The Hartford Courant

When the Patriots were flirting with Connecticut 12 years ago, Hartford had one vocal supporter in an NFL front office.

Michael Huyghue, then a senior vice president with the Jacksonville Jaguars, told anyone who would listen that Greater Hartford was ready for professional football. As a Windsor native, Huyghue said he knew the region and insisted there was a strong base of football fans that would support a franchise.

While the Patriots never came, Huyghue never stopped touting Hartford. And today, he'll deliver a football franchise — albeit a minor league team in a fledgling league.

Huyghue, commissioner of the United Football League, will be at Rentschler Field in East Hartford for an 11 a.m. press conference to announce the relocation of the New York Sentinels to Hartford.

"I'm thrilled because I feel like I'm coming home to a market that I've always wanted to have a team in," Huyghue said Monday. "I think Hartford is an unbelievable market. And when you consider that we're moving the team from New York, when everybody says you have to have a team in New York ... I think that's a strong statement on just how good we feel about Hartford."

Since the UFL was born last year, Huyghue has continually cited Hartford as a future market. The Sentinels played one of their three home games at Rentschler last year and it was apparent Hartford would get a franchise, either through expansion or relocation.

For its second season, the league has committed to non-NFL markets. So the Sentinels, who played to sparse crowds at Giants Stadium and Hofstra, will put down roots in East Hartford and have a new name.

Immaculate-Danbury and Southern Connecticut graduate Chris Palmer, most recently the quarterbacks coach of the Giants, will be introduced as head coach. Palmer, who began his coaching career as an assistant at UConn, was the coach at New Haven in 1986-87.

Palmer also worked for the Jaguars when Huyghue was an executive in Jacksonville in the 1990s. Also part of Jacksonville's staff was UConn coach Randy Edsall.

"We lived in the same neighborhood," Huyghue said. "I know him very well."

Huyghue's relationship with Edsall is significant, since the UFL franchise will be sharing UConn's stadium. When the Sentinels played a game at Rentschler in November, Huyghue said the facility would need to switch from grass to field turf before the UFL arrived.

"Over time it will be changed, but not this season," Huyghue said. "I think for this first season, where it's only five games, we'll be able to work around the college schedule without any problem. We have an obligation financially to maintain the field in the same condition it was in when we used it, so the university is protected regardless. I think going forward, we'll want to work with [uConn] on some sort of resolution on some sort of artificial turf."

Besides the New York-to-Hartford shift, the UFL is expected to relocate the California Redwoods from the Bay Area to Sacramento and add two teams through expansion. San Antonio, Omaha, Salt Lake City, Louisville and Portland, Ore., have been mentioned as possibilities.

The ownership alignment will be the same — the league owns 50 percent of each franchise — and Hartford's franchise will still be owned by New York financier William Mayer. But teams will have a stronger base in their market this year, with players and staff based in local markets.

The league has also overhauled its marketing staff and more promotion will be handled by individual teams. And in an effort to be more interactive with fans, the league has improved its website. Today's press conference will be carried live on www.ufl-football.com.

The season will start in September and games will also be played on Friday and Saturday nights, after the league experimented with weeknights last year.

"Overall, we took away more positives than negatives from the first year," Huyghue said. "We really think our product is good and people will like what they see."