I heard recently about the compensation scheme to be used by the United Football League. I haven’t seen any posts on this topic, so excuse me if this duplicates earlier discussion.
Players in the UFL will have a base compensation of $35,000, except for kickers and long snappers whose base is $25,000. A July posting at UFL Access says that the base pay for players is $35k, except for kickers and long snappers for whom it is $25K, and that quarterbacks will get $10k per game.
Players on the championship team get a bonus of $5k; players on the losing team in the championship game get a bonus of $2.5k.
The player contract stipulates that players cannot try out for NFL teams until after the UFL season is over. The championship game is November 27th, so not much of the NFL season will remain. In other words, if a player is using the UFL as an audition for the NFL, it is one which will most likely only payoff in the following NFL season, not the current one.
A player agent noted that many former NFL players had considered the UFL, when they thought compensation would be $100k, but many of those players decided it was not worth it for $35k. Some of the players clearly don’t love to play the game THAT much.
The UFL marketing slogan is “Where future stars come to play”. The question is do they mean future NFL stars who get their big break to join an NFL squad or do they really believe the league will be far more successful than previous competitors to the NFL. My money is on the former.
