2012 United Football League season | |
---|---|
Regular season | |
Duration | September 26, 2012 – October 19, 2012 |
2012 UFL Championship Game | |
Date | |
Site | |
Champion | Las Vegas Locomotives |
Runner-up | Omaha Nighthawks |
The 2012 UFL season was the fourth and final season of the United Football League. Four teams began what was originally scheduled to be an eight-game schedule beginning September 26, 2012. [1] [2] The league ceased operations on October 20, 2012, after four weeks of extensive financial problems and dismal attendance figures. [3] At the time of the cessation, the Las Vegas Locomotives had compiled a perfect season to date.
The league originally stated it would resume the season some time in spring 2013, but the majority of two teams' players filed legal action against the league that winter to claim unpaid salaries, and the league did not set up the necessary agreements to continue by the time spring 2013 had come along. One of the four teams (the Virginia Destroyers) allowed its business license to lapse and folded; the assets of the other franchises were stored in a warehouse in Florida, with the league being left in limbo since the suspension.
The league, which had coerced the resignation of commissioner Michael Huyghue after the 2011 season, [4] had closed all of its offices and remained completely silent throughout most of winter, spring and early summer 2012, raising doubt about a potential 2012 season or even if the league, which had suffered heavy financial losses throughout its existence, would continue at all. [5] League management rested with two of its owners, Bill Mayer and William Hambrecht, while football operations were handled by Las Vegas team president, head coach and general manager Jim Fassel. [4]
For the first time in league history, there was no expansion, contraction, or relocation of any UFL franchises, with all four teams and markets returning from the previous season. [1] The Hartford Colonials, which had been officially "suspended" prior to the 2011 season, did not return and were removed from the league's Web site.
On September 5, 2012, an anonymous source tipped The Virginian-Pilot that the start of the 2012 season, originally slated for September 19 on the schedule released July 26, would be delayed one week. [6] The league confirmed the news the next day, also indicating that the championship game would be delayed two weeks instead of one. Difficulties in securing workman's compensation insurance prompted the delay. [7] Players began reporting for training camp the week of September 17, [8] with the abbreviated camps running through the following weekend. [9]
By Week 2 of the regular season, the league began experiencing severe financial shortfalls, sparked in part by drastically reduced attendances at all three stadiums at which the league had played to that point (the Locomotives' Week 2 attendance at kickoff was only 601 fans), as well as the UFL's continued, systemic delays in payment stemming back to at least the 2010 season. The delayed payments (players were only paid $1,000 of the $7,000 owed to them after their first two games) prompted rumors of possible strike action or walkouts from the league's players beginning in Week 3. [10] [11] [12] One agent who represented three UFL players went so far as to recommend that his clients not practice or play lest they risk injury. [13] Virginia Destroyers owner and UFL president Bill Mayer and Sacramento owner Paul Pelosi in a joint on-air interview with CBS Sports Network on October 5, confirmed that the UFL had indeed not yet issued game checks to its players for 2012, but promised that the league would fulfill its wage obligations to its players and coaches. [14] The Destroyers players again threatened to not play the week 4 contest without a personal guarantee of payment, which the ownership had not yet offered, and that the team's earlier promise of a payment by October 31 would not be sufficient. [15] After the week 4 contests were held, and attendance continued to get even worse (the Virginia Destroyers' Week 4 home game was so poorly attended that the league refused to release an attendance total), the league suspended operations [3] and arranged to pay for all of its players to return to their homes. [16] As of November 3, 2012, the UFL still had not paid the players for their time; several players set a deadline for November 8 before pursuing legal action against the league. [17]
On January 16, 2013, a coalition of approximately 70 players from the Nighthawks and Locomotives served papers to league owner William Hambrecht in order to file a class-action lawsuit to claim their pay. [18] The Destroyers players also have not received any additional pay apart from the $1,000 they received during the season; player liaison Chris Greisen lost contact with Destroyers owner Bill Mayer shortly after the season ended. The Mountain Lions' players have been paid in full for their work. [19] Hambrecht later demanded that the lawsuit be thrown out on a contract technicality that stated all pay disputes be resolved through a committee that, according to the players' attorney, does not even exist. A hearing on the lawsuit was scheduled for June 2013, [20] at which point a Nevada judge turned the case over to a third-party arbiter. [21] The players won the lawsuit and were awarded a combined $2.4 million in back pay in 2014, money that as of 2016 remained unpaid. [22]
A separate lawsuit involves four assistant coaches of the Las Vegas Locomotives, who are also suing for unpaid salary. That lawsuit was also filed in January and is being handled by the same attorneys. [23]
Yet another lawsuit was filed in July 2013, this one against Paul Pelosi. The five litigants in that case include former Mountain Lions defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan, who says he was not paid $250,000. [24] Bresnahan eventually won the lawsuit and was paid for his services. [22]
Prior to the season, the UFL made two notable on-field rule changes: The league expanded each team's roster from 50 to 54 players, four of whom were designated as practice squad players. [8] The league also moved its kickoffs back up from the 30-yard-line to the 35-yard-line, consistent with changes made by the NFL (in 2011) and NCAA (also in 2012).
The Sacramento Mountain Lions, on August 6, announced that they would be moving to Raley Field, a baseball park in West Sacramento, California. The Mountain Lions, 2011's attendance leader, played their previous two seasons at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento but chose not to extend their two-year lease on that stadium. [25]
The Virginia Destroyers returned to the Virginia Beach Sportsplex [1] while the Omaha Nighthawks again played in TD Ameritrade Park. [26] The Las Vegas Locomotives (which had previously contemplated a move to Salt Lake City) remained in Las Vegas despite poor attendance for its lone home game in 2011; [4] the team ultimately played its two home games at University of Nevada, Las Vegas's Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney after discussion and negotiations with Cashman Field, a Triple-A baseball stadium currently home to the Las Vegas 51s. [27] Only after the Locos paid back rent from the 2011 season did Sam Boyd Stadium agree to host the team for the 2012 season, [8] but only for the first two games. [28]
Team | 2012 Coach | 2011 Coach | Reason for leaving | Story/Accomplishments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Omaha Nighthawks | Bart Andrus | Joe Moglia | Resigned | Moglia, who led the Nighthawks to a 1–4 (.200) record in his lone season as head coach (his first since leaving coaching to pursue a business career in the mid-1980s), left the league after the 2011 season to become head coach of the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football team. Andrus, who was Moglia's offensive coordinator in 2011, had previously served as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL in 2009 and the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe from 2001 to 2007. |
Sacramento Mountain Lions | Turk Schonert | Dennis Green | Contract dispute | Green, who coached the Mountain Lions from their founding as the California Redwoods in 2009 and accrued a record of 8–11 (.421) in those three seasons, sued the UFL and the Mountain Lions for breach of contract on October 7, 2011. [22] It was speculated that Green, who previously proposed using legal action to try and take control of the Minnesota Vikings in 1997, may have used the legal maneuver to wrest control of the team away from the Paul Pelosi-led consortium that owned it. [29] Green had previously won a $990,000 arbitral award for work during the 2011 season, and a San Francisco Superior Court judge upheld this award in February 2014. However, Green has not collected on the award because the league lacked the assets to cover the debt. [22] Green then sued two investors in the UFL, Bill Hambrecht and Paul Pelosi. Both denied personal responsibility on account that neither had personally guaranteed Green's salary (unlike the other coaches), and the judge in the case sided with the owners. Green was appealing the lawsuit and also suing Hambrecht and Pelosi for fraud and emotional damages; he died before a ruling on those lawsuits could be made. [22] This was Schonert's first ever head coaching position; his prior coaching positions have been almost exclusively at the level of quarterbacks coach. |
Virginia Destroyers | Kurt Schottenheimer | Marty Schottenheimer | Contract dispute | In 2011, Marty Schottenheimer led the Destroyers to a 4–1 (.800) season and a UFL title, the only professional championship of his coaching career. Marty abruptly resigned shortly before the start of the 2012 season and handed the head coaching reins to his younger brother Kurt, who served as the team's defensive coordinator in 2011. [30] Marty was, at the time of his resignation, said to be on good terms with the team [31] but would, like Green, later file legal action against the league for failure to pay. [32] Marty eventually was paid $800,000 in a settlement. [22] Marty was also diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease at the same time. [33] Kurt is in his first ever head coaching position, having spent most of his 30-year career as a defensive assistant. He agreed to work for the league for free in order to continue collecting his NFL pension. [34] |
In 2011, the UFL lacked national exposure for its games after two-year deals with Versus and HDNet expired, with the league relying instead on limited regional TV coverage. On July 26, 2012, the league announced a broadcast deal with CBS Sports Network that would see the network carry all of the league's games in 2012. [35] Though the deal with CBSSN returned the UFL to national TV exposure (albeit generally on less widely distributed premium cable and satellite tiers than the regional sports networks that the UFL had utilized in 2011), the league received no rights fee from the network and in fact paid the network upfront for production costs (roughly $150,000 per telecast). [13] An additional caveat of the CBSSN deal prevented live games from being simulcast online, in contrast to the previous three seasons where all televised games had been carried on the Internet (the league's Webmaster had left the league after 2011 as well, which may have also been a factor in the discontinuation of both the Webcasts and the league's centralized Web site).
Local radio broadcasts were abandoned in Virginia [36] and Las Vegas for 2012; radio deals for Omaha and Sacramento continued, however, with Nighthawks games airing on KOZN and the Mountain Lions being split between KHTK [37] and KTKZ. [38]
The eight-week 2012 UFL schedule (4 home and away games for each team) was originally announced on August 1, 2012. [39] Due to the above mentioned delay, the league released a revised schedule (shown below) on September 6, essentially moving the original Week 1 games, which would have been played on September 19 and 21, to the end of the schedule (November 14 and 16). [40] The Championship Game, which was originally scheduled for November 16, was also moved to December 1, skipping over the crowded Thanksgiving rivalry weekend (which the UFL had not done in 2009 or 2010) and allowing teams to have a two-week break between the end of the regular season and the title game, which would have been a first for the UFL. Two other firsts were also included in the schedule: no bye weeks were scheduled during the regular season, and each team was given an unbalanced schedule (3 games with two teams and 2 games with the third team).
Because of the suspension of the season on October 20, 2012, no games were played beyond that date. As of that date, each team had played every other team once and one team twice, with two home games and two away games.
Week | Date | Kickoff | Visitor | Home | Result | Site | Attendance | TV |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Wednesday September 26 | 6:00 pm (PT) | Virginia Destroyers | Las Vegas Locomotives | VA 6, LV 19 | Sam Boyd Stadium | 2,500 [41] | CBS Sports Network |
Friday September 28 | 8:00 pm (PT) | Omaha Nighthawks | Sacramento Mountain Lions | OMA 24, SAC 20 | Raley Field | 8,023 [42] | ||
2 | Wednesday October 3 | 6:00 pm (PT) | Omaha Nighthawks | Las Vegas Locomotives | OMA 6, LV 41 | Sam Boyd Stadium | 601 [43] | |
Friday October 5 | 7:00 pm (ET) | Sacramento Mountain Lions | Virginia Destroyers | SAC 29, VA 37 | Virginia Beach Sportsplex | 5,316 [44] | ||
3 | Wednesday October 10 | 6:00 pm (PT) | Las Vegas Locomotives | Sacramento Mountain Lions | LV 20, SAC 9 | Raley Field | 5,210 [45] | |
Friday October 12 | 7:00 pm (CT) | Virginia Destroyers | Omaha Nighthawks | VA 10, OMA 38 | TD Ameritrade Park | 3,563 [46] | ||
4 | Wednesday October 17 | 8:00 pm (CT) | Las Vegas Locomotives | Omaha Nighthawks | LV 38, OMA 23 | TD Ameritrade Park | 2,234 [47] | |
Friday October 19 | 9:00 pm (ET) | Sacramento Mountain Lions | Virginia Destroyers | SAC 20, VA 17 | Virginia Beach Sportsplex | Not Released [48] |
Had the season continued as scheduled, the remaining games would have been played as follows:
Week | Date | Kickoff | Visitor | Home | Site | TV |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | Tuesday October 23 | 8:00 pm (CT) | Sacramento Mountain Lions | Omaha Nighthawks | TD Ameritrade Park | CBS Sports Network |
Thursday October 25 | 6:00 pm (ET) | Las Vegas Locomotives | Virginia Destroyers | Virginia Beach Sportsplex | ||
6 | Wednesday October 31 | 6:00 pm (PT) | Omaha Nightawks | Las Vegas Locomotives | Sam Boyd Stadium | |
Friday November 2 | 6:00 pm (PT) | Virginia Destroyers | Sacramento Mountain Lions | Raley Field | ||
7 | Wednesday November 7 | 6:00 pm (PT) | Las Vegas Locomotives | Sacramento Mountain Lions | Raley Field | |
Friday November 9 | 9:30 pm (ET) | Omaha Nighthawks | Virginia Destroyers | Virginia Beach Sportsplex | ||
8 | Wednesday November 14 | 6:00 pm (PT) | Sacramento Mountain Lions | Las Vegas Locomotives | Sam Boyd Stadium | |
Friday November 16 | 6:00 pm (CT) | Virginia Destroyers | Omaha Nighthawks | TD Ameritrade Park |
The 2012 UFL Championship Game would have been played on December 1 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. No venue had been chosen for the game at the time of the cessation.
Attendance figures are based on gate draw, not ticket sales. The Locomotives sold 5,277 tickets for their Week 1 game [41] and 3,500 for Week 2. [49]
United Football League | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | STK | |||
Las Vegas Locomotives | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 118 | 47 | W4 | ||
Omaha Nighthawks | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 94 | 109 | L1 | ||
Virginia Destroyers | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 70 | 106 | L2 | ||
Sacramento Mountain Lions | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 78 | 98 | W1 |
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The United Football League (UFL) was a professional American football minor league based in the United States that began play in October 2009 and played four seasons, the final one being cut short in October 2012. The small league, which never had more than five teams playing at one time, played most of its games in markets where the National Football League (NFL) had no current presence. Unlike most professional football leagues since the 1980s, the UFL played all of its games in the traditional fall season, competing directly with the NFL, college football, and high school football.
The Virginia Destroyers were a professional American football team based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. They began play in the United Football League (UFL) in the 2011 season. They played their home games at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex.
The Las Vegas Locomotives were a professional American football team based in Las Vegas, Nevada that played in the United Football League. The team played their home games at Sam Boyd Stadium, home field for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Jim Fassel was the franchise's head coach, president, and general manager. The Locomotives appeared in all three UFL championship games, winning both the 2009 and 2010 iterations; the Locos were also the last of the four charter UFL franchises to remain in their original home city, to retain their original head coach, and to have played all of their home games at the same venue.
The 2009 United Football League season—referred to by the professional American football league as the UFL Premiere Season—was the inaugural season of the United Football League. The regular season featured 4 teams playing 6 games each, and both began and ended at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Sam Boyd Stadium was the site of the 2009 UFL Championship Game on November 27, a game that saw the Locomotives defeat the previously unbeaten Florida Tuskers 20–17 in overtime.
The Omaha Nighthawks were a professional American football team based in Omaha, Nebraska, which played in the United Football League, joining the league as an expansion team in 2010. During their first season, the Nighthawks played their home games at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium before moving to TD Ameritrade Park Omaha for 2011 and beyond. Zach Nelson, CEO of Internet software provider NetSuite, was announced as lead owner in August 2010.
The 2010 United Football League season was the second season of the United Football League. The regular season ran from September 18 to November 20 and featured five teams playing eight games each over a 10-week span. The 2010 season was a relatively competitive one as no team won more than five games, and no team lost more than five. The season ended with the 2010 UFL Championship Game on November 27 at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, where the Las Vegas Locomotives defeated the Florida Tuskers, 23–20.
The 2010 UFL championship game was the concluding game of the United Football League's 2010 season. The game was staged at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday, November 27, 2010, and saw the Las Vegas Locomotives repeat as league champions, defeating the Florida Tuskers by a 23–20 score.
The 2010 Florida Tuskers season was the second and final season for the Virginia Destroyers as the Florida Tuskers. They finished with a 5–3 regular season record and lost in the 2010 UFL Championship Game to the Las Vegas Locomotives for a second straight season.
The 2010 Las Vegas Locomotives season was the second season for the United Football League franchise. They finished with a 5–3 record and defended their UFL Championship by defeating the Florida Tuskers, 23–20, in the 2010 UFL Championship Game.
The UFL championship game was an American football game held annually to determine the champion of the United Football League. The game was played annually from the UFL's first season in 2009 until the 2011 season, and involved the first and second place teams in the league's single-division standings playing one week after the conclusion of the UFL's regular season at a predetermined site. The winner of the game was awarded the William Hambrecht Trophy, named for the league's founder and majority owner. The 2012 season of the UFL was cut short when the league ceased operations, and that year's championship game was never played.
The 2011 UFL season was the third season of the United Football League (UFL). The season, which was affected by franchise shifts and schedule delays due in part to the UFL's lingering financial issues, began on September 15, 2011, and would have run through October 28, with a championship game set for the following weekend. The regular season was abandoned after the games of October 15, and the championship game moved up to October 21, when the Virginia Destroyers claimed their first UFL title by defeating the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Locomotives 17-3 at Virginia Beach Sportsplex.
The 2011 UFL championship game was the third championship game of the United Football League and took place on October 21, 2011, the concluding weekend of the league's truncated third season. The game was won by the Virginia Destroyers, who, in front of a standing-room-only home crowd at Virginia Beach Sportsplex, defeated the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Locomotives 17–3, spurred by the performance of strong safety and game MVP Aaron Rouse. The win gave Destroyers coach Marty Schottenheimer, notorious for his failure to reach the Super Bowl in his NFL coaching career despite strong regular season statistics, his first and only championship as a professional head coach and his first professional championship since the 1965 American Football League championship game, Schottenheimer's rookie season as a player.
The 2011 UFL draft was the third and final draft of the United Football League. The draft took place on Monday, May 2, 2011. The draft was held over a period of 10 rounds during which each of the five UFL teams was allowed one pick per round, in reverse order of 2010 finish, with the last-place Hartford Colonials picking first and the champion Las Vegas Locomotives picking last in each round. The expansion Virginia Destroyers took the place of the defunct Florida Tuskers, from whom the Destroyers inherited their staff, in the draft order; the Destroyers also received a "bonus selection" at both the end of the fourth round and the end of the draft, respectively. During rounds one and two, each team had five minutes to make their selection of a player. During rounds three through ten, each team had three minutes to make their selection of a player. The round by round results were announced via the Twitter feeds of each individual coach, as well as through commissioner Michael Huyghue's Twitter feed.
The 2011 Omaha Nighthawks season was the second season for the United Football League franchise.
The 2011 Las Vegas Locomotives season was the third season for the United Football League franchise.
The 2011 Sacramento Mountain Lions season was the third season for the United Football League franchise. The team finished with a 1–3 record and fourth in the league.
The 2011 Virginia Destroyers season was the third season for the United Football League franchise and its first since relocating from Orlando, where they played as the Florida Tuskers. Guided by head coach and general manager Marty Schottenheimer, the Destroyers finished the truncated regular season with a 3–1 record and defeated Las Vegas 17–3 in the October 21 Championship Game for the franchise's first UFL title.