As if the failure of the UFL to issue final paychecks to its players on a timely basis (as of New Year’s Day many players still hadn’t been paid) and the abrupt announcement that the Florida Tuskers would be going the way of the dodo bird weren’t enough to signal that the UFL may not be around to take advantage of the extra attention that would arise from an NFL work stoppage in 2011, here’s the clearest sign yet that the two-year-old league is in trouble.
The UFL has stiffed Mark Cuban out of $5 million.
According to the Dallas Observer, Cuban loaned the league that amount last year, with an understanding that it would be paid back by October 6. The due date later was shifted to December 1, 2010.
December 1 came and went, and Cuban promptly demanded full payment. He hasn’t gotten it, so Cuban has filed a federal lawsuit aimed at recovering his money.
The four-page legal filing, perhaps one of the shortest and simplest civil complaints ever filed, explains that Cuban’s HDnet (which televises UFL games . . . or maybe that should be in the past tense) loaned $5 million to the UFL on April 7. The suit was filed against UFL co-owner William Hambrecht and his revocable trust, which guaranteed the loan.