United Football League (2009) - Financial Structure

Financial Structure

The UFL's original pay structure included a player salary cap range of $12–20 million per team with a staff salary cap of $3 million per team. They hoped to be paying at least 10 players on each roster in excess of $1 million.

By the time the 2009 season began, the league was paying salaries significantly lower than these numbers. An agent representing two players with NFL experience, Jack Bechta, reported his clients were offered UFL contracts at a base salary of $35,000. He confirmed with other agents that $35,000 was the league mandated salary for skill players and $25,000 for punters, place kickers and long snappers, at least for the 2009 inaugural season. One of the players represented by the agent was a quarterback who received an offer of $35,000, although he stated that his negotiations revealed that teams are allowed to pay one quarterback more than the $35,000 salary. Bonuses were limited to $10,000 per player. In addition to the base salary, the league also pays for all housing expenses for its players. In another similarity to the XFL, teams can offer a sizable performance bonus; former Locomotives starting quarterback J. P. Losman has stated that he received a "nice sized" bonus for winning the 2009 UFL Championship Game.

In 2010, players earned $6,250 per game, for a total of $50,000 in the regular season; participants in the 2010 UFL Championship Game were paid a total of $10,000 each, with an additional $10,000 going to each player on the winning team. Starting quarterbacks earned a $200,000 salary.

The league's initial salaries were roughly equal to the average per-game salaries in the Canadian Football League and, adjusted for inflation, equivalent to the XFL. There was a significant delay in payments after the 2010 season, because of a revenue shortfall, a severe underestimation of expenses, and a delay in a $50,000,000 subsidy from one of the UFL's owners. As of February 2011, the bonuses for the 2010 championship game remained unpaid, as did numerous other bills accrued by the league during the 2010 season. Most of these bills were eventually paid in March.

According to reports that surfaced in May 2011, the base salary for players was reduced to $5,000 per game (including the championship), with only a $1,000 additional bonus for winning the championship game. This contradicted the word of the commissioner, who had previously stated he aimed to increase compensation to $10,000 per game in March.

Pay was further reduced to $3,500 per game for the 2012 season.

Each player is under contract to the UFL through February of the following year, effectively creating a two-month non-compete clause after the season ends, and any NFL team that wishes to sign a UFL player was supposed pay a transfer fee of $150,000 (later lowered to $25,000) to the league. This fee was waived after the 2009 season but was more strictly enforced for 2010. The league dropped the transfer fee for the 2011 season.

For 2009, each team was unofficially tied to a pair of divisions in the National Football League. In addition to this feature, the league held a draft on June 18, 2009, the UFL Premiere Season Draft. A second draft was held on June 2, 2010. The 2011 UFL Draft was held on May 2, with player selections announced via Twitter. No formal draft was staged prior to the 2012 UFL season.

Owners pay $30 million to buy a half interest in a team. The league itself owns the other half. The UFL plans for each team to eventually sell shares to the public that they hope could raise another $60 million.

The league accrued financial losses of between $120 million and $150 million over the course of the league's four years of play. Paul Pelosi's investment was between $10 million and $50 million, according to federal disclosure forms filed by his wife Nancy.