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Financial troubles continue for UFL
Financial troubles continue for UFL
League spokesperson says play will continue

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - The United Football League said Saturday they decided to postpone the rest of the 2012 season and those games will now be played in the spring of 2013.

He says the UFL will then return to a fall schedule later in 2013.

UFL founder and chairman William Hambrecht made the announcement Saturday morning. A big reason why for this change are league finances.

"The cost of workers compensation insurance created a short term cash crunch and we haven't been unable to escape that," said Larry Weisman, a spokesperson for the league.

Weisman said those insurance costs were in the millions.

A lot has changed in the last 18 months since former Virginia Destroyers Head Coach Marty Schottenhiemer first greeted fans. His brother Kurt is now the coach.

"We had three games last season, last year the championship game was 14,000 people, each game it rose, it started off over 10 and then rose for the championship game," Chuck Thornton, manager of the Virginia Beach Sportsplex said. "They are going to continue to rent office space from us and they're going to continue to do that."

A league employee who would not go on camera says players were supposed to be paid $3,500 per game, but have so far only been paid $1,000. The source says players are still due $13,000.

The UFL is in its fourth season and has franchises in Las Vegas, Sacramento, Omaha and Virginia Beach. Only four of its eight scheduled games have been played.

The UFL singed a 2-year television contract with CBS Sports. That contract started fall 2012 and is supposed to run through the 2013 season. WAVY.com tried to contact CBS Sports about the status of this contract, but calls were not returned.

"We've been excited about the UFL coming here and and we asked them to make us their home and we hope they come back," said Thornton.

The spring dates will be determined in the near future. Pelosi said that this program will allow the UFL time to meet its financial obligations and re-emerge in strong fiscal shape.

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