Posted Apr 25, 2010, 5:07 PM
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: The Triangle
Posts: 1,316
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Looks like talks aren't dead:
from mySA.com
Quote:
UFL keeps hope for S.A. franchise
By Tom Orsborn - Express-News
Web Posted: 04/24/2010 9:50 CDT
If the United Football League grants San Antonio an expansion franchise this year, the team likely wouldn’t begin play until 2011, a league official said Saturday.
UFL chief operating officer Bill Peterson also said the league likely will fall short of reaching its goal of adding two teams for the 2010 season. Omaha, Neb., received an expansion franchise earlier this month.
The UFL, which held its league meetings last week, has five teams with the addition of Omaha. The other member cities are Hartford, Conn., Sacramento, Calif., Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla.
“We all think we likely will end up with five teams (for 2010),” Peterson said in a phone interview. We might add a sixth team in May or June that will play in 2011, and then we would start working on adding a seventh and eighth team.”
The league will release a schedule for five teams Tuesday.
Peterson said the UFL hasn’t been scared off by the concerns expressed by San Antonio leaders and UTSA officials that a UFL team would hurt the school’s ability to attract fans and sponsors for its start-up football program.
The Roadrunners begin play in 2011 and will call the Alamodome their home.
“San Antonio is the seventh-most populous city in the nation, and I’m very confident a city that size can support a UFL team and a start-up football program,” Peterson said. “I never had a doubt about that. Others do, but I guess I have more faith in the fan base in San Antonio.”
(-Good strategy on his part.)
The city told the UFL recently that it’s willing to negotiate with the league only a one-year lease at the dome, a stance Peterson said caught league officials by surprise.
“I think we could get an agreement done even though a one-year lease isn’t what we usually have in mind,” Peterson said.
The UFL hopes to add two franchises a year until it reaches 12-14 teams. In addition to San Antonio, the UFL is looking at Salt Lake City and a few other markets Peterson declined to identify.
“We’ve had some other cities express interest recently in gaining a team,” he said.
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