The league plans to return in 2026.
The United Football League has virtually no national footprint and seems to exist as TV programming with a sparse viewership. The league’s attendance figures are not very robust and all of that has led to speculation that the UFL is destined to meet the same fate as other spring leagues that went out of business after just a season or in the United States Football League’s case three years in the 1980s. But it appears that the UFL will at least last through 2026. The United Football Players Association and the owners of the UFL have a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that lasts through the end of the 2026 season.
The deal includes an annual raise of $7,005 on the players’ minimum salary, from $55,000 to $62,005 for players who participate in all 10 regular-season games, and makes all players eligible for year-round health care, according to a fact sheet produced by the UFPA. In 2026, the minimum salary will be set at $64,000. The UFL has eight teams and does well in the St. Louis market but the same cannot be said in the league’s other seven markets. The UFL has franchises in Arlington, Texas, Birmingham, Detroit, Houston, Memphis, San Antonio, St. Louis and Washington. One of the UFL’s owners, Rupert Murdoch’s FOX Sports, has tried to boost TV ratings by putting games on Friday nights. It has not worked out that well for the league as the number of eyeballs in front of the TV watching FOX’s presentation is relatively weak. The UFL has been exploring the possibility of adding two teams in 2026. That may be impacted by the country’s economic status. In 2024, the UFL rose from the ashes of the XFL and the United States Football League and has struggled financially in its very brief existence.
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St. Louis has been the UFL’s most successful franchise.
