The 2010 United Football League season was the second season of the United Football League. The regular season ran from September 18 to November 20 and featured five teams playing eight games each (twice against each of the other teams) over a 10-week span. The 2010 season was a relatively competitive one as no team won more than five games, and no team lost more than five. The season ended with the

2010 UFL Championship Game The 2010 UFL championship game was the concluding game of the United Football League's 2010 season. The game was staged at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday, November 27, 2010, and saw the Las Vegas Locomotives repeat as ...

on November 27 at

Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium was a baseball stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, the former home to the annual NCAA Division I College World Series and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A Omaha Royals (now Omaha Storm Chasers, Storm Chasers). It was the ...

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, where the

Las Vegas Locomotives The Las Vegas Locomotives (called the Locos for short) were a professional American football team based in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada that played in the United Football League (2009–2012), United Football League. The team played their ...

defeated the

Florida Tuskers Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, 23–20.

League changes for 2010

The UFL based its plans for 2010 in part on the lessons learned from its inaugural season in 2009, a year the league considered a modest "dress rehearsal". One of the lessons learned from 2009 was that the league performed better in cities that did not have an NFL presence. To that end, the league relocated two of their 2009 franchises away from NFL markets: The New York Sentinels were relocated to

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

(where they played one home game in 2009) and were renamed the

Hartford Colonials The Hartford Colonials, originally the New York Sentinels, were a professional American football team that played in the United Football League in its 2009 and 2010 seasons. A charter member of the UFL, the Sentinels began play in 2009 nominall ...

, while the California Redwoods, a team based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

in 2009, were moved to

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

and became the

Sacramento Mountain Lions The Sacramento Mountain Lions were a professional American football team based in Sacramento, California that played in the United Football League (2009–2012), United Football League. The franchise originated as the California Redwoods, and pl ...

Rentschler Field Rentschler Field was an airport in East Hartford, Connecticut in use from 1933 to 1999. Originally a military facility, later a private corporate airport, it was decommissioned in 1999, after which the football stadium of the same name was bui ...

and Hornet Stadium were the respective home venues for the Colonials and Mountain Lions. Along with the above franchise shifts, the league set forth to add two new franchises;

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

was considered as the leading candidate for a new team along with

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

. Civic leaders in San Antonio were cool to the league's advances, however, citing previous failed football teams in the city and the fear that the UFL's presence would hinder the University of Texas at San Antonio's launch of its Division I college football team in 2011. Instead, the league added just one franchise for 2010, the

Omaha Nighthawks The Omaha Nighthawks were a professional American football team based in Omaha, Nebraska, which played in the United Football League (2009–2012), United Football League, joining the league as an expansion team in 2010 UFL season, 2010. During ...

, who spent 2010 at

Rosenblatt Stadium Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium was a baseball stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, the former home to the annual NCAA Division I College World Series and the Triple-A Omaha Royals (now Storm Chasers). It was the largest minor league ballpark in the Unit ...

before moving downtown to

TD Ameritrade Park Omaha Charles Schwab Field Omaha (formerly TD Ameritrade Park Omaha) is a ballpark in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 2011, the city-owned stadium replaced historic Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, which was about south. The Baseball field, diamond is aligned so ...

for 2011. Three of the four charter teams retained their ownership from the previous year, though some sold portions of their teams to minority owners. The lone exception was the Florida Tuskers;

Stuart Sternberg Stuart L. Sternberg (born August 8, 1959) is an American Wall Street investor. He is the principal shareholder of the ownership group that owns the Tampa Bay Rays and acts as the team's Managing General Partner since November 2005. Early life T ...

pulled out of ownership after the 2009 season and filed legal action against the league for funds he believes is owed to his company, Sunburst Entertainment Group. After spending the offseason and the first four weeks of the season under league ownership, a group led by

Joe Theismann Joseph Robert Theismann (; born September 9, 1949) is an American former professional football player, sports commentator, corporate speaker, and restaurateur. He rose to fame playing quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and Canad ...

purchased the Tuskers in October 2010.

NetSuite NetSuite Inc. is an American cloud-based enterprise software company that provides products and services tailored for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) including accounting and financial management, customer relationship management (CR ...

CEO Zach Nelson agreed to purchase the Omaha Nighthawks.

Mark Cuban Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American businessman and television personality. He is the former principal owner and current minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and co-owner of 2929 Entertain ...

also loaned the league $5 million in April 2010; in January 2011, he filed a federal lawsuit against the league after they had yet to repay the loan. To account for the odd number of teams (five), each team played an eight-game schedule over a 10-week span (as opposed to six games in seven weeks during 2009); two bye weeks for each team were included. The schedule's

double round robin A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

format remained intact. Also, all of the games were being played in the teams' home stadiums, as opposed to the neutral site "

barnstorming Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in t ...

" approach used for some of the 2009 games. In another change from 2009, the UFL strengthened local exposure of its teams, including radio coverage (see ''Broadcasting'' below) and the establishment of training camps and practices at sites in each team's market. (During 2009, the teams trained and practiced in two sites,

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

and

Casa Grande, Arizona Casa Grande (O'odham language, O'odham: ''Wainom Wo:g'') is a city in Pinal County, Arizona, Pinal County, approximately halfway between Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, Tucson, in the U.S. state of Arizona. According to the 2020 ...

.) Additionally, each team gained their own uniform identity for 2010, loosening them from the standard league colors (green, blue, black, silver) and uniform template used in 2009. *The

adopted a navy blue and gold color scheme. *The Omaha Nighthawks' colors are metallic silver, black and slate gray, as well as donning the league's first ever alternate jersey of a camouflage color scheme. *The

sport shades of gold and tan along with black trim. *The

kept silver and black in their palette, but replaced UFL blue with crimson (which replaced silver as the main color on their home jerseys). *The

retained their UFL blue/black/silver palette, with black replacing blue as the primary home jersey color. The 2010 season was a high-water mark for the league. The Sacramento and Omaha franchises were rousing successes with their fanbases, regularly playing to sold-out stadiums with over 20,000 fans a week. The league's salaries would be the highest in its history, peaking at $200,000 a year for a starting quarterback (a level comparable to the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

's minimum per-game salary); as such, the league was able to sign prominent NFL veterans such as

Daunte Culpepper Daunte Rachard Culpepper (born January 28, 1977) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Minnesota Vikings. He played college football for the U ...

(Sacramento) and

Jeff Garcia Jeffrey Jason Garcia (born February 24, 1970) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). After attending high school and junior college in ...

(Omaha). The inability to sustain that level of spending and the systemic lack of sustainable revenue sources to match it became evident shortly after the season, prompting the league's slow unraveling over the course of the next two seasons. The league had intended to lose money the first two seasons in an effort to sell their product to television for a rights fee high enough to sustain spending at 2010 levels, but the networks refused to buy a rights package, instead insisting on payment ''from'' the league for television coverage.

Coaching changes for 2010

Broadcasting

The 2010 season was the second and final year in the UFL's initial broadcast deals with

HDNet AXS TV () is an American specialty television, cable television channel majority-owned by Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment. It is devoted primarily to Music television, music-related programming (such as concert films, Document ...

and

Versus Versus (Latin, 'against') may refer to: Film and television * ''Versus'' (2000 film), a Japanese zombie film * ''Versus'' (2016 film), a Russian sports drama film * ''Versus'' (2019 film), a French thriller film * Versus (TV channel), form ...

; HDNet carried 10 regular season games, while Versus carried eight games plus the championship game. In addition, the league gained its first partnership with a regional network—the

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

–based

NESN New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports cable and satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which owns a controlling 80% interest, and is the owner of the Boston ...

, which carried two

home games. The league website provided live and archived video streaming for all games, while

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

provided a live HD simulcast of Versus' Championship Game broadcast with additional content. Also, UFL games were carried on radio for the first time, with each team having their own flagship station:

Team schedules

Win Loss

Florida Tuskers

Hartford Colonials

Las Vegas Locomotives

Omaha Nighthawks

Sacramento Mountain Lions

Standings

Championship Game

The 2010 UFL Championship was held on November 27, 2010 (two days after

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

) and involved the

and

, who finished first and second, respectively, in the league standings. The Locomotives won the championship game for the second straight year, beating the Tuskers 23-20 behind an MVP performance by quarterback Chase Clement and a blocked field goal by defensive lineman Alfred Malone on the final play. The game was played at

, which was chosen as host venue on October 18, 2010, after the league employed a formula that took into consideration "advance ticket and merchandise sales, energy for all events prior to the season starting, and team record" to determine the site. (The first-year Nighthawks sold out each of their 4 home games, including the first UFL game with over 20,000 in attendance.)Pivovar, Steven (2010-10-18)
Rosenblatt Stadium lands UFL title game
''Omaha World-Herald''. Retrieved 2010-10-18.

Attendance

The UFL's attendance generally improved from its inaugural season; in that year, the average attendance was 9,678 spectators per game, with one game as low as 4,312 fans and the highest-attended game at less than 18,187. For the 20 home dates in the 2010 regular season, crowd numbers ranged from a high of 23,554 (Las Vegas at Omaha on October 28) to a low of 8,451 (Hartford at Las Vegas on October 23). The league's newest markets—Omaha, Sacramento, and Hartford—were the front runners in attendance, with the Nighthawks selling out all 4 of their home games and never failing to draw less than 21,000 to

. The Mountain Lions and Colonials saw marked improvements from their 2009 seasons in the San Francisco and New York markets, respectively. After being the attendance leaders in 2009, both Las Vegas and Florida suffered noticeable declines at the turnstiles during 2010. The crowd decrease for the Locos, coupled with a high rate of rent at

Sam Boyd Stadium Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a closed American football, football stadium in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the hotel and casin ...

, led the league and team management to consider a smaller, more affordable home stadium for 2011, such as

Cashman Field Cashman Field is a stadium in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is primarily used for soccer as the home field of Las Vegas Lights FC of the USL Championship. Originally built as a baseball stadium, it was the home of the Triple-A ...

. Note that in the table below, numbers for the Sacramento Mountain Lions are rounded to the nearest 500 spectators; Sacramento did not give out exact ticket counts and only offered estimates.

Awards

Players of the week

Players and Coach of the Year

*''Offensive Player of the Year:'' Cory Ross, Running Back,

*''Defensive Player of the Year:'' Isaiah Trufant, Cornerback,

*''Special Teams Player of the Year:''

Nick Novak Nicholas Ryan Novak (born August 21, 1981) is an American former professional football placekicker. He played college football at Maryland and was signed by the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent in 2005. Novak was a member of the Dallas ...

, Kicker,

*''Coach of the Year:''

Jim Fassel James Edward Fassel (August 31, 1949 – June 7, 2021) was an American college and professional football player and coach. He was the head coach of the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) from 1997 to 2003. He was offensive coo ...

"UFL Coach of the Year"
UFL press release via OurSportsCentral.com, 11/23/2010

References

{{United Football League (2009)