Some Things & Other Things the “not quite yet Spring time” in the NFL Edition

By Dr. Bill Chachkes Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online

I hear It’s “Always Sunny” in Philly, but that doesn’t keep Eagles Owner Jeff Lurie or Team President Joe Banner from lying right through their teeth when they talk about the costs associated with running the Linc. Raise your hand if you have ever been to the Linc….I have. It’s a nice place to watch a game, both in the seats and in the Pressbox. Can anyone really justify a 7digit “misc. expenses” tab for a stadium? I hope that doesn’t count food costs for the media. All Mr. Lurie could manage for us that day was Turkey or Ham sandwiches…Even though I’m not a fan of Pork product, I have no plans to shoot them from my helicopter like one politician suggests we do to immigrants. Lurie should produce movies about politicians who get elected and then go against the people who elected them, then he could see how he’s going against the fans of the team he owns. Most Philly fans Love Mike VICK, but that has to still be some that miss Donovan McNabb…

Do the NFL owners want to do the same thing to it’s players? If the owners really wanted to “come back to the table” and get a deal done with the players, they wouldn’t be waiting for the April 6th Court date before Judge Richardson. I like Mr. Goodell as a person, he’s always been nice to me, but he didn’t really think his letter to the players would be taken seriously when the owners for the most part prove time and time again how they can’t be trusted?

We are beginning to hear a lot of news from the “Camps” of players awaiting to be drafted next month about “who’s gonna kill it” at their pro day or how many NFL teams have invited me for a work out. What these guys have not realized yet is that the NFL that they are waiting to be selected into is going to be much different then they were hoping for. It’s going to have a rookie wage scale, and none of these guys will be “instant” millionaires like I have my “Instant Oatmeal” twice weekly….No, those days are gone. Hope you weren’t planning on paying off all your babies mommas with your signing bonus.

Football needs a “breath of fresh air”, and that just what the UFL’s Hartford Colonials did this week by hiring Jerry Glanville as their new Head Coach & GM. Not that Chris Palmer’s pressers were boring (he is a nice man too), But clearly as evidenced by the phone conference he gave to some of us media types yesterday he’s ready to ‘Shake it up” at “the Rent” this season. I look forward to being at a few of those post game press conferences…I’m even going to e-mail him my list of “dead” people he should leave tickets for…now that the statue of limitations has run out on The Doors’ Jim Morrison for the 1969 arrest in New Haven, Maybe he’ll be up for a Colonials game….but seriously, people are finally starting to take the UFL seriously(even though I did from day one, I was one of the people at the first UFL press conference…) and people should see it for what it is: competitive football. Maybe Coach Belichick could learn something about charismatic behavior from Coach Glanville….I heard he already got into a “Tweet-Fight” with Newsday’s Bob Glauber, with the Coach inviting him up to a game…Bob, if your reading this and you show up to the game and I’m there, I’d be glad to introduce you around…You’ll get to see that pro football goes beyond the NFL…

I’m so Tired of these” Rumor” football sites who just publish stories to get their traffic numbers up. Do you guys actually go out and hunt these stories down? Or do you come up with this “junk” while your in the “reading” room?

So Ohio State Head coach Jim Tressel wants to stand with his players and be suspended 5 games because “Maybe he didn’t do enough” to instill the right behavior in his players. I’m ok with his feelings, but these kids still should have sat out that bowl game….

Thanks to former Vikings DE and Retired Players Association President Carl Eller for joining us on the show last Thursday night. He was very pointed in his remarks about current players who take for granted what they have…

I heard about this great organization founded by a High School running back in Ohio who wants to help H.S. athletes who are severely injured while playing sports. Just google “rush for a cause” and find them on Facebook…

Finally, I’m headed down to our nation’s capital to speak to the sports management program students at Catholic University tomorrow. The Wed. & Thur. shows will be broadcast from The University (Wed. Night), and The Glory Days Sports grill in Broadlands, Va.(Thur. Night). Saturday we will be scouting and interviewing the athletes at the First BSN football combine of the season. Starting tonight, The Tuesday PFNYC show will be weekly again, until just after the draft…

This former soldier asks you to please pray for the people of Japan, and support our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airman, and Coast Guardsman who defend our religious and political freedoms every day.

Why the UFL has a better shot at success then prior attempts at Professional Football Leagues.

Welcome to another session of Dr. Football's class called "Viewing Pro Football 421", a 4th year undergraduate class. Today's topic: Will the UFL be successful in todays market?

Sure it's been done before. Another Pro Football League, you laugh. No one can touch the NFL, you say. But what if The UFL isn't trying to "compete" with the NFL, but rather enhance the ability of people to watch live the greatest game ever played?
So you think I'm nuts too don't you?You must think I'm inhaling too much field chalk. But look at it this way: when was the last time you went to an NFL game? Do you remember how much you paid to get in? To buy your kid a pennant (or if you were lucky, a game program!) or a T-shirt? Don't even think about a jersey! Or NFL licensed Baby Booties! Forget it!! (before i obtained a press credential i was paying $70 per ticket, 5 dollars for a game program and 5 dollars for a 32oz. bottle of water. I hear it's $80-$85 now for the cheapest seat in the Meadowlands).

The UFL changes all of that. Tickets for 20 Bucks a game, in quality venues! Affordable prices(for today at least) at the concessions. No Kid, you're not dreaming, this is the real UFL and if you Live in NY it's coming to your house soon.

Ok so it's in the middle of the week, but didn't you say you were football starved? You just can't watch another season of the local college teams. You don't think you can put up with the team in Green and White that can't seam to make up their minds about who the QB is. The team in Blue with the shortage of starters even though they had a great draft and did well in free agency already missing too many players in training camp. Not that I'm saying "don't follow your favorite team anymore," hardly that. I'm just saying open yourself up to the possibility of another pro football league being able to entertain you this fall.

Let's step away from NY for a moment. Did you ever think Las Vegas would get an NFL franchise? For years the NFL wanted no part of the Sodom and Gomorrah that is the gambling culture of Vegas, yet now they allow teams to back state run sports themed lottery tickets(that is for discussion in another article). Give the UFL head honchos credit for jumping all over the Vegas market, as well as Orlando. The Vegas team will attract fans from parts of California, Arizona, and Utah as well. As for Florida, a former co-blogging partner of mine who spent a good deal of time growing up there once told me "you can never have too much football in Florida."
Although Orlando is only 105 minutes from the greater Tampa area, there is a huge void to be filled there and in other parts of the country with the loss of the Arena Football League as we knew it.

Let's sum it up for today shall we: More pro football is good, not bad, as some would suggest. It doesn't "water down" or "short change" the great game, as a few suggest. It gives the fan(and Player and Coach!) more options on more days of the week to watch the game, as well as for you young folks to learn about the game. Why would anyone argue with me about that? Class dismissed, now go watch some football!

Mark Cuban's Wrong - Potential UFL Team Owner Says No Based On Zennie's Blog Post

I just received a call from a friend of mine back east, who -- I can't use real names, corporate or otherwise, to protect the persons involved -- told me that a family member who works for a major comunications and media organization with significant monies in sports, happened to be talking about my blog post called "Why Bill Hambrecht and Mark Cuban's UFL - United Football League - Will Fail" while her bosses were overlooking the article on her computer.

"Wow," one of them was reported to have said, "Maybe this guy ( referring to me) -- knows what he's talking about. After all he's made this XFL Simworld and had the Oakland (Alameda County) Sports Commission. He must know something."

Fully on the basis of my post, this organization that owns a large and famous arena decided to avoid making overtures to establish a UFL team.

It proves that, unlike Mark Cuban in the case of the UFL (I don't know the man), there are people out there who listen to the voices of reasons and analysis. "Competing With The NFL", as Cuban puts it, is purely silly.

Mark Cuban Responds To My "UFL Will Be A Failure" Post

Mark Cuban , a key player in the proposed United Football League, responded to my blog post which states in detail why the UFL will fail. He writes

"then again, there are people who read press reports and think they are an expert on someone else's businessplans...

i like our preparation better.

m"

What's interesting is this comment falls right into my take that much of the push behind football league proposals like the UFL is ego. Think about it. Cuban referes to "our preparation" as if he's not willing to listen to outside voices of reason. That's a sure receipe for disaster.

A good analysis must also take into account dissenting voices. Not true for Cuban and the UFL team, it seems. One has to admire -- to a degree -- the PT Barnum level of hubris, but it's also what blinds Mr. Cuban to the spectre of failure.

Moreover, Mark doesn't have a UFL simulation, so he's flying blind!!

But that aside, and while I hold and with a simulation that is the basis for my charge that the UFL will fail...Thanks for the response, Mark!

Mark Cuban's Right - CD's Are On The Decline

Mark Cuban's certainly totally wrong about the football business , but he's right on regarding compact disks and their future as a music distribution system. Just check out his blog and its references.

As I think about it, I can remember the last time I listened to music on the CD and that was in a car. But I've not done that anywhere else: not at home, for example. I watch movies on DVD, but music on CD's? Only in the car. It's a matter of time before one's able to just plug in their iPod and use it as a full car stereo for all cars, not just a few.

But Mark's totally wrong about football; the UFL will fail.

Why Bill Hambrecht and Mark Cuban's UFL - United Football League - Will Fail

Well, all I can say is "here we go again." A group of rich guys with egos -- no women involved here -- think that because they have enough money to start a football league, it will automatically work.

In the newest example, we have the to-be-called United Football League , or UFL. This is an idea started by San Francisco Bay Area investment banking maverick Bill Hambrick, who's firm WR Hambrick and Company I remember as Hambrick and Quist, and who employed a friend of mine from Skyline High School school, Marla Goldstein.

Ok, enough of that.

Hambrick managed to come up with this idea of the UFL and get Internet entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner (funny, how the word mavericks comes up here more than once) to sign on as the first owner of a team. As I understand the UFL concept, they're going to establish cities in areas where the NFL does not have a team, and "compete" with the NFL for players that come out of college "lower than the second round."



OK. Here's the foundation upon which their failure will be based -- if they ever get enough owners to start an eight team league. The lessons of football league failure are captured in that business school case study called The XFL.

In fact, I created a system dynamics online simulation now called the XFL Simworld , and with Forio Business Simulations created a company around it called Sports Business Simulations .

The idea of the XFL Simworld is to make the right business decision to cause the XFL to last longer than the one year it did in reality.

What I've learned after countless hours and years of analysis, and design, and play and test and watching others run the sim is this: people watch people. What I mean in detail is that the XFL's biggest mistake was that it didn't have players people cared to watch. Mark Cuban's right about the "pent-up demand for football" but that doesn't mean anyone will come out and watch you and me play pro football.

What I learned from the XFL Simworld is that the XFL, and now the UFL, stand a better chance of survival if they hire recently retired or close to retiring NFL players and mix them with college players. Why? Because each of the NFL players close to ending their careers either by choice or for other reasons has their own brand name. For example, you know who Keyshawn Johnson is if you're even a causal fan of the game. But do you know who Jacoby Jones is?

Who?

See that's my point. Jacoby Jones is a wide receiver from tiny Lane College, drafted by the Houston Texans in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft. That's one of the rounds Hambrecht and Cuban say they're going to "compete" with the NFL for players. That's great for the player and for the NFL, because the NFL doesn't have to worry about paying that player who may have dropped to the lower rounds for weird reasons more than a third round pick, and the player at least has another place to go, but don't think there's going to be a bidding war -- in fact, I predict the opposite.

The Jacoby Jones of the world may try to use the UFL as a negotiating ploy, and wind up not being signed by the NFL team. It's basic math -- there are more "third round level" players, than first round level players, so someone else who fell past the eyes of NFL scouts may look better in free agency than the third round pick using an upstart league to cause a bidding war. So Jacoby Jones goes to the UFL and gets the same money he would have earned as a third round pick by the Houston Texans. Fine, so he's happy. Meanwhile, the UFL gets a player no one ever heard of, and no one save for his family, friends, and the curious, will come out to see or turn on the TV to watch.

What Hambrecht and Cuban miss is that football is entertainment. The bottom line is to put people in seats at the stadium and have them watch on television. People follow names. They'd sooner watch a team with Keyshawn Johnson than one with Jacoby Jones. That's one big reason why the XFL failed; it lacked name NFL players to maintain TV ratings. Without them, XFL ratings dropped like a rock, and the league folded after NBC pulled from its commitment.

The UFL faces the same fate for that reason, and one more that's in a way related to the first problem I discuss. It's team location. In the XFL Simworld, the player has the option of having XFL teams in NFL cities, cities of the actual XFL, and warm weather cities. Which combination brings the best attendance? The Warm Weather Option, of course. This scenario was created based on the problems the real XFL faced in having constantly high attendance in all cities.

The best city for this in the XFL system was San Francisco, where the February through May climate was constantly mild, and never burdened with snow. Snow's a big deterent to the fortunes of a new football league hiring players no one has ever heard of. People don't buy tickets to teams that hire unknown players to play in cold weather.

Better to have a Southern Strategy.

With all of this, you'd think Bill Hambrecht and Mark Cuban would have thought more carefully before launching the UFL as a business. But they didn't, and I'm not surprised. There's one common element in all of these "new football league" cases -- ego. Someone always thinks they can clobber, outdo, take advantage of, or just plain be the next NFL. And in all cases, that never comes to pass. The UFL has all of the color of failure for that reason and the ones I gave above. What Hambrecht and Cuban should really do is work to start an NFL team to LA.

In other words, they're not going to beat the NFL, so they might as well join them.