The UFL will try to succeed in some cities that showed no interest in its product.
The United Football League’s ownership group plans to return to the eight markets that hosted UFL games in 2024 in Arlington, Texas, Birmingham, Detroit, Houston, Memphis, Orlando, St. Louis, San Antonio and Washington, D. C. in 2025. The league will not be adding markets. In November 2023, the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission announced after reviewing the merger plans of FOX Sports’ United States Football League and the XFL ownership, Redbird Capital Partners, that the agencies saw no problem with the marriage. The USFL and XFL lopped off eight teams in seven markets in creating the UFL.
The United Football League owners claimed they were happy with the league’s TV ratings but selling tickets was a big problem. St. Louis averaged a little more than 35,000 people per game. The other teams in the league struggled at the gate. San Antonio and Washington drew more than 14,000 people per game. Seattle and Arlington had more than 12,000 customers per game. Houston came close to 12,000 people per game. The attendance in Las Vegas and in Orlando was awful. Orlando had about 9,000 people per game and Las Vegas drew about 6,000 people per game. There is no word on how much money FOX and Redbird Capital lost on the venture. The UFL backers are hopeful that having a complete off season to market the product will turn into more tickets sold. The UFL will have Friday night games and that is not a legal problem as the league is not up against high school and college football contests as it is a spring league. The NFL cannot compete with high school and college football during the high school and college seasons by staging games on Friday night and during the day on Saturday under federal law. The UFL has a long row to hoe.
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