King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Banker Bill Hambrecht talks about going head-to-head against the NFL with a new league.

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June 4, 2007 | The New York Times reported last week that investment banker Bill Hambrecht and Google executive Tim Armstrong are hoping to launch a professional football league in 2008 that will play mostly on Friday nights in the fall, with eight franchises in cities lacking an NFL team.

Hambrecht, who is a major investor in Salon, and Armstrong have each pledged $2 million toward the United Football League, and they've hired two executives and recruited their first owner, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who the Times said is considering taking over the Las Vegas franchise. Other cities being considered include Los Angeles, Mexico City, San Antonio and Orlando.

Franchise owners will put up $30 million for a one-third share, with a stock offering valued at about $60 million giving fans one-third ownership -- Hambrecht explains that stock offerings are usually valued at twice the level of cash because of the liquidity -- and giving the league the other third. Hambrecht says the league will be able to compete financially for players not taken in the first two rounds of the NFL draft.

Hambrecht, 71, who owned a 5 percent stake in the Oakland Invaders of the failed USFL in the 1980s, spoke to this column by phone Sunday.

Let me come at you like the average fan, who I think read these reports last week and said, "Come on." So sell me on the idea that this isn't a hare-brained scheme.

From what point of view? It's kind of interesting because the incoming calls we've had at the firm, both from the press and outside, were actually more than we had for Google. There's a lot of people interested.

There's a certain group of people who'll say, "You're crazy. The NFL is a total monopoly, they're going to be able to just blow you away." And, you know, hey, they are a monopoly. But that's what gives you the opening, because they're a monopoly that has not covered the whole market.

And I guess my answer to you about the average football fan who says, "No way," I think what you'd really have to do is ask the fans in Las Vegas, or Salt Lake or L.A. or Mexico City or Portland, the cities that don't have an NFL franchise. Ask them if they'd want a team. And what we've found is that there's a lot of demand for a team in these cities that don't have them.

The NFL is essentially a TV show.

That's right.

It doesn't matter what cities the teams play in. It's a drop in the bucket, ticket revenues and that sort of thing relative to the TV money.

That's correct. But it does matter to the fan. If you really study the ratings, they obviously get a much better rating in a city where they have a team. Now, what they're trying to do, the reason they haven't expanded, is they're trying to make it a TV product where it doesn't matter where the team is. But football's kind of a cultural thing.

Next page: Competing with the NFL for players and fall attention. Plus: Drafting high schoolers? TV contract?