A couple of news items have come to light.

First of all FOX5 in Las Vegas is reporting that the fans are dissapointed with the Locomotives name. As well the article quotes LV Head Coach Jim Fassel as being surprised by the name.

According to a FOX5 Web poll, an overwhelming majority of respondents, 85 percent, said they do not like the name Locomotives.

“I remember when they first called me and said Locomotives was the name, I said, ‘What? Locomotives? You got to be kidding me,’” said head coach Jim Fassel, who admitted he wasn’t aware of its connection to Las Vegas history.

To the contrary UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue is featured in a great article in Sports Business Daily:

UFLCommissioner Michael Huyghue “termed the UFL’s first season a ‘good experimental year’ and ‘our dress rehearsal’ as fans learn more about the product”

That should set things straight! Fans need to learn more about the product, and in the end the product will be football. As well, fans of this new league must realize that this is going to be a bumpy road, and I believe that Michael Huyghue has the right attitude.

When does the football start?

In a recent trademark registration, on 6 Aug 09, the United Football league registered the team name “San Francisco Redwoods”.  This indicates a last minute change of the expected team name from the previously registered “Rockfish” to newly registered “Redwoods”.

In addition, the league has also registered the trademark “California Redwoods”.  However the league has registered the graphical “SF” as a trademark.  This would indicate that the league is going forward with the “San Francisco” moniker.

The United Football league also registered the graphical marks “LV”, “FL” and “NY” for the other team jerseys.

The UFL plans to unveil the official San Francisco team name and uniform later today, where we expect this latest information to be confirmed.

This information was discovered using the US Trademark search engine

Go Redwoods!

Here is a photo of the new jersey of the Las Vegas Locomotives:

Discuss the new jersey:
http://uflfansite.com/forums/index.php?topic=51.0

The United Football League today officially introduced us to the new Las Vegas Locomotives. The team colors are blue, silver and white. The uniforms are designed as a blend of the team colors and the UFL logo, which means that the league is not unveiling a “Locomotives” logo at this time, and are keeping things generic as a “unified branding system”.

The inspiration for the ‘Premiere’ season uniform design comes directly from the UFL shield and its foundation colors which represent ‘green grass’, ‘blue sky’ and silver for innovation,” said Caruso. “Throughout the uniforms, we used the dimensional ‘arc’ of the shield on the chest and supporting ‘arcs’ on the sleeves and pants. The unique font of the numbers reinforces the shield’s classic bold typeface with angles and dimensional treatments conveying depth and motion. The four uniform designs work together in a unified branded system, providing manufacturing efficiencies while allowing each team to retain its own unique and differentiated character.

Click here for the full press release

We will have a photo of the uniform here when it becomes available.

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 10, – At a press conference today, United Football League Commissioner Michael Huyghue announced the Las Vegas franchise will be named the Locomotives and unveiled innovative team uniforms showcasing the Locomotives’ “Premiere” season colors of silver, blue and white. The name “Locomotives” was selected after reviewing more than thirty thousand fan entries and receiving interpretation from industry experts and an in-house creative team on what attributes the fans were seeking with their submissions. Las Vegas Locomotives Head Coach Jim Fassel was also in attendance at the press event.

“It was critical for us to select team names that we felt best reflected the local community while simultaneously defining the personality of the team,” said Commissioner Huyghue. “Las Vegas was originally established in 1905 with the opening of the Salt Lake, San Pedro and Los Angeles Railroads. We wanted to honor the vast history of the city and the intrinsic benefits that this innovation provided to the community.”

Previously, the UFL announced Miami-based GameWear Team Sports as the League’s official uniform supplier. GameWear Team Sports is one of the leading athletic uniform outfitters in the country and has worked extensively in growing the sport of football on the grassroots level. Award-winning designer Ron Caruso of Purepartner created all the teams’ uniforms using derivatives of the official League logo for all the designs while making each one distinctive.

“The inspiration for the ‘Premiere’ season uniform design comes directly from the UFL shield and its foundation colors which represent ‘green grass’, ‘blue sky’ and silver for innovation,” said Caruso. “Throughout the uniforms, we used the dimensional ‘arc’ of the shield on the chest and supporting ‘arcs’ on the sleeves and pants. The unique font of the numbers reinforces the shield’s classic bold typeface with angles and dimensional treatments conveying depth and motion. The four uniform designs work together in a unified branded system, providing manufacturing efficiencies while allowing each team to retain its own unique and differentiated character.”

Tomorrow, the United Football League will be holding a press conference at AT&T Park to announce the San Francisco team’s name. Similar events will be held in Orlando on Wednesday and in New York on Thursday. Photos of each of the team’s uniforms will be available on the League’s website, www.ufl-football.com, along with video from the press events.

“We are extremely pleased with the names selected for all of our teams and the overall ‘Premiere’ season uniform design,” said Frank Vuono, COO of the UFL. “Name selection for a new sports franchise can be an arduous process having to take into account the disqualification of many great possibilities due to trademark and copyright issues. There was a team of experts headed up by Jeff Sofka of Bendigo Co., and included Charley Inc., GameWear Team Sports, Purepartner, and many others who assisted in the name selection and uniform design processes and we are grateful for all of their hard work.”

The UFL launched its Name the Team Campaign with the redesign of its website in February. From that time, more than thirty thousand entries were submitted. Fans who submitted the selected names will be notified and given the appropriate credit.

The Las Vegas Locomotives’ first game of the season will be on October 8(th) at Sam Boyd Stadium against San Francisco. Tickets go on-sale August 12(th) and can be purchased by calling UNLV Tickets Charge by Phone at 702.739.FANS or log onto www.UNLVtickets.com.

A recent Associateed Press article indicates that Michael Vick is not currently looking at the UFL, as he is still working towards landing a starting job with the UFL.

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Tony Dungy says he’s spoken to “quite a few” NFL coaches about Michael Vick.

Dungy, the former Indianapolis Colts‘ coach, has been mentoring Vick, who served 18 months in federal prison for running a dogfighting ring and was released from home confinement last month.

During Sunday night’s NBC broadcast of the Hall of Fame game, Dungy said, “I’ve talked to quite a few coaches who want to get my thoughts on where [Vick] is.”

Dungy says Vick has talked to several teams. Dungy says he believes the former Falcons’ quarterback will be with a team before training camp ends.

On Monday 10 Aug 09 we will be treated to the United Football League’s announcement of the official team name and uniform for their brand new Las Vegas franchise.  Excellent!

The UFL is moving pretty fast towards kickoff these days.  In fact there will be three other similar announcements of team names and uniforms on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 

Of course, we already know the name of the Las Vegas team.  It is the “Locomotives”.  In fact the “Locomotives” name began to show up in trademark searches for the league about two weeks ago.  Since then there has been no other names registered for the Las Vegas team other than the shortened version “Las Vegas Locos”.  (Let’s Go Loco!)

As well, the local Las Vegas media have recently confirmed through league sources that the “Locomotives” will be the name.

So where does that leave us? 

First of all we can start to ignore all those rumored gambling related nicknames that have been going around.  Throw out “Gamblers”, “Blackjacks”, “Aces”, “Pokerfaces”, “Tumbling Dice”… or any of the other casino related nicknames. 

Instead, we need to build a set of tracks for the “Locomotives”. 

Frankly, I like the “Locomotives”, bring it on!  I just hope that the logo is good.

So ,we wait to see what the uniform will look like.  We haven’t seen yet, and the reveal on Monday will be, in short, very revealing.

There are some ideas that we are pondering.  I wonder whether the league marketing machine has considered these:

• The Little Engine that Could.  He was such a cute little locomotive and he had a lot of gumption. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can”;   What a great role model for a football team.  Kids would love it. Heck I even get a tear in my eye when I think of that spunky little engine climbing that hill.
• The Polar Express.  Certainly a magical and mystical train, which is cool in its own right.  However, the polar motif does not fit with the Las Vegas climate, not to mention that the animated Tom Hanks was kind of creepy.
• The Soul Train Locomotive.  You might remember Don Cornelius introducting all those great performances but you might also recall the trademark locomotive chugging along to the beat. It was inspirational, however it was sort of phallic and it might not be family-friendly enough for the league.
• The Chugga-Chugga Dog:  You remember the wiener dog from Magilla Gorilla.  Although he moved like a train, and made train noises, he wasn’t really a locomotive after all.  While I am sure that the league would be happy to have a loveable pooch as a mascot they probably want to steer clear of the whole canine milieu while they are still courting Michael Vick.
• The Back to the Future Part 3 Locomotive:  It was a cool looking “old timey” locomotive.  Brings back memories of western expansion. It might be just what the league needs, but if you recall your movie history Doc Brown flew it into the future, so it really is not an option.
• The Crazy Train, by Ozzy Osbourne.  This might be hit, as we have told you that the league has registered “Las Vegas Locos” as a trademark.  A Crazy Train might be on the right track, and Ozzy would be a great mascot.

Actually, I hope the leagues brain-trust has got a better idea in mind than my meanderings above.  I can’t wait to see what they have come up with!

It looks like the Las Vegas media have confirmed that the team name will be the Las Vegas Locomotives:

http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10870109&nav=menu498_4

Of course we leaked that fact two weeks ago when we discovered all four team names via Trademark Search.   If the predictions all come true the other teams will be named New York Sentinels, San Francisco Rockfish and the Florida Tuskers. 

The Orlando team also had the “Orlando Tuskers” registered as a name, but the league seems to be preferring the “Florida” moniker at the moment.

Next week the league will make their names official.  As far as we are concerned the names that were leaked two weeks ago will be the official names.

Through their facebook site the UFL is offering tickets to UFL games in advance of the public on-sale date of August 12 and SAVE $5 per ticket. This offer is begins at 10 AM on August 7 and expires at 10 PM August 11, (all times local market). Pre-Sale for Games at AT&T Park starts August 10 at 1 PM PT through August 12 at 10 PM.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/United-Football-League/70863495779?v=wall&viewas=541658687&ref=nf

The UFL has scheduled press conferences to announce team names and unveil uniforms:

• Las Vegas on August 10th
• San Francisco on August 11th
• Orlando on August 12th
• New York on August 13th.

According to the recently released schedule the Orlando Team will be named “Florida”.