United Football League: Jackson Being Considered for UFL's Sixth Franchise

Jerry Glanville joined other United Football League officials on a trip to Jackson, Mississippi, where they looked into the possibility of Jackson being a host for the UFL’s next expansion team. Glanville walked away from the visit feeling as if Jackson may be a great fit for the league.

“Jackson may be the cleanest city I’ve ever been in,” Glanville recalled. “There’s a lot of history in that city and stadium. That’s a football city.”

“It’s a class stadium no matter what league you’re in,” he said of Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium, which hosts Jackson State University games, would be the ideal stadium for a UFL expansion team. The stadium has hosted games for Ole Miss and Southern Miss, as well as professional games, hosting games for the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys as well.

The stadium seats over 60,000 fans, more than any other stadium that a UFL team currently calls home.

“(Veterans Memorial) Stadium has hosted double headers before, and that was brought up during our discussions,” Glanville said. “The idea is that Jackson State would play first, and then 30 minutes later we could have a UFL game.”

Jackson State draws 40,000 fans on any given week for their home games. Having a UFL game immediately after a Jackson State game would not only expose new fans to another professional football league, but give them more of what they want: more football.

“Football is their religion down there,” Glanville said referring to Jackson. “500,000 people watch high school football on Friday nights.”

Although they didn’t talk to investors while in Jackson, it is known that money is a key to bringing a team to Jackson.

Chattanooga, Des Moines, Portland and Salt Lake City are all being considered for an expansion team as well. Although there’s no official visit on Glanville’s schedule just yet, Glanville and the UFL know that they need to continue searching for a potential expansion city to grow the UFL audience.

“The commissioner is smart. He knows that we have to get to six teams in order to get national exposure,” Glanville explained. “You won’t get exposure as a four-team league.”

“We’re looking for sites where we can be on the front page of the newspaper. You have great places like Austin (Texas), but we know it’ll be hard to be on their front page.”

Hartford is also up for consideration to bring back the Colonials at the end of the season.

The Jackson fans have expressed that if they get a UFL team, they want the team to be named the Jackson Blues in honor of the Delta Blues that originated in Mississippi.

Jackson seems like a great fit for the UFL. They have had great media coverage locally since being announced as a potential location, their fans love football, and they have the resources to host a team. If the money/investors are there, it’ll be hard to argue why the Jackson Blues won’t be playing in 2012.

Rob Brown is a Contributor for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.