United Football League coming to Norfolk in 2011

Jim Speros has always been a mover and a shaker, an entrepreneur and a sports junkie.

And Speros, who bought a Canadian Football League team and won a championship in Baltimore, has always been willing to take a risk.

So when he sat down with former New Orleans Saints and St. Louis Rams head coach Jim Haslett to have dinner at one of his restaurants in Centreville, Va., Speros was interested in what Haslett had to say about a new professional football league – the United Football League.

Haslett, who in January was hired as the Washington Redskins’ defensive coordinator, spent last fall coaching the Florida Tuskers in the UFL. And while Haslett yearned for a return to the NFL – he coached the Saints for six seasons – he knew Speros might be the type who’d relish the opportunity of a start-up league.

Relish it? Speros announced Monday night that he intends to birth a team in Norfolk, though he doesn’t have a place to play, a name for the team or a head coach.

But he recently leased office space at Dominion Tower in downtown Norfolk and has a marquee-name general manager, former Washington Redskins Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams.

That seemed to be enough for the league’s board of directors to grant him a conditional franchise Monday evening .

“I knew a while back that Norfolk was on the UFL’s radar,” said Speros, whose franchise wouldn’t begin to play until 2011 . “But it was for two years down the road. For the last three months, I’ve been looking into three things: Is the timing for this right? Is this the right place to be? And is this the right thing to do?

“The good news is we have a whole year to build a market for this in Norfolk. We will really e mbed ourselves into the community. This thing will be a natural.”

Still, there is the “conditional” part of approving the franchise. When a sked what the conditions were, league representative Michael Preston said, “there are still legal and logistical issues to be sorted out. It’s a dot the I’s and cross the T’s sort of thing.”

Two months ago, Speros visited Old Dominion University to gauge the feasibility of using Foreman Field as home turf. He did the same at Norfolk State and has inquired about playing at Harbor Park.

He even played golf in a fund raising event for ODU football and was paired with two of the Monarchs assistant coaches earlier this month.

Foreman Field, ODU’s football facility, can hold 19,782 people for football – plenty big enough in a league whose teams averaged 9,678 in 2009. Behind the scene, though, there is little enthusiasm to share the field, sources say.

Dave Rosenfield, general manager of the Norfolk Tides, doesn’t think Harbor Park would work, either.

“This field barely accommodates high school football, much less pros,” Rosenfield said. “One end zone runs into the outfield wall, and the other into the dugout, which is not a lot of room.

“And it’s a sand-based field, meaning there are weight restrictions when it comes to putting temporary bleachers on the field for fans for the south sidelines. Too many things are difficult about playing here.”

That leaves Dick Price Stadium at Norfolk State, a campus with limited parking but with 30,000 seats.

NSU athletic director Marty Miller entertained UFL officials on a campus visit two months ago but has not heard from them since.

“I don’t know a whole lot, but we’re definitely interested in sitting down, having discussions and learning some details,” Miller said. “Still, there are a number of questions that need to be answered. We need a lot of information.”

Finding a home remains a potential problem, but Speros, in his business career, has never been afraid of a challenge.

He will begin tackling it today.

“I know that the key is settling on a venue,” Speros said. “It’s the No. 1 issue and I will start tackling it at 8:30 in the morning. I have meetings all day and intend to catch the Tides game in the evening. But I need to get started on some things immediately.

“We are already getting ticket inquiries. While it might seem like I’m putting the cart before the horse, one of the first things I’ll do is implement a ticket reserve list.”

If anything, Speros likes challenges and things that are new.

He gambled on bringing a Canadian Football League team to Baltimore in the mid-1990s after the NFL’s Colts bolted for Indianapolis. His Stallions won the CFL championship in 1995 while playing at the old Memorial Stadium.

He opened a successful chain of restaurants in the metropolitan D.C. area called Velocity Five.

He jumped on the technology and information highway with a business called Chalk Media that specialized in smartphone technology . The company’s biggest client was the Navy. He sold the business in 2008 .

But he was also part of the Gabe Paul-Mark Warner coalition that tried to land an expansion Major League Baseball franchise in Northern Virginia in the mid-1990s. That bid failed as MLB awarded franchises that would become the Florida Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

So why Norfolk?

In dealing with the Navy, Speros has spent a lot of time at Norfolk Naval Station . He’s a Virginia guy and said he wanted to stay in the state. And his son is an offensive lineman at the University of Richmond, so he wanted to be close by to watch him play .

“I’m not one of those guys going into a city with plans to hold it up,” said Speros, who played linebacker at Clemson and coached briefly in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins. “I’m not going to go asking for Norfolk to build me a stadium. I’m not asking for anything more than a chance to put a good product on the field.”

As the NFL grew into the nation’s dominant pro sports league, other pro football leagues over the decades have not enjoyed much success.

There was the United States . Football League, which played a spring/summer schedule from 1983 to 1985. It s claim to fame before folding was a handful of players that went on to star in the NFL : Doug Flutie, Reggie White, Jim Kelly and Herschel Walker. Donald Trump, hoping the league would merge with the NFL and create a cash cow, was one of its team owners.

There was the ill-fated XFL, headed by World Wrestling Federation executive Vince McMahon. It played its lone season in 2001 and probably is best remembered for having a player – Rod Smart – whose name on the back of his jersey read “He Hate Me.

So why try now?

The answer could rest with the fact that the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement runs through the 2010 season. Should the players’ union and the league not extend the agreement – it’s been extended five times since its inception in 1993 – the owners could lock out the players for the 2011 season.

That would make the UFL the only pro game around, which could generate expanded interest and exposure.

“This league has national television contracts in place, and that’s three hours of advertising for Norfolk every week we play,” Speros said. The league’s contract is with Versus.

As to what a potential franchise here could be called, Speros said he’d leave it up to the fans.

“I’d like it to be a military-themed nickname,” Speros said. “I think that would only be appropriate.”

Rich Radford, (757) 446-2463,

rich.radford@pilotonline.com