The Omaha Nighthawks - UFL Football

Erik · Post by **Erik** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 7:19 pm

People are underestimating this new league.. I may overestimate a little bit, but the dynamics at work that are backing this league is far more than the other leagues that ended up failing.

guitarguy · Post by **guitarguy** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 8:02 pm

Honestly I think it could work if its a legitimate minor league nfl league as long as they have players with name recognition it will be sucessful I believe.

-adam

JPenny · Post by **JPenny** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 10:40 pm

joeglow wrote:
Stargazer wrote:
By the way... I'd much rather watch a good class A rivalry on Thursday/Friday night, than sit in an empty baseball stadium watching semi pro football.

Agreed. If it is on a Friday night, I would much rather watch Prep make Westside their bltch.

I believe you have that backwards, Prep is the B|tch!

haha I agree!

I think it could work if it had some sort of affiliation with the NFL but even without it I think it will last for a little while at least. i hope. but hopefully i does good

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:53 pm

The league didn't even average 10,000 people per game. I would hope Omaha could show up with at least 10,000 for only what 4 home games maybe? This league may fold, but If the team can sign an ex-Husker or two I am sure they can get some decent support.

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:33 am

I would expect 'Beef sized' crowds... at best... which of course is going to look really pathetic in that stadium. They might as well hold these at Seeman or Morrison... would provide a much better atmosphere. But I guess that would take away from MECA's success in bringing a tenant to TD Ameritrade, huh.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:35 am

Stargazer wrote:I would expect 'Beef sized' crowds... at best.

Oh |expletive| it. I can do that on my own.

Just by hanging out on Cuming Street.

Without paying for tickets.

[all joke made?]

OmahaChef · Post by **OmahaChef** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:44 am

There will be 5 home games.

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:36 pm

Wow... so now we have to come up with TWO original names.

StuMondo · Post by **StuMondo** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:58 pm

the Values.

The Nebraska Values.

LOL

Heard it on the radio.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 9:01 am

Omaha a UFL town?

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100415/N ... a-ufl-town

By Tom Shatel WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER wrote:Apparently Omaha is going to join the UFL at a news conference this morning. There are a lot of questions about this idea and most of the pertinent ones, league officials can't answer.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 9:31 am

Press conference live on ketv.com and omaha.com

Post by **Brad** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 9:40 am

"several" major announcements

Rosenblatt this year, TD next.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 9:44 am

Head Coach: Jeff Jagodzinski, Boston College, Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay.

Assistant Coach and GM: Rick Muller, Jacksonville, New Orleans

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:26 am

2Adam29 wrote:PRO TEAM IN OMAHA LOOKING FOR CHEERLEADING DIRECTOR

http://ultimatecheerleaders.com/2010/04 ... -in-omaha/

I'm guessing that this is a nod for Omaha's bid for the UFL team. ;)

Now that I don't have a pacLife maybe this is my calling.

cp jay 07 · Post by **cp jay 07** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:27 am

I don't want to say I called this but I pretty much said Shitell would write this article.

http://omaha.com/article/20100415/SPORT ... t-in-omaha

It amazes me how we still have this clown as our sports writer. We have former and future NFL players coming into Omaha to play and this clown would rather go watch 17 year olds. Something is wrong here.

While I am all for watching Prep make westside their biatch I would much rather watch PRO football. And please this is not Semi Pro football, you don't get a coach like that to come coach Semi Pro football. These players have one profession, playing football and getting back to the NFL. These guys are not plumbers and construction workers during the day like the beef. These are professional football players. Watch one game and you will notice the difference between the beef and the UFL.

ShawJ · Post by **ShawJ** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:52 am

Honestly, I'm pumped for this. I like to watch the NFL, but it feels pointless because I don't really have a home team. Although the UFL isn't the NFL, it'll be nice to cheer for a football team that is higher than the college ranks. I know I will be going to games.

And it might only be a few home games, but I still think this will continue to help the development of North Downtown.

Greg S · Post by **Greg S** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 12:25 pm

This is fine though I will bet this thing does not make it to TD Ameritrade (not just the Omaha franchise, but the league as a whole). You are right this is not semi-pro, but it is unaffiliated minor league. Even an optimist would say the odds are against this league making it.

I do think they are right to bail on NFL cities. Their only hope is smaller markets.

Greg

cp jay 07 · Post by **cp jay 07** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 12:43 pm

Yes I agree, while I doubt this league will survive in the long run, it will be cool to have for a few seasons and maybe just maybe the NFL will finally realize this is their shot at having a D league, something every pro sports in America has. If the NFL sees this as a chance at a D league and gets behind it it will survive. Unlike the XFL, USFL and all the other leagues that have tried to take down the NFL the UFL realizes what it is, they are not trying to reinvent football, they are not trying to take down the NFL, they are simply an alternative, a place for players to play other than on practice squads. They can do it like the old CBA format, I remember the Racers had two pro teams, this Omaha franchise could be the farm team to Omaha and St. Louis. Also if I remember right in the old CBA format you could get signed on a 10 day contract by anyone. Cedric Hunter signed with Charlotte a couple times and I know Legler was always going back and forth between Golden State.

I just really hope people realize what this league is and not listen to Shitel, he has never been behind any pro sports team in town. He never got behind the Knights, he did defend Racers owner Steve Idleman and he did cover the Racers but he also called them "Semi Pro" which was completely false and played the whole this is an amateur sports town bit again, and he always says college baseball is better than the Royals. I don't get how he can think college sports are better than AAA pro sports. For example the Racers could have beaten the NCAA champs in basketball that year, the Knights would have beaten the NCAA hockey champ in any year, the Royals could beat the CWS champ any year, and Im sure this UFL will be able to beat the precious huskers any year. There is a reason this is pro sports, these players were drafted for a reason.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 1:50 pm

The UFL already has some notable investors, including NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, former Google executive and current AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Paul Pelosi, an owner of the Sacramento franchise and husband of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House.

Uh oh. Damn communists investing millions in Omaha.

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 1:59 pm

cp jay... I practically caused a scene in a supermarket once trying to deflect the notion which a woman had that the Lancers were far superior to both the Mavericks and Knights in skill level. She didn't understand why we would have TWO professional hockey teams in Omaha... that we should be throwing all of our support behind the ORIGINAL one in the Lancers. And that was just one of several similar encounters I had with Lancer fans. That's when I realized that the Knights had no chance of succeeding in this town.

Zilla · Post by **Zilla** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:45 pm

cp jay 07 wrote:I don't want to say I called this but I pretty much said |expletive| would write this article.

http://omaha.com/article/20100415/SPORT ... t-in-omaha

It amazes me how we still have this clown as our sports writer. We have former and future NFL players coming into Omaha to play and this clown would rather go watch 17 year olds. Something is wrong here.

While I am all for watching Prep make westside their biatch I would much rather watch PRO football. And please this is not Semi Pro football, you don't get a coach like that to come coach Semi Pro football. These players have one profession, playing football and getting back to the NFL. These guys are not plumbers and construction workers during the day like the beef. These are professional football players. Watch one game and you will notice the difference between the beef and the UFL.

I don't think you're quite reading the article right. Tom's not saying he'd rather go watch 17-year-olds, but is simply asking if having the games on Thursdays will force people to choose what event they are going to attend or sacrifice, and thus if scheduling the UFL at the same time of year as everything else is a good idea. Thursday UFL, Friday High School, Saturday College, or Sunday NFL? It's not so much "Will the UFL work in Omaha," but "Will the UFL work in the fall."

That's all well and good that you'd rather watch Pro, but I'd much rather watch college over pro any day. That doesn't mean I'm not excited about this though. I imagine there are lots of people with that attitude, or with that attitude towards high school football. And as much as you want to say it's PRO football, it's not. No more than the Royals is PRO baseball or the World League was PRO. Technically it is classified as such, but we all know the reality of it....it's not the NFL...it's NOT pro. Does any of that mean it'll fail? No. Are all of those things that we'll have to actually see how Omaha reacts to it? Absolutely. So relax. He never said it wouldn't work, he's just putting all the questions out there that lots of people are asking.

Oh_Burn · Post by **Oh_Burn** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 2:32 am

Yep, first post, I know. I've been a reader here for a very long time.

Go to the UFL Web site and write in Robots as the team name. It rules. Think of the prmotions/mascots/costumes. It's a good idea.

Here's the voting site: http://www.ufl-football.com/nameomaha

Here's the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Omahas-UF ... 765?ref=ts

Post by **nebugeater** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 6:06 am

Everyone is talking about the league and the assumption that it will fail. Note I am talking the league as a whole. What if the opposite happens and they take root and succeed and grow. If they go down that path Omaha may loose the team because a 24K seat BASEBALL stadium will not be what they want to play in.

OmahaBen · Post by **OmahaBen** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 8:48 am

The bigger problem I have with Shatel's column, and ask Tom answer, and blog posting, is his constant reference to whether the NCAA had to approve this or not.

Jesus H. Christ, it's not the NCAA's ballpark. There's probably language in the contract for the CWS limiting how much use it can get in the spring and especially the month or 6 weeks ahead of the event, but the city and MECA should be free to book it post-CWS without worrying about what the a-holes in Indianapolis think. And if the city can't, then the lawyer(s) who negotiated on behalf of the city should be shot.

HskrFanMike · Post by **HskrFanMike** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:58 pm

OmahaBen wrote:The bigger problem I have with Shatel's column, and ask Tom answer, and blog posting, is his constant reference to whether the NCAA had to approve this or not.

Jesus H. Christ, it's not the NCAA's ballpark. There's probably language in the contract for the CWS limiting how much use it can get in the spring and especially the month or 6 weeks ahead of the event, but the city and MECA should be free to book it post-CWS without worrying about what the a-holes in Indianapolis think. And if the city can't, then the lawyer(s) who negotiated on behalf of the city should be shot.

We built this stadium because the NCAA wanted it. We customized this stadium to the needs of the NCAA, even to the detriment to meeting the needs of Alan Stein and the Royals. I'm positive that someone talked to the NCAA about it before the deal was signed.

I'm sure the NCAA signed off on it because they recognize the need to make the stadium work, and any damage to the field from football should be able to be repaired by June. If this league played in the spring (XFL, USFL, NFL Europe), that would be a different matter entirely.

BTW, Robots is the second worst nickname I've heard suggested, trailing only "Spirit".

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:08 pm

nebugeater wrote:Everyone is talking about the league and the assumption that it will fail. Note I am talking the league as a whole. What if the opposite happens and they take root and succeed and grow. If they go down that path Omaha may loose the team because a 24K seat BASEBALL stadium will not be what they want to play in.

Maybe if they do start to work and succeed the city would think about building a serviceable UFL stadium. Not saying I would be for it for sure yet, but they way this city thinks I bet a 25,000 seat stadium isn't out of the question if it happens to work.

Erik · Post by **Erik** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:22 pm

Wow, we are all in some sort of pseudo-nightmare..

I think it's time to do an eomaha mass-suicide gathering, lol. :;):

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:41 pm

Go to the UFL Web site and write in Robots as the team name. It rules. Think of the prmotions/mascots/costumes. It's a good idea

Reminds me of the time some friends and I spear headed gaining support for an entry in a Swanson Elementary (District 66) mascot naming contest. Our idea won... t-shirts were made... the Swanson Buzzards (even had a graphic of a bald, slung head buzzard our artistic principal drew). Later when it was figured out it was all a big joke (not sure why the delay in figuring this out)... they changed it to the lame Swanson Superstars.

omahahawk · Post by **omahahawk** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:45 pm

diamond + grid iron =

http://omaha.com/article/20100420/SPORT ... figuration

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:55 pm

omahahawk wrote:diamond + grid iron =

http://omaha.com/article/20100420/SPORT ... figuration

I saw that I thought it was interesting how they would sod over the infield every year.

cp jay 07 · Post by **cp jay 07** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:56 am

iamjacobm wrote:
omahahawk wrote:diamond + grid iron =

http://omaha.com/article/20100420/SPORT ... figuration
I saw that I thought it was interesting how they would sod over the infield every year.

Every football/baseball stadium does that. Look at Oakland and Florida, it would look stupid if they didn't.

icejammer · Post by **icejammer** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:05 pm

cp jay 07 wrote:
iamjacobm wrote:
omahahawk wrote:diamond + grid iron =

http://omaha.com/article/20100420/SPORT ... figuration
I saw that I thought it was interesting how they would sod over the infield every year.
Every football/baseball stadium does that. Look at Oakland and Florida, it would look stupid if they didn't.

You're obviously too young to remember the hey-day of multi-use stadiums when the infields were almost never sodded for football.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:10 pm

icejammer wrote:
cp jay 07 wrote:
iamjacobm wrote:
omahahawk wrote:diamond + grid iron =

http://omaha.com/article/20100420/SPORT ... figuration
I saw that I thought it was interesting how they would sod over the infield every year.
Every football/baseball stadium does that. Look at Oakland and Florida, it would look stupid if they didn't.
You're obviously too young to remember the hey-day of multi-use stadiums when the infields were almost never sodded for football.

Yeah I was gonna say I am 24 and I clearly remember watching those games with dirt everywhere.

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:26 pm

Yeah I for sure remember seeing it all the time. I guess I haven't noticed in recent years. They still play on the dirt during baseball season so I probably just assumed it was all season.

OmahaBen · Post by **OmahaBen** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:20 pm

cp jay 07 wrote:
iamjacobm wrote:
omahahawk wrote:diamond + grid iron =

http://omaha.com/article/20100420/SPORT ... figuration
I saw that I thought it was interesting how they would sod over the infield every year.
Every football/baseball stadium does that. Look at Oakland and Florida, it would look stupid if they didn't.

Wanna know how I know you're a kid?...

OmahaJaysCU · Post by **OmahaJaysCU** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 11:49 pm

No dirt infield at Pro Player Stadium here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iNOhKXloXw

I will agree though, Oakland always looks like |expletive| with the dirt infield. Same with Candlestick in SF, Riverfront in Cinci, and well pretty much anywhere from that god awful era.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:20 am

Will be nice not to have to see this:

HskrFanMike · Post by **HskrFanMike** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 12:20 pm

My recollection that when most stadiums were multi-purpose, every stadium with a grass field sodded the infield once baseball season was over. I don't recall watching any December or playoff games on dirt infields. September? A whole bunch.

Of course... that's remembery. I could be wrong. A lot of those stadiums, though, had astroturf, and they covered up the base cutouts with turf on gamedays... even in September.

cp jay 07 · Post by **cp jay 07** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 11:34 am

How am I a kid ben? Because I was right when I said the two stadiums that host football and baseball in the NFL and MLB resod after the baseball season? They do still have the baseball infield in the football field but that ends after September, since there won't be any September baseball at TDA I can only imagine its a simple process.

OmahaBen · Post by **OmahaBen** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:54 am

cp jay 07 wrote:How am I a kid ben? Because I was right when I said the two stadiums that host football and baseball in the NFL and MLB resod after the baseball season?

Because back in the day they didn't. And I wore an onion on my belt, as was the style at the time. Now get off my lawn.