By Ben Klayman
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The United Football League named on Monday the former head of First Boston Corp as the owner of its New York team, ahead of the American football league's October launch.
William Mayer, co-founder of Park Avenue Equity Partners, is the latest investor and owner in the smaller rival of the National Football League that is scheduled to begin play with four teams playing in seven cities.
The league announced in February plans to kick off its inaugural season with a smaller slate of teams -- it had initially targeted six to eight teams -- due to the U.S. recession.
"Bill's business acumen and leadership skills will be an incredible resource to the league and the New York team," UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue said in a statement.
Mayer has been involved in private equity investing for more than 35 years, including 23 years at the former investment bank First Boston Corp, where he was chief executive. He also was dean of the College of Business at the University of Maryland from 1992 through 1996.
Mayer is a board member of BlackRock Kelso and Lee Enterprises.
Park Avenue Equity Partners is a New York private equity firm focused on investing in middle-market companies. It has invested about $340 million since its founding in 1999, according to the firm's website.
The Park Avenue Equity Partners portfolio includes financial services firm W.R. Hambrecht + Co, whose CEO, William Hambrecht, founded the UFL, according to Park Avenue's website.
"Affordable and accessible entertainment is paramount in today's economic climate and this is what the UFL is offering," Mayer said. "Having worked with Bill Hambrecht for many years and even housing the league offices in its infancy, I knew the United Football League was a fiscally sound investment and one that showed great potential."
Other UFL investors, who are putting a combined $30 million into the league, include Google executive Tim Armstrong and Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The UFL is the latest in a series of leagues to compete with the NFL since the 1970s. Its predecessors -- the World Football League, the United States Football League and, most recently, the XFL -- all failed.
However, UFL officials have vowed not to overspend or set unrealistic expectations -- mistakes of past NFL rivals. Huyghue said the UFL will complement the NFL and not try to compete for top players.
UFL games will air on Versus, a Comcast-owned network, and will take place primarily on Thursday evenings. The season will end with a championship game over Thanksgiving weekend.
The initial UFL teams include New York/Hartford, Connecticut; Las Vegas/Los Angeles; San Francisco/Sacramento, California; and Orlando, Florida. Huyghue previously said the league will expand by at least two to four teams in 2010.
(Reporting by Ben Klayman, editing by Matthew Lewis)
Source: Reuters
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