor issues, having the NFL as an owner of the UFL would go a long way towards maintaining football for all the fans that would otherwise be missing it.

On top of all that having the UFL as the official minor league of the NFL could go a long way to actually resolving some of the labor issues. It would give NFL teams a place where players like Tim Tebow who need to work on their skill set for the NFL game could develop at a, much reduced cost to the parent NFL team. I am envisioning a system like what Major League Baseball has with it s farm system.

For the UFL selling a chunk to the NFL is an obvious way to insure long term survival. This would not be the first, or second time that the UFL has gone out and bought up its football competition. In fact had the owners of the old USFL not been so pigheaded the NFL might very well have three conferences today. While I think the UFL is here to stay, being a partner of the NFL definitely makes that so.

Related Links:

•The Business of the UFL
•The Business of the NFL
•NFL Complete.com