Get ready for the USFL XFL UFL!

Bill Hambrecth, a Wall Street tycoon, has decided to start a rival football league and he’s planning on doing it by as early as August of 2008. So far, Hambrecth and his partner, Tim Armstrong from Google, have pledged $2M each. They’ve also signed up Mark Cuban is the first owner in the league.

This isn’t the first time that Hambrecht has jumped into the ring against the NFL. In the 80s, he was a minority owner in the Oakland Invaders, part of the USFL debacle, but he has learned his lesson from that failure.

The UFL plans to target the cities that have huge markets but no NFL presence such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. Each franchise will require a $30M investment from the owner for 1/2 stake. The League will own the other half. Eventually, the fans will be able to buy shares and own 1/3 of the team. The end result will be an equal share of ownership between owner, league, and fan base.

The league has pretty good plans on how it will approach a television contract, but most importantly, they have a plan on how to make the level of play somewhat respectable:

Bill Walsh used to tell me that the last 20 players cut from every team were almost interchangeable with the last 20 players to make the team,” Hambrecht says. The new league will hire the best of those last 20 players — along with the best of the Arena players, the Canadian Football League players and so on. Though the U.F.L. will have a salary cap, it will be able to pay those players more than they are making now.

Who knows whether the UFL will play a single snap but it sounds like they have their thinking together and this isn’t just some gimmicky WWF meets NBC desperation for Football league. Getting Mark Cuban on board is key. He is the ultimate self promoter and his involvement makes this venture much more likely to succeed. While we love the NFL and think they can do no wrong, a competitor would only do the fans good.

Links:
[NY times]: First and Long — Very Long