The first season of the UFL came on a close on Sunday. Has the league done enough to compete in the difficult world of professional football?
The inaugural season of the United Football League came to a close on Sunday, as the Birmingham Stallions were crowned champions of the newly-formed league. Minor league football has been a hot topic in recent years as many endeavors have tried—and failed—to entrench themselves as the “next” league behind the National Football League. With one season in the books, will the UFL buck the trend?
This newest edition of the UFL formed as part of the a merger with with the XFL and United States Football League (USFL), primarily as a way to eliminate the competition between the two leagues. The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was founded in 2018 to much hype, but the league folded just eight weeks in the season. The market for one large spring league is thin enough, so having two competing leagues would have likely doomed them both.
The UFL is one of many independent leagues still in operation in the United States, yet very few of them are anything more than afterthoughts to the general public. Arena football still exists in a limited capacity, with the Arena Football League (a newly developed league independent from the original AFL) and Indoor Football League as the two most prominent leagues.
The UFL has talent to fit a minor league, but do they have the staying power?
Today’s Question of the Day is:
Has the UFL been a success?
My answer: Yes and no. There are two ways of looking at it: success as a developmental path for players and success as an independent professional football league.
As a developmental league, it has been successful—you need look no further than the Detroit Lions preparing to sign kicker Jake Bates . Bates was a kickoff specialist in college, never attempting a single field goal with Texas State or Arkansas. Though he signed with the Houston Texans as an undrafted rookie, his time with the NFL team lasted a mere 13 days. For many players, especially one with a limited college resume like Bates, that would be the end of his professional football career. Yet the UFL provided an opportunity for Bates, and he parlayed that into an NFL contract.
Other UFL stars will follow a similar route as Bates, and it highlights the importance of development leagues. There is only so much experience a player can get from an NFL practice squad, and those rosters are limited enough as is. Developmental leagues allow players to showcase their talent in a legitimate competitive environment. Sometimes, all a player needs is a chance. Those opportunities do not always arrive in the NFL.
I believe the infrastructure is there for the UFL to continue to develop talent. However, I am concerned about the infrastructure of the league itself.
Financials have plagued each and every football league not named the NFL. The AAF folded due to money reasons. The XFL and USFL merged for similar reasons. Countless prior leagues have dissolved due to a lack of funds, unable to support the on-field product and everything that goes into it. Even a well-entrenched football league like the Canadian Football League has seen its share of struggles lately.
With the official numbers from the championship still pending, over 550,000 people attended the 2024 UFL season. This seems like a sizeable total, but it only comes out to an average of 13,000 in attendance. This pales in comparison to the NFL’s lowest average last season (the Chicago Bears with 61,769). Even the CFL’s worst-attended team, the Toronto Argonauts, topped out above 14,000 on average.
The 13,000 average attendance is also buoyed by a single franchise: the St. Louis Battlehawks. Whereas four of the eight teams averaged under 10,000 fans, St. Louis came out to support their team in droves. The Battlehawks averaged over 33,000 in attendance, including an impressive 40,317 in the team’s first home game of the season. Fans are still saddened about losing the St. Louis Rams, and that has likely resulted in significant support for their newest professional football team. Despite the support from St. Louis, I am skeptical that it will be enough to keep the league afloat. Operating a professional football league is not cheap, especially one with the aspirations of the UFL. The league does have sponsorships and contracts in place to help, but how long will those last if viewership falters?
If the UFL can continue to support its teams, fans, and players, then I believe it can be viewed as successful. Yet if the league is to find stability for the future, it will need to do something to capture the interest of their local communities and bring in fans both old and new.