The United Football League concluded Week 2 this past weekend with mixed results. The league had hoped that with the merger of the XFL and USFL, would bring more people coming out to the games. There is clearly a disconnect between the league and the fans.
As I have said in the past, the merger was rushed and not given any time to develop a long-term plan to grow the UFL. They got rid of eight teams, four from each league that had a following.
On the USFL side, Birmingham, Memphis, and Michigan were able to connect with the fans unlike Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, New Orleans, and Houston who shared stadiums. Pittsburgh and New Jersey both played at Tom Benson’s Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio last year.
For the XFL side, all their teams practiced in Arlington as we are seeing now to keep the cost down and send the teams to their home markets for gamedays. The fans have not been able to connect with the teams, coaches, and players. If the fans do not know who these guys are, they are not going to watch a single game. Connecting with the fans is so important to grow the league.
When the teams are not connecting with the fans, it leads to sparse crowds at big stadiums which leads to my next point. Memphis had its home opener in front of 8,791 fans at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium which seats 58,325. It did not look good from a television perspective. In addition, the game started at 11 am local time in Memphis. The league cannot have a game start at 11 am their time. It needs to be played at the earliest 1 pm to give fans time to get to the venue.
Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium should not host a UFL team. However, outside of High School football stadiums, there are no other small stadiums nearby where the Showboats could play. Memphis is a market where Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium is their only option and the league needs to work harder to get people to go to the games.
Ford Field, home of the Michigan Panthers, had their second home game, and the attendance declined. In Week 1, the Panthers had 9,444 fans show up against the St. Louis BattleHawks, and in Week 2 fell to 7,475 against the two-time USFL champion Birmingham Stallions.
Ford Field seats 65,000 fans. Like Memphis, this did not look good on television and the decline is concerning. Maybe the UFL needs to move Michigan out of Detroit. Last season, the USFL had the Panthers and the Philadelphia Stars use the Eastern Michigan University’s training facility. Eastern Michigan’s stadium, Rynearson Stadium, seats 30,200 fans, while Western Michigan’s Waldo Stadium also seats 30,200 fans.
The Panthers had a hard time drawing fans to the games last year despite the USFL having celebrities and old Panthers players show up to the games. The UFL next season needs to move the Panthers out of Detroit and into either Eastern Michigan or Western Michigan’s stadium.
Playing in big stadiums for a new league is not smart unless it is a market like St. Louis. The BattleHawks led the XFL in attendance last season and set a new record on Saturday night with 40,317. St. Louis also has a soccer stadium but the fans of St. Louis have shown their support for the BattleHawks which made them a must-keep in the league and rightfully so. It was neat to watch those fans go nuts as their team beat the defending XFL champion Arlington Renegades 27-24.
St. Louis lost two NFL teams and that fanbase loves the BattleHawks. Another market that plays in a big stadium is San Antonio at the Alamodome, home of the Brahmas. The Alamo dome seats 64,00 fans. In Week 1, the Brahmas had 13,164 fans. San Antonio does not have a professional football team but has had a few spring league teams come and go. This San Antonio team is the first professional team to play more than one season at the Alamodome where the San Antonio Texans (CFL 1995) and the San Antonio Commanders (AAF in 2019) played a season. The Alamodome did have the San Antonio Talons (AFL) play there for three seasons but only used half of the stadium.
In addition, San Antonio had a USFL team called the Gunslingers which played at Alamo Stadium. Alamo Stadium seats 18,500 fans which would have made Week 1’s game feel near full capacity. However, as the season goes on, it is going to get hot in Texas and the Alamodome is a perfect place for the Brahmas. San Antonio is a market I think will continue to grow if the league stays around.
Week 2 concluded with the Houston Roughnecks visiting the D.C. Defenders at Audi Field. Audi Field seats 20,000 fans and the Defenders had 15,052 people there. While there were some empty seats, the presentation of the game was fun to watch because it was a near sellout.
A couple of years ago, I had written about the USFL teams and where they should play at with two of them being soccer stadiums. D.C. is an example of where the league should have been placing teams when the merger was announced again except for Birmingham, St. Louis, and San Antonio.
When this merger happened, the league decided to go with eight teams. They got some of them right but not others. Michigan, Memphis, and Houston Gamblers should not have played in 2024. The Gamblers were rebranded as the Roughnecks. When it comes to the eight teams, they needed to think about the most important thing in sports and that’s rivalries. Rivalries are what keeps people going to these games and here is how I would have done the merger with eight teams.
The USFL Conference would have had the Birmingham Stallions (Protective Stadium), New Orleans Breakers (Yulman Stadium), Philadelphia Stars (Subaru Park), and the New Jersey Generals (Red Bull Stadium).
The XFL Conference would have had the St. Louis BattleHawks (The Dome at America’s Center), D.C. Defenders (Audi Field), San Antonio Brahmas (Alamodome), and Houston Roughnecks (Shell Energy Stadium) in 2024 before returning to TDECU Stadium in 2025.
Not long ago, D.C. Defenders defensive coordinator Greg Williams said on the “Come Get Some” podcast that if the UFL does well, the league should sell the teams and bring four more teams in for 2025.
Right now, Memphis’s status is up in the air as Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium is set to undergo renovations in 2025 which could force the Showboats not to play. Also, the UFL just trademarked the Nashville Tuners as a potential expansion or relocated team. Nashville does have a soccer stadium called Geodis Park which seats 30,000 fans so that is something to keep an eye on down the road.
The UFL should focus next season on moving teams if they can to smaller stadiums, particularly soccer stadiums and smaller college stadiums as they would be best for the league.
Like St. Louis, if it gets to a point of having to turn fans away because of sellouts then you move to bigger stadiums. Right now, the league is not there yet and smaller stadiums for the part make it look full and that is what the league needs right now.
