Sports writers knock UFL as ‘Unseen Football League’; Opening attendance sparse

The United Football League kicked off its debut season last night and sports writers had a field day making light of the sparse crowd at the first game.
With the lack of interest in the new league, the UFL should stand for the “Unseen Football League,” said CBS Sports online columnist Mike Freeman. He wrote:

The United Football League had its debut on Thursday night and in its infinite brilliance went against college football and the baseball playoffs. In other words, someone threw the UFL a shovel and told it to start digging its own grave.

The Las Vegas Locomotives beat the California Redwoods 30-17 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.
“UFL officials were hoping for a crowd of 15,000, but the actual draw wasn't even a third of that,” the Las Vegas Review Journal reported. However, the official attendance was announced as 14,209.
The four UFL teams will each play six games in the regular season. (The two other teams are the New York Sentinels and the Florida Tuskers.) The championship game is set for Nov. 27 in Las Vegas, the Associated Press says.
The UFL might have a better chance for success in the spring when football fans are starving for gridiron action. As it stands, the odds are stacked against the UFL succeeding.
It’s hard enough for fringe sports turning pro, much less upstart leagues in established sports trying to make a go of it.