UFL abandons regular season; Locos in title game

The Locomotives' 13-6 victory at Omaha on Saturday got them closer to the United Football League championship game than they ever imagined -- about three weeks closer.

The UFL, a multimillion-dollar loser throughout its three seasons, decided Sunday to cancel the final two weeks of the regular season and tabbed the first-place Locos and Virginia Destroyers (both 3-1) to play for the UFL title at 5 p.m. PDT Friday at Virginia Beach, Va.

An announcement by the league will come today.

In the teams' regular-season meeting Sept. 24 at Virginia, the Destroyers handed Las Vegas its only defeat, 34-17.

Locos president and coach Jim Fassel confirmed the news and said his focus is on getting his team ready to win its third straight UFL championship.

"We've already begun working on the game plan," Fassel said. "It's a short week, but we'll make the necessary adjustments. We're playing for a championship, and we need to be prepared."

With the cancellation of the Locos' final two regular-season games -- Saturday against Sacramento and Oct. 27 against Virginia at Sam Boyd Stadium -- Las Vegas played only one home game all season. The team today will announce a refund policy for season-ticket holders.

The championship game had been scheduled for Nov. 5 at a site to be determined. Fassel said the game will be played at Virginia because the Destroyers draw better than the Locos. Only 6,500 attended Las Vegas' Oct. 8 home game, a 30-10 win over Omaha.

"It's attendance," Fassel said. "We're getting 6,500 and they're getting 14,000."

The move to trim the regular season seemingly places the future of the UFL in jeopardy. The league lost $100 million in its first two seasons and was expecting to lose as much as $28 million this year.

However, in a text message to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday, commissioner Michael Huyghue said the UFL isn't planning to shut down. The league hopes to save $4 million in costs by abandoning the regular season.

There was discussion last week that the rest of the season could be called off if the Locos and Virginia secured spots in the title game. Even though the Destroyers lost at Sacramento on Saturday, it would have been difficult for Omaha or Sacramento, both 1-3, to catch them.

Sunday's decision is the result of a series of financial woes for the UFL. In the wake of the NFL lockout ending in July, the UFL decided to postpone the start of the season from mid-August to mid-September in the hopes of securing a television partner, which it failed to do. It also folded the Hartford franchise, cutting the number of teams to four.

With no revenue streams other than ticket sales and small national and regional corporate sponsorships to sustain itself, the UFL's losses continued to mount.

Fassel said Locos owner Bill Hambrecht, despite having lost upwards of $80 million on the UFL, remains committed to the league, provided a different business model is put in place.

"Bill's committed to keeping the league going," Fassel said. "He's still in this 'We will get it done' mode."

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter @stevecarprj.