This spring marked the inaugural season of the United Football League, the organization which came about following the merger of the XFL and USFL. Year 2 of its operation will consist of a repeat of its debut.
The UFL was comprised of eight teams playing a 10-week regular season schedule in 2024. That format ultimately resulted in the Birmingham Stallions – champions of the USFL’s final two campaigns – winning the first ever UFL title. They will be positioned to defend their crown with the same group of challengers for at least one more season. UFL executive VP of football operations Daryl Johnston confirmed (via Fox Sports’ Eric Williams) the UFL will return in 2025 with the same teams and locations in operation as last year.
“We are going to be able to dial into the details,” Johnston said. “We’re going to have a traditional offseason calendar where we can be ahead of the curve instead of being in a position where we have to chase it a little bit. I think that’s something that everyone’s excited about.”
With an average of 43.7 total points per game in 2024, the UFL slightly outpaced the scoring output of the XFL and USFL from last season. Williams notes the UFL saw a 34% jump in television ratings compared to 2023 viewership of the two former leagues heading into the championship game. Attendance remained strong in St. Louis with an average of more than 34,000 fans attending Battlehawks games, but the league’s other markets struggled in that regard. Continuity will be aimed at developing a consistent following in the other markets.
“With our home markets, we’ve got to build that trust there – that we’re not going to leave or [that] the league isn’t going to fold,” Johnston added. “We’ve got a couple cities that historically have been a part of spring football, they’ve committed to a team and that team has left… We’ve still got some trust to build in our home markets.
“I think we were selling tickets for the home opener in Houston seven days out and in Michigan seven days out. Last year was getting the merger completed, getting everything in place and then putting the season together. This year, we’ve already been planning for season two of the UFL nine months out.”
A number of UFL players have quickly landed deals with NFL teams in recent days, with the spring league serving as an opportunity for players to establish or re-build their value for prospective NFL employers. Experimenting with new rules and technology is another facet of the UFL’s operation, and developments on that front could continue into the future if the league manages to gain a long-term foothold. For now, attention will turn to 2025 with a repeat of this year’s structure in place.
St. Louis fans making a statement to the NFL.
I feel like the UFL is screwing itself up and missing their opportunity by creating teams in the same area as ones that already have established football teams. Why would anyone in DC, Seattle, Arlington, Houston, Orlando, and Las Vegas sign up to watch objectively worse football than what they see every fall? I don’t think they’ll ever create a fanbase like that. What they need to do it place teams in areas that have high population, or even other sports teams, but no NFL teams. How about cities like San Diego, Austin, and Oklahoma City get some run?
Seattle does not have a team in the current UFL. Did in the XFL with very strong attendance numbers.
I agree completely. Though the Seattle team Hawktattoo mentioned is valid
Got San Antonio, Memphis, Birmingham, Arlington, & St. Louis
But it doesn’t seem to matter as much whether the city has an unrelated fall team as much as it matters having a nice stadium and competitive team.
A football team in Austin would be lit.
Agreed but I don’t see it with San Antonio right down the road
Ya CQ ,
OKC and San Diego are towards the top of the list for UFL expansion
I think we’ll see Canton Bulldogs and New Orleans Breakers added in the first batch tho in 2026 as of right now.
Louisville also a city to keep an eye on
How many years before UFL and NFL merge? Over under +/- 100 years?
After the NFL conquers Europe and South America, Goodell will set his sights on Antarctica. That’s when he’ll ask the UFL if they’re interested in merging.
Not the goal.
The goal is to be the second chance league and top feeder league to NFL.
UFLs competition in spring is MLB more than NFL who they have a mutual relationship with.
The NCAA will always be the top feeder league to the NFL. A competition between the UFL and MLB will be won by the league that can turn a profit and baseball has a huge advantage there.
You only get 4 years of eligibility in college, half of which is blocked by upperclassmen.
Also once you’re cut from an NFL camp there’s no opportunity to further develop or show off for scouts.
It’s funny people will watch Syracuse vs Georgia Tech,
then turn around and say there’s no talent in TheUFL…
(where every team has at least 5 players who will be invited to NFL camps)
That last line, Goku, is quite poignant.
Spring just got stronger
YAY !!!!! WHO GIVES A FLYING F**K !!! Arena football is far superior to these has beens and never where’s playing in the cities where nobody goes to watch them.
WRONG
Arena league is a fake sport and people confuse it with the far superior Pro-Style UFL
Okay doofus troll. Go back to your mom’s basement and eat your Doritos and watch Japanese Anime.
Arena football isn’t a partnership with the NFL. The UFL is. Why would anyone that uses this website root against the UFL? I don’t get it. I want as much football as possible on TV.
Took a lot of nice steps forward in the Merger Season.
USFL side needs to get attendance figured out and game times need to be more consistent.
But other than the Championship disaster and any Roughnecks/Showboats games , there was pretty high level of play on the field across the league.
Both playoff games were great.
Look forward to this league growing especially with their new Fox Friday night time slot in 25
Johnston was correct in the “trust” line. Loyalty doesn’t just spring up out of nowhere. It is built over time. A startup league is already disadvantaged in trying to mimic the NFL, even in such a reduced capacity. The NFL, however, didn’t start that way. It started small and struggling until teams built a following.
I think that it’s harder to start a local following in today’s age of Internet individualized catering, and how quickly people today move from interest to interest (as compared, particularly, to someone from, say, 1950). On one hand, teams can spread to more fans, but on the other, the locals have more options to do than go to the stadium and see the hometown team.
It also probably cost less, proportionately, back then. How many people back then just caught a game on a day off, spontaneously? Probably more than today. Not only is inflation a significant factor in this (and “artificial” inflation of straight up jacking up prices), but people also have an expectation when they go to a stadium today that they probably didn’t years ago. Harder to do that when you don’t have that budget….plus not having the ability to pay players a few cents in comparison. Still, I’m hoping that they succeed. They’ll need a lot of time to build a foundation, though.
Ya it just takes time. Very easy for people say how many of these leagues have failed so why should I buy in? And they’re correct.
But there’s also a reason these leagues keep coming back because there is a market for it if it’s done right. We saw some outrageous numbers and attendance in XFL 2020 . Purely wiped out by covid , but this second chance is interesting with the USFL involved. I think by year 5 or so people will trust the process and buy in.
In this Merger Season, there was very little advertising other than TV commercials. They just didn’t have time with only 2 months to prepare the new league.
Over time we’ll not only see fans buy in, but higher level players and potentially notable franchise owners will really help this league blossom into a longterm addition to the football universe.
We’re already seeing preseason trimmed and offseason camps removed from NFL schedule, so there’s a good chance there’s a hand-in-hand relationship between the leagues eventually.
Prob won’t ever get a conventional minor league setup, but I’ve seen suggested something like guys having a sticker on their helmet of the NFL team they’re associated with. Something like that.
The future is bright
No one cares about the UFL. It’s a bunch of has beens and never where’s who play like a bunch of high school kids.
It’s a bunch of overlooked guys from NCAA Div 2 and a lot of NFL depth guys and 3rd string QBs.
Doesn’t sound like much, but when put in perspective these are guys 1 step away from making an NFL camp
This is an ignorant comment. You realize that this may be the only chance for these guys to get back on an NFL roster? So what is wrong with that?
Oh no, they might have to work for a living? No, say it’s not so! Why have an entire league playing in empty stadium so you can take the top 3 guys and put them on an NFL practice squad never to be seen again. I’ve watched/stared at a few of these games. I would rather watch high school football.
You’re an idiot
They wouldn’t have the funding to continue if no one cared about the UFL.
That’s how business works.
You should amend your comment to say “that’s how wealthy speculators with risk capital to flush down the toilet” operate.
It’s not going to be that hard to get 20-30k with the right owners promoting it.
Tv deal is already getting over 1 mil avg viewership
Hmmmmm, investors never invest to lose money do they? Except when they get tax breaks because their business is LOSING money. Happens all the time. Never owned a business, have you? That’s how business works my friend.
You’re an idiot
Name Calling
The average viewership of an NFL game in 2023 was 17.9 million people. According to GOKU the average UFL was 1 million (actually 850,000 according to people who collect those statistics). If the UFL was a network TV show it would have been cancelled half way through the season. Dwayne and his ability to woo investors because everything he put his fingers on turned to gold has waned lately. The UFL might survive but I see it becoming a minor league for the NFL much like the baseball minor leagues. Each NFL team should be affiliated with a UFL team and send players back and forth from the majors to the minors. UFL should be in smaller towns and smaller venues. Shoving a inferior product in someone’s face and expecting them to come running to watch it isn’t going to work. In the South there are way to many things to occupy our time other than sitting in the sun getting heat stroke watching football. Beaches, hunting, fishing, boating, riding ATV’s, vacations, even gardening. If it’s handled right it might succeed, but going to watch spring football because,”The Rock said so,” doesn’t work for 95% of the population.
Ya let’s cancel something that saw a staggering 38% increase in viewership this season.
You already admitted you’re an Arena Football fan who wants the UFL to fail for that reason.
I’m not an alternative football fan. I’m an American football fan , so I watch NFL, NCAAF & TheUFL
Heck I’m even looking forward to IFAF tomorrow to see if Team USA can drop 100 on Japan.
Arena League is not football tho. Football is not played in basketball stadiums.
The people at FOX, RedBird & TheUFL understand this.
So do football fans