2010 UFL season

League changes for 2010
The UFL based its plans for 2010 in part on the lessons learned from its inaugural season in 2009, a year the league considered a modest "dress rehearsal". One of the lessons learned from 2009 was that the league performed better in cities that did not have a NFL presence. To that end, the league relocated two of their 2009 franchises away from NFL markets: The New York Sentinels were relocated to Hartford, Connecticut (where they played one home game in 2009) and were renamed the Hartford Colonials, while the California Redwoods, a team based in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009, were moved to Sacramento, California and became the Sacramento Mountain Lions. Rentschler Field and Hornet Stadium are the respective home venues for the Colonials and Mountain Lions.

Along with the above franchise shifts, the league set forth to add two new franchises; San Antonio, Texas was considered as the leading candidate for a new team along with Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and Omaha. Civic leaders in San Antonio were cool to the league's advances, however, citing previous failed football teams in the city and the fear that the UFL's presence would hinder the University of Texas at San Antonio's launch of its Division I college football team in 2011. Instead, the league added just one franchise for 2010, the Omaha Nighthawks, who spent 2010 at Rosenblatt Stadium before moving downtown to TD Ameritrade Park Omaha for 2011.

Three of the four charter teams retained their ownership from the previous year, though some sold portions of their teams to minority owners. The lone exception was the Florida Tuskers; Stuart Sternberg pulled out of ownership after the 2009 season and filed legal action against the league for funds he believes is owed to his company, Sunburst Entertainment Group. After spending the offseason and the first four weeks of the season under league ownership, a group led by Joe Theismann purchased the Tuskers in October 2010. NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson agreed to purchase the Omaha Nighthawks. Mark Cuban also loaned the league $5 million in April 2010; in January 2011, he filed a federal lawsuit against the league after they had yet to re-pay the loan.

To account for the odd number of teams (five), each team played an eight-game schedule over a 10-week span (as opposed to six games in seven weeks during 2009); two bye weeks for each team were included. The schedule's double round robin format will remain intact. Also, all of the games are being played in the teams' home stadia, as opposed to the neutral site "barnstorming" approach used for some of the 2009 games.

In another change from 2009, the UFL strengthened local exposure of its teams, including radio coverage (see Broadcasting below) and the establishment of training camps and practices at sites in each team's market. (During 2009, the teams trained and practiced in two sites, Orlando and Casa Grande, Arizona.) Additionally, each team gained their own uniform identity for 2010, loosening them from the standard league colors (green, blue, black, silver) and uniform template used in 2009.


 * The Hartford Colonials adopted a navy blue and gold color scheme.
 * The Omaha Nighthawks' colors are metallic silver, Omaha black, and Omaha slate.
 * The Sacramento Mountain Lions sport shades of gold and tan along with black trim.
 * The Las Vegas Locomotives kept silver and black in their palate, but replaced UFL blue with red (which replaces silver as the main color on their home jerseys).
 * The Florida Tuskers retained their UFL blue/black/silver palate, with black replacing blue as the primary home jersey color.