Las Vegas fans can take heart because it looks like fan favorite wide receiver Casey Flair will be back at Sam Boyd Stadium this fall.

The United Football League has signed Flair to a contract Friday and assigned him to the Las Vegas Locomotives.

Flair finished his UNLV career as the school’s second all-time leading receiver with 202 receptions. As of today, Flair is the only player on the Locomotives roster with ties to local teams.

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?

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.