On September 29, 2023, the United States Football and the XFL announced their intent to merge into one league. After a couple of months, the two leagues made their merger official on Sunday’s FOX NFL Kickoff Pregame when XFL Co-owners Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia announced the merged league would be called the United Football League (UFL). This will be the third go-around for the UFL name.
In addition, Garcia announced that the first UFL game under the merger will take place on Saturday, March 30, 2024, with the defending XFL champion Arlington Renegades battling the two-time USFL champion Birmingham Stallions.
The big question after Sunday’s announcement was who was going to join the Renegades and Stallions in the UFL. Those questions were answered on Monday when again Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia announced the teams during ESPN’s College Gameday.
The eight teams were split into two conferences. The USFL Conference features the Birmingham Stallions, Michigan Panthers, Memphis Showboats, and the Houston Gamblers, who have been rebranded as the Houston Roughnecks. The XFL Conference features the Arlington Renegades, San Antonio Brahams, D.C. Defenders, and the St. Louis BattleHawks. The games will air on ABC, ESPN, FOX, and FS1.
With everything now in place for the UFL, let us dive into the good and the bad of the merged UFL. We are going to start with the bad.
The bad news is eight teams were canned. They are the original Houston Roughnecks, New Orleans Breakers, Orlando Guardians, Seattle Sea Dragons, Philadelphia Stars, Pittsburgh Maulers, Vegas Vipers, and the New Jersey Generals.
This does not feel like a merger but a funeral. The USFL and XFL did a horrible job with this merger and they did not even attempt to try to keep the rest of the teams especially the northeast with Philadelphia and New Jersey. Both had several stadium options they could have played at but were not even explored. If they were explored, no public statement was made as to what stadiums they were trying to establish as their home stadiums.
The same can be said for New Orleans, Houston, and Pittsburgh. In New Orleans, the Breakers could have played at Yulman Stadium. However, Yulman Stadium is undergoing renovations which would’ve made it impossible to bring the Breakers to New Orleans unless they used the Superdome for a season.
As for Pittsburgh, the only option would be Acrisure Stadium, and there are stadium options for the Gamblers like NRG Stadium or Rice Stadium but the USFL decided to use the hub model with Philadelphia, Houston, and New Orleans sharing a stadium, while New Jersey and Pittsburgh played in Canton, Ohio.
On the XFL teams, they were spread apart and not kept close together. While they had the three Texas teams, they should have attempted to move Seattle and Vegas close to St. Louis and D.C. to keep the travel cost down.
The two leagues (Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Daryl Johnston) have misled the fans, players, and coaches for those who lost their teams and jobs. On the XFL side, the message was “We’re here to stay,” while the USFL’s message was “crawl, walk, run.”
The fans trusted them that the leagues would be around for a long time and those promises were shattered. The two leagues are taking a big gamble by dumping these teams as many fans feel betrayed, angry, and hurt and as a result, might not watch the UFL. However, some saw the writing on the wall and thought one of these leagues was going to eventually fold.
As for the players and coaches, they were kept in the dark with many of them finding what was going on through the internet on the USFL Players Association. The two leagues should have been communicating with the players and coaches to update them on the process they were discussing. Now, most of them are looking for another league to play in for 2024. However, most of them might be back in the league with the UFL Disposal Draft taking place later this month.
Now that I have gotten the bad out of the way, let us talk about the good. First, the two leagues are no longer competing for the same talent. They are now in one league and the competition should be better amongst the eight teams.
In 1966, the NFL and AFL merged into the NFL forming a 24-team league with the goal of expanding to 26 teams by 1969, and to 28 teams by 1970. Unlike the UFL, no teams folded and most of them moved to the NFL to even out the conferences. Look where the NFL is at today.
The UFL should focus on being an alternative football league rather than a development. The NFL hates spring football. If they did not, the NFL would have kept Europe going or established one here in the United States and maybe Canada.
In addition, most of the fans have turned the NFL off because of how bad the play has been this season. The UFL should capitalize on getting those fans to watch their league and focus on giving them a great product that fans will keep coming back to watch.
As for the teams that will not play in the UFL in 2024. Is there hope for them to return? The answer is maybe depending on how the UFL does in the next year or two. Some teams might return sooner rather than later.
One team that might return in 2025 is the New Orleans Breakers. Last year, the Shrine on Airline (formerly Zephyr Stadium) was approved for a $15 million renovation to turn the old baseball stadium into a stadium that will host football and rugby games. The stadium holds 10,000 people but will expand once the renovations are complete. Last November, Kyle France, the board chair of Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, had talks with the USFL about moving the Breakers there. If all goes according to plan, the Breakers could play again in 2025.
The other team I could see returning in 2025 is either New Jersey or Philadelphia. The UFL needs these markets to rival the D.C. Defenders. Bringing one of those teams back would allow the Roughnecks to move to the XFL Conference.
If you are looking for hope, go on to Facebook. Teams like the Stars, Maulers, Breakers, and Guardians have had their handles changed to UFLStars, UFLMaulers, and so on. This, to me, signals that the league is going to attempt to bring these teams back down the road. Right now, they have lost those fans. Some of the fans are holding onto hope for their teams to return and if they do, those fans will return to watch the games.
Another benefit of this merger is potential investors coming into the league. For two seasons, both the XFL and USFL have talked about selling the teams to individual owners. Now that they are one league, they have a chance of selling these teams.
It is going to take a while as potential investors want to see how the league does. These investors are not going to give up players easily to the NFL. They want to make money and if there are stars on their team, they are going to market them which would help the UFL. I think you may even see some NFL owners buy into the league. For example, back in the early 2000s, Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys) and the late Tom Benson (New Orleans Saints) owned the Dallas Desperados and New Orleans Voodoo respectively in the Arena Football League.
The majority of those players earned NFL training camp invites after the AFL season ended. What if a guy like Jerry Jones, who is known for taking chances decides to buy into the league say the Renegades? He could relocate them to the Cowboys training facility in Frisco, Texas, at the Ford Center which holds over 12,000 fans.
Because it is also an indoor stadium, as the weather warms up, the Renegades could see a good number of fans at their games. I also think the UFL should also be open to selling the teams to the communities similar to how the Green Bay Packers operate. The more investors they can get in the next two to five years, the better they have a chance at long-term sustainability.
Overall, I think most football fans will tune in to watch the UFL even those that lost their teams. I hope the league does well because it would be nice to see the teams that got put on the shelf again down the road with owners but I am not holding my breath for that.
For 30 years, spring leagues have come and gone and we as fans keep hoping that a league will come around and stick around. While this is the third incarnation of the UFL, all we can do is hope for the best and maybe, just maybe, this league will stick around for the foreseeable future.
What are your thoughts on the XFL and USFL merger? Leave a comment below.
