How Bad Is The UFL Attendance Really? What Can Be Done To Improve It? - 2024 Midseason Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video I will go over the attendance for the first half of the 2024 UFL season and talk about how bad the numbers actually are as well as what can be done to improve them next season.
Link to become a channel member - / @zombphoxufl
As a BattleHawks fan, the Cardinals having a home game shouldn’t be an excuse for the drop in attendance. First of all, there are 162 Cardinals baseball games a year, 81 of which are home games. There are only 10 BattleHawks games a year, only 5 of which are home games. Second, the Cardinals are doing terrible this year and the BattleHawks are doing very well this year. The Cardinals having a home game should NOT be an excuse for the drop in BattleHawks fan attendance.
Prime Time game seemed to draw more people than an afternoon game when the parents are going to their kids' league games. I saw comments about why they couldn't go to the games.
It just takes time for this league to grow. I will go to one of these games if I can get load going through any of those cities. :)
I missed the 2nd battlehawks game because my friend wanted to go to the cardinal game for their birthday😂
@@fortniteburger8747 Is your friend a BattleHawks fan?
Dude you’re missing the fact that the cardinals have been around FOREVER and the Battlehawks are what? 4 years old? At this point your comparing and elderly person to a baby. It’s not a good comparison. So yeah it IS the excuse. But still getting 31k at that game is impressive considering the fact that it IS the most popular brand in the league. And making the UFL the most money for home games. So still, it’s impressive. Remember that everyone has to start from somewhere. The cardinals did too. 🤷♂️
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I can confirm your comments with one San Antonio Commander fan. I am from Arizona. My close friend lives in San Antonio. We both were following the AAF. We got together at the Alamodome for the week 8 game featuring Arizona Hotshots & the Commanders. A big game because we were going to meet in 3 weeks in the West Title game. Large crowd. Arizona won the game easy. We went to the local bar and all the fans were talking about the title game rematch coming . We set plans to go to the title game regardless if in Arizona or San Antonio. While driving back to Arizona i got a text from my San Antonio buddy that the AAF folded.. What ! Neither he or I could believe it.... We just attended a big game then at a bar full of fans and its over. I called him earlier this year asking if he was going to the UFL games in San Antonio. His response was " No i have no interest in being burned again . "
That story sucks to hear about, and I wish more people realized that the issue of being burned by the team is a huge reason why these teams need to stay in their city for years to slowly build up trust.
@@ZombPhoxUFL That game had a playoff atmosphere because the winner of that game was likely to host the West Title game provided they won their last two games. Both teams were solid favorites in their last two games of the season. The crowd at the stadium & bar were into it. Then the next day it shut down. I had taped the game on my tv. When i got home i watched it. The tv crew talked to both coaches and players for one hour after the game ended because it was likely deciding who would hold the west title game. Stunning to watch that already knowing that the league had folded the next morning. I understand why he feels burned
i feel the same way for birmingham,and memphis, both are always two of the first cities in considerations for spring leagues, going all the way back to the wfl of the 70's. and both cities have shown good support for those teams, the wfl, the original usfl, the canadian league merger, nfl europe, the original xfl, the a a f.. and all those leagues failed both cities.. i think its a feeling of "here we go again" i do think attensence wikk improve in some cities given time..some teams may need to relocate.
The AAF was AWESOME. Loved how it worked.
@@C_A65 I thought so too !
You deserve so many more subscribers
Thank you!
STL has an NFL stadium and no NFL team. I think it might be better to use cities with no NFL team.
While their is an argument that going to cities with no NFL is good, the counter-argument are teams like San Antonio, Memphis, and especially Birmingham that by the St. Louis argument should all average over 20,000 a game, but they are nowhere near that. The biggest thing is building trust in the city which is why the Brahmas have yet to match the numbers the Commanders put up in the AAF and why despite all the success the Stallions have not matched the Birmingham Iron's numbers.
I think it needs to be a mix of NFL cities (especially large ones like Philadephia and Houston), but also cities that lost their NFL teams, like Oakland and San Diego. I am amazed that in my lifetime, the second largest city in the United States (Los Angeles) had 1 team, then 2 teams, then 0 teams, now 2 teams again. The 0 teams boggled my mind for years. If Arizona gets a UFL team for Spring football, it better be an indoor stadium, hopefully where the Cardinals play.
Really St Louis is the only real strong fan base and it just shows how bad it was when the Rams moved back to Los Angeles
The NFL blew it taking the Rams west.
I can’t understand why Birmingham won’t support the best team in the league. And why can’t Panthers and Brahmas draw fans in Domed stadiums. It’s a mystery.
The Stallions and Brahmas probably suffer from trust issues in the city due to both cities having already lost spring football teams in the Iron and Commanders. As the FOX TV ratings show, Birmingham and San Antonio are very much watching their teams on TV, but both cities are probably still skeptical of spending money on their teams without having true belief that they'll last. As for the Panthers I would say overall they are among the biggest disappointments as the only potential reason is that people in Detroit are used to having teams that have been around for 50+ years and may be worried that the Panthers will be gone in just a couple of years.
Especially today with this game a league championship
Release Tickets Earlier and advertise more. It’s so simple. Even the UFL knows it
People can not be complaining about St Louis being down and it’s still bigger than everyone else. They complaining about St Louis when they should be helping The USFL Teams
Also build smaller stadiums imo.
Having the tickets come out just 5 weeks before the season starts is awful. Hopefully the league is able to have tickets release a few weeks earlier!
Agreed. St. Louis and DC are the two cities that have attendance and fan engagement nailed.
@@ZombPhoxUFL Bruh how am i supposed to feel about the ratings. The Fox games got 770,000 and 731,000 respectively. Somehow DC and St Louis got 688,000. Now I think that was because it was a blowout and the NBA Playoffs. But There still not bad.
I forgot to say that 770,000 was Fox Combined so pretty good numbers on that. 731,000 for a 3:00 PM game with the playoffs going on is pretty solid. St Louis and DC tho I don't know.
I think overall the numbers were ok. Not great, but not bad. The ESPN game having almost 700K is a good number and the biggest issue was having the Stallions game be played for 89% of the country instead of having the two games be split more like 55/45 like they did in week 4, as the Brahmas game wasn't swapped to until pretty late in the Stallions game and it is safe to assume that a ton of people turned off the Stallions game before the swap due to how bad the blowout was.
I know last year the birmingham stallions came to one of my high school football games, so they obviously were at least trying 🤣
I’m so glad they called the Houston team in the USFL conference the stinkin’ Roughnecks instead of the Gamblers so we could get soooo many fans at the games. Ridiculous.
Yep, it's like I said from the beginning, if you are going to keep the Gamblers team you keep them as the Gamblers. Because now all the league did is piss off both Roughnecks fans and Gamblers fans by making them the Roughnecks, but kept the Gamblers team.
Yeah XFL bitched and cried about having the team be the Roughnecks and don't show up. For the record it's not the "Gamblers team" because that team is way different than last year. Yeah sure there are a few players from the Gamblers (and some coaching staff) but it's now the Roughnecks, an XFL team throw into the USFL division.
Fairness says it should have been the Houston Gamblers in the USFL Conference, but practicality says the Houston Roughnecks had a more established fan base than the Gamblers, who never even played a game in Houston, so I get their decision to keep the Roughnecks name. And even though I love the Gamblers logo and colors, the Roughnecks uniform and colors is pretty cool and is growing on me (though I am not a fan of the numerals on the helmet like the Alabama Crimson Tide). But when the time comes for expansion, I hope they add the Philadelphia Stars, either New Jersey Generals or New Orleans Breakers, Oakland Invaders (very similar situation to St. Louis getting screwed by the Rams departure) all to the USFL Conference, add the Seattle Sea Dragons to the XFL Conference, and move the Houston Roughnecks back to the XFL Conference where they belong and where fans can travel between Arlington and San Antonio two extra games each year, due to playing teams in your conference twice.
@@RichieCult Well we will never really know what kind of fan base the Houston Gamblers would of have because the USFL never had a chance to put the Gamblers back in Houston. Of course XFL fans will say it wouldn't be good because they are biased and just saying that, XFL just got there first, that's all. If the XFL never came back all those Roughnecks fans would be Gamblers fans. The reality is that the fan base for the Roughnecks has dropped. It started off very good when they were 5-0 in 2020 under Junes Jones and PJ Walker, but when the Rock brought them back attendance dropped (that includes all XFL teams except for the Battlehawks and the Defenders). But then again I'm sure if both the XFL and USFL were to somehow both coexist there would be fans in Houston who's NFL team is the Texans, XFL team the Roughnecks and the USFL Team is the Gamblers. I do hope the Roughnecks goes back into the XFL division (where they belong) and the Gamblers move to Austin.
Something else I miss about the AAF was the fact that they streamed the games on youtube to get their product out there. The chats were so much fun and built such camaraderie, you'd see the same group of people each week and just have a blast chatting it up and watching good ol' football. I remember yearning for a team in the DC or Norfolk area to pull for. God what a gut punch that league was.
I'm in agreement that there's a lot of simple things these teams can do to improve attendance (10K is definitely a reasonable minimum). And I'm with you on relocating teams - such talk needs to stop. As for expansion, I am of the understanding that it has to happen next year because of the deal the merged league made with Congress to approve the merger.
They don’t need to move teams. They need to Trust In the City and keep hold
Why don't they promote the fuck out of these games in the cities they are being played in?! They need to start filling these stadiums a little more otherwise this league ain't gonna last
The big problem was how dragged out the merger process was as it limited what they could do since they didn't know what teams were gonna be in the league till late December. Higher ups of the league have already talked about how next year they need to do a lot more of local marketing.
I don't want to get it where the beautiful uniforms they wear start looking like fricking NASCAR driver outfits with all the sponsors all over them. Soccer and the WNBA uniforms look pretty trashy with all the sponsors in every available space. But billboards for advertising would be great.
I agree with all your takes/points. I would also get rid of games being aired on ABC and bring back NBC.NBC has better coverage and ABC coverage is hard to watch. ABC is more of an NBA/Basketball network, especially during March Madness. Move the Roughnecks to Shell Energy Stadium (if possible). A Soccer stadium in Houston that holds 22,000. Rice Stadium is too big, plus not the best-looking stadium. The Rock needs to promote the league more. Just don't show up the first 2 weeks then show up for the Championship game. Also, the Rock needs to show up to a truly USFL game like a Stallions/Panthers game. By doing so it shows unity and that it's one league now. Now I heard the USFL mascot are still at the games. I haven't seen them. If they are there show them on TV. It's fun and has that "family-friendly" feel to it, especially when you see the kids interacting with the mascot. Also have the XFL teams have mascots as well, pretty much for the same reason. Also, bring back the cheerleaders!!! Also, I would like to add regarding Birmingham Stallions games. Sports bars and restaurants have reported increase of business when the Stallions have home games. I think that needs to be reported because it does show the UFL can bring in money to local economies.
I can confirm that the USFL teams do still have their mascots, but I agree that they need more screen time. While the reason was due to the amount of sports they have, getting NBC back would be huge for the league. I do agree about FOX vs ESPN/ABC as FOX just blows them away in quality of watching the game. At the very least the Roughnecks need to go back to TDECU, but Shell would also be a solid place. It is great seeing places in Birmingham having better numbers when there are Stallions games! I do also agree that the XFL teams do need mascots.
@@ZombPhoxUFL I'm older than you and I tell you back in the day ABC sports coverage was excellent. I loved Monday Night Football on ABC. It ranked number 1 in the ratings. But that all changed when they moved Monday Night Football to ESPN in 2006. I really don't know why they did that. Guessing there were executives who wanted to promote ESPN more, there was some drama, some made up for sure just as an excuse to move to ESPN.
Zippy chance those numbers are accurate. Audi was, at best, half full this past Sunday. These are tickets “distributed” not sold. Until we get those numbers we have no way of knowing how these teams are actually doing.
I’ll add I hope …if the league keeps going…that they listen to creators like you and others..who really have their finger on the pulse of these leagues
I was at the Michigan vs Memphis game and the attendance was probably close to 8,000
The cheapest tickets I came across for the Showboats was 35$
You mentioned the AAF... Look at these 4 that were in that league in regards to attendance that are now current in UFL or Orlando who was in XFL last year. AAF average San Antonio 27,721, Orlando 19,648, Birmingham 14,307, Memphis 12,944. None of the 4 are even close to what the AAF had. I fully agree with your thought that the sudden closing of that league that nobody saw coming has a effect in those cities.
Agreed 100%
The reason for low attendance and meh tv ratings is simple. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me geez how many times have alt leagues came and went shame on me. Why should I invest my time and money with the UFL when the NFL won't. The only way this league will prosper is if the NFL invests in it like MLB invests in its minor league teams. Not going to happen because football was never setup to have professional minor leagues like MLB was and is. In the coming years, major college football will be professional in all but name. It already has major financial backing from government, alumni, students and fans. My suggestion for players whose talent is just short of the NFL and don't want to play in Canada is to lobby congress to remove college eligibility limits as long as a player is matriculated and is progressing toward a degree.
I agree that the biggest issue is in how many spring leagues we have seen fail the past few years, but I do think spring football can work, it just takes time. The TV ratings are currently better than what either the USFL or XFL had last year despite the UFL not having a single west coast or northeast team in the league. The most important thing for the UFL to do is take it slow in regards to teams getting good attendance as these cities need to believe that the team will actually be around in 5 years, and when they do they will show up. The UFL cannot overreact and move teams just because of a bad season or two.
i think in all these spring leagues they begin with way exaggerated expectations,on attendence, tv ratings, profit..i don't think attendence is that horrable each yeam so far seems to have a core group, of 8,0000 to 12,000 consistant fans, not that bad. ,it's still just the 1st year of a brand new thing,i think all 8 teams deserve a 2nd year. and if some teams can't build on this year, then maybe think about pausing,or some relocations...the wnba has been around almost 30 years, interest and attendence has been aweful most of that time, my point is they are given time,the ufl needs time to grow,i hope itgiven time
This is exactly what I want other people to see, give teams a couple of years to grow and if after a couple of years there is zero growth, then you think about relocation. While the numbers might not all be insane, even the games that have less than 8,000 people have crowds that are loud and engaging which is what you want to see. I hope the league gets time to grow as well, as slow and steady wins the race.
Should not play on Saturday and games Should not play at 12pm ,all games should be on sunday and monday night and one game on Thursday night, games on Sunday time Should be 4pm and 8pm and a Monday night football game and a Thursday night football game. Time makes a difference Saturday in the summer time and this is not the nfl at 12 pm people are doing something else to me time makes a difference.
Remember that the UFL does not have that much control over things like time to play games due to how far done they are on the pecking order of sports. For the stadiums they play at the league for some teams have very little say on when they can have games played and that is very similar to TV where networks prioritize other sporting events.
just play every game in st louis
The Breakers had lots of fans but never got a home game. It's been a very liked team that got cut out. Some of these fans are supporting the UFL less.
I know most people talk about the Sea Dragons and their fans, but for never playing in New Orleans (in the modern spring football era) the Breakers had an incredible fan base that deserves to have the team return to the league and finally play in New Orleans.
Awesome video! I love to see UFL deep dives!
Thank you! I have a couple of expansion videos coming out on Monday and Thursday if your interested!
All sorts of reasons
1) market saturation--people only have so much time & $ to devote to spectator sports
2) coincidence with early season MLB + playoffs in NBA & NHL
3) Saturation of talent; once past the NFL (or NBA, MLB, NHL for the other sports) the rest of the players are minor leauge. Minor league is fine, but don't expect that it can be marketed as major leauge. [this is pretty much what happened with indoor football--highly hyped at first, now almost an invisible niche]
4) per #3, don't play in large stadiums, less than 15k attendance for football looks bad whether in person or TV, which creates a downward spiral. People won't bother with something in which others aren't interested.
5) have no idea what the costs are like but MLB is now hurting bad with the steep cost of tickets, concessions & parking. Minor league baseball is a real bargain in that regard and has made it a small town American sort of thing. USFL may want to follow suit.
6) only real die hard fans care about spring football--I live in the NW and at this time of year--with really nice weather, only baseball and soccer get crowds--otherwise people do outdoor activities.
Summary, I highly doubt this league will last more than 2-3 years tops.
The UFL 100% needs to try and get teams in smaller stadiums, but in terms of TV rating the league has been gping against the NHL quite well. The ticket prices need to be overall lowered as the UFL increased the prices for the USFL teams and now that they have been offering cheaper tickets it has helped a couple of the teams. If the overall numbers (aside from attendance) keep up the league should definetly last for more than 3 years as the social media interaction has been insane and the TV rating are better than either year of the USFL and last season of the XFL. The UFL does know how to cut costs as the main reason the Dragons didn't make the cut was to save on travel costs, and having practice hubs also loweres a lot of cost as well.
I think it's VP of Football Ops. Johnson because he's not really promoting the teams or the league I haven't seen any commercials for the league except for when there's a UFL game on like if I'm already watching the league why would you need to advertise to me. They could run advertisements leading to this week's games. Also in defense of the Vegas Vipers they showed consistency with every home game getting 6K each week which I loved that the fans were consistent with their support of the team even though they didn't advertise the games in Vegas at all even though Cashman Field isn't that far from the Vegas Strip hopefully the UFL brings the Vipers back and puts them back at Cashman Field. Also they need to find a way to bring back Oliver Luck as Commissioner of the UFL. As for expansion I think at least two teams should come back which in my opinion should be the Seattle Dragons or Vegas Vipers and the Pittsburg Maulers or New Orleans Breakers
I have seen some ads during other events on ESPN and FOX, but they definitely could do more. I know Moose has done a couple of interviews, but I think the biggest issue is just how dragged out the merger process was. I disagree a lot with the Vipers and Cashman Field as the stadium was pretty awful to see and while I do think the Vipers can be a very solid team in Vegas they would need to be in an actual football stadium, and while yes the Vipers fans were consistent in attendance the numbers were still awful. If the Vipers were in a better stadium I definitely think they would put up some decent numbers. I would say that the best two teams to bring back would be the Dragons and Breakers first as those two teams had awesome fan bases, and after them you can start bringing back teams like the Vipers and Maulers. Getting Luck back would be awesome as then you would basically have the head guy from the XFL 2.0, USFL, and XFL 3.0 which would be awesome for the UFL.
@@ZombPhoxUFL I didn't like the fact that they merged at all I think it would have been cost effective to agree to use the same rules remain separate leagues start at the same time have six games each week with one xfl & one usfl game on friday, saturday, and sunday then each league has their respective divisional games and championships then after that have a "Spring Superbowl" which would have been like a merger-lite
Bring back the XFL.
The usfl and ufl are BORING!
Very boring the XFL had more energy
It appears to be a credibility issue. Fans want to see the teams survive year after year before investing in allegiance or taking on the hassle of personal attendance. Attending sporting events is a time-consuming and expensive proposition, especially vis-a-vis opportunity costs that exist in today's world. To kill an afternoon or evening is a significant choice for most people. The television contracts are obviously holding the league up right now, but there can't be fluidity in teams - movement, name changes, etc. Lastly, these teams are playing in huge venues that provide an even greater perception than the reality of sparse attendance.
That's a huge reason I think the league needs to wait until at least 2026 before expansion or possible relocation as the league needs to prove that these teams can be in their cities for years. What you said is 100% why should people spend their time and money on a team that they don't know will be around in 5 years? The UFL needs to take the slow and steady approach, and if they do they just might make it. (I also agree about the league needing to try and get smaller stadiums as well)
@@ZombPhoxUFL 💯
PWHL streamed their first season on TH-cam and have had killer crowds. Run commercials during the NFL/CFL season and find a way to stream on YT and still make $$. The PWHL fanbase is very active and vocal on YT chat and they built a great community with PWHL participation in chat.
I love the USFL, liked the the XFL, so therefore I love the UFL. I really appreciate your shared passion for this league and I wish you success. When people imagine the sorts of things they would do if they had won $300,000,000, they imagine mansions, sports cars, etc. If I won that sort of money, I would be on the phone with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Dany Garcia asking them if I could be in on this. I loved the USFL in the 80's and was sad to see it fold. The reason the USFL Conference teams have poor attendance this year is because they tried that extremely conservative approach of having all games in Birmingham that first season. I am from Chicago. And despite not having a local team, I have traveled to Canton, Ohio for both USFL Championships and a few weeks ago, traveled to St. Louis for the Memphis Showboats @ Battlehawks game. I love this league. Football is America's sport. This really has a chance to be something big. I echo your opinion on not relocating these teams. Like a forest, this thing needs time to grow. As you can imagine, if I lived anywhere near these 8 cities, I would be a season ticket holder. I buy lots of merchandise too. Long Live the UFL!!!
I am almost the exact same as you! I wasn't able to go in 2022, but in 2023 I made the 10 hour drive to Canton for the USFL Championship game and have already booked my hotel for the UFL Championship game this year! I wish a team would come to the NC/VA area so I could be a season ticket holder, but until then I'll be rocking with the Panthers and the league as a whole. For all the good St. Louis has done for spring football I truly think it's a double-edged sword as while it is great to have all the press on the team having 30,000+ every game I think it has created this idea that every team in the league is supposed to average over 20,000 a game which just won't happen for years, but many people now seem to think that they are supposed to. The only way I would agree to relocation is if next season the Showboats attendance were to sink even further down as there is almost no chance of the team being as bad as they are this year next year and the league will have had a full off-season to market in the area. The argument for the Panthers honestly makes 0 sense because from everything that we know of the Panthers attendance is actually up from last year which is awesome to see. I hope this league lasts for a long time!
St. Louis has such a great fan base and should be a model to the league because not once, but twice, they had their football hearts ripped out. The football Cardinals relocation to Phoenix left a void and made the city angry. The Rams departure back to Los Angeles turned the city into a lynch mob determined to love their Battlehawks. I went to their tailgating before the game. The game started at like 11 or 11:30 am (I forgot), but at 8:30 am, the parking lot was filling up, loud music from a marching band was playing drums, they had a cheerleading spirit squad, they had a DJ getting fans excited, then the team bus pulls up, the coaches and players all walk past you, most either high-five you, shake your hand, or knuckle you. You really connect with them. I wish The Rock is aware of this. This is the sort of excitement each team should have.
You're not the only one that's told me about how awesome the experience is in St. Louis, and honestly it makes me wonder just how insane the place would be if the Battlehawks did make it to the Championship! That's the thing I love most about the league is the humbleness of the players as well over 95% of the players and coaches are great guys that will talk to fans, shake hands with fans, and take pictures with fans which is awesome! At the Championship game last year the highlight of the night was when Josh Simmons leaped into the crowd after his Maulers lost the game to see his family, but was completely fine and happy with people asking for pictures and his autograph! Guys like him and all the other players who go out of their way to interact with the fans are a huge part of how this league can be successful.
When you have empty stadiums you can't sell your product to tv markets.
Agreed. This was the single biggest flaw the USFL had, as every game that did not feature the Stallions, Showboats, or Panthers last year looked awful on TV.
If there are soccer stadiums in these markets that will look a lot better.
I 100% agree with that. All it takes is one look at games played at DC vs anywhere else (besides St. Louis) and you can tell why playing in a samller stadium is a good thing for the league ATM.
CFL fans, “wow, those stadiums are empty!”
I actually like watching it more than the NFL
20 a ticket!! Damn my season tickets are priced at 105 a piece at the Battledome
Just as an FYI those per game numbers were purely based on potential averages. The teams ticket prices are all so different from certain teams having buy one get one free options, and others that have offered sub $20 tickets. A team like the Battlehawks definitely are on the more expensive side to do the huge demand for tickets compared to a team like Arlington that has special offers on tickets to try and get more people to the games. Also my average for the Battlehawks was EXTREMELY low (as I know that good seats at the Dome are tough to get and are expensive) and I used the low number just to prove how a team like the Battlehawks can bring in some really good money for the UFL.
@@ZombPhoxUFL oh I’m not accusing of bad logic or anything I was just wishing I had those deals!! Good vid
Thank you! BTW for some reason your reply got held for review lol!
Game 2 in DC didnt overlap with the Nationals or Capitals games so it got more attention
The battlehawks game was also an 11:30 start time. So the drop in attendance makes sense
My honest opinion about getting more people to the crowd are, well basically have a prime time Thursday game. And have a prime time Monday game. And maybe have the other two games on Sundays. A night game on a Thursday sure to get a nice crowd. Especially in like DC. Or STL. Possibly even Birmingham. Or even a Monday night game. 11:30 start times is some college football shit and I think the UFL should stay away from those start times. A lot of people gotta work during early times or are busy so most “casuals” won’t even think to watch the game. Unless they follow the teams playing. But then that doesn’t make them a casual at that point. Again I prolly don’t know much of shit, but again, I wanna see this league SUCCEED just like everyone else that’s either making content about UFL or commenting on UFL related content.
I understand your Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football ideas for marketing, but that is really not practical at this time. All players are making about $5,000 a week and most are living in Arlington (UFL hub city) and practicing 3 hours a day at least 3 days a week. It is a very different lifestyle than the wealthy NFL athletes who own more than one house. As for right now, the Saturday / Sunday format is necessary, but I agree that games should not begin before noon Central Time and I was also upset when games overlap each other, because I watch all 4 games every week. I do not watch more than one NFL game a week, so I am actually more interested in UFL games than NFL games at this time in my life. Spring + Football = works well for me.
You make a good case against expanding the UFL or moving UFL teams in 2025. I like spring football and I hope this league survives. It is hard to support keeping a team in a city if the community fails to support a team with inadequate ticket sales in consecutive seasons. I also agree that the merger consumed so much time that there was not enough time for adequate marketing for the 2024 season.
Thank you, I am actually making a full video about why expanding and moving teams in 2025 would be a bad idea that will come out on Monday. The biggest reason I will mention in that video is the fact that marketing was horrible due to the merger process taking so long. While I do think expansion is something the league has to do to stay alive in the future, I think they need to hold off until 2026.
The Las Vegas Vipers while being a bad team, the reason why the attendance was so bad was because of the stadium. If the played at a better stadium they would have also drew more than 10,000 fans a game in 2023...
I agree with you that Cashman was an awful place for a football team to play. Because of how bad the team was I don't know if they would have averaged over 10,000 in a different stadium, but they definitely would have been closer to 10,000 compared to them barely hitting 6,000 at Cashman.
I believe you should adjust your attendance rankings on the metropolitan population. That will tell you how teams are really being supported.
That is why I always have used the attendance as good or bad based on what the city has previously done for spring football. It's why I hate the notion that people say "If St. Louis can get 30,000+ why can't every city." Because good attendance is being as good or better than what the city has previously done, which is why San Antonio is still a disappointment along with Birmingham, but a city like Detroit is technically doing well (if the reports of last year's attendance are to be believed) since they are better than last year despite the bad overall number. That is also why the minimum goal for the league should be 10,000+ because every one of those cities can definitely hit that number with proper marketing and trust in the city.
i still believe that with any future expansion the league needs to place teams in cities that may actually want a team to call it's own
I 100% agree, look at where cities are watching the UFL despite not having a team (like Columbus and New Orleans) and cities that only have 1 or 2 teams in the NHL, MLB, and NBA.
There needs to be a game at the end of the year where one team that wins it will get first pick in every round of the draft like how the USFL did it last year that would make that game very important
That would definitely be great to have, but with that Maulers Panthers game in 2022 it happened thanks to that golden scenario of the two worst teams playing each other in week 10. If that situation were to happen again I would love to see them bring back that stipulation.
The Roughnecks are in Rice Stadium and even the people of Houston don't like it. The Liberty Bowl is under construction plus Memphis has issues after the Oilers disaster. I don't know if Ford Field will be locked in next year. So there you go.
Memphis' issues aren't really from just the Oilers as Memphis has major trust issues with teams because they have had teams that have left the city from the WFL, OG USFL, CFL, OG XFL, and AAF. The Roughnecks definitely need to go back to TDECU once their renovations are done as the seeing the Rice logo at midfield looks awful for the Roughnecks and the league.
This Birmingham game attendance on such an important game is pathetic. Looks like 95% of the bleachers are empty at least looks like on TV. Am I wrong?😊
Barely 10K, a VERY disappointing number for sure.
Out of curiosity, this showed up in my algorithms, and I watched out for curiosity. There are several reasons for poor attendance. Spring and Summer are for outdoor activities and doing things except watching 3 hours of a football game with players whom I have not seen or heard of before. Players who can't make it in the NFL for whatever reason. I can watch college football every weekend all day and care more. Don't try to spin the low attendance. What part of the telecast on TV I have seen that they don't show any high shots or upper-level shots because of poor attendance. Local marketing excuse does not work, these teams were in the markets the year before.
Local marketing is a real excuse for this year. While yes, all 8 of these teams (Roughnecks kinda) were in their cities last year the marketing was hampered due to the merger process being dragged out. Just because the teams played in the city the year prior does not mean that local marketing can't be an excuse. The leagues could not air any sort of spring football commercial until 2024 because of the merger process compared to the previous years where the leagues could advertise well over 3 months in advance. The UFL also did not know which teams would be in the merged league until the merger was set in stone which also would hamper local marketing for their teams.
The qualifty of play for instance today has been horrible with six combined turnovers in one quarter between the two teams. I doubt many of these players will be picked up by any NFL team after the season.
Well over 40 players will be signed, now how many will make the final roster is a legit question.
As far as st.Louis..I don’t care about any drop offs …anything over 20,000 is absolutely outstanding and crazy for this league..I don’t see anything under 25,000 ..as for rest ..some decent some awful..but with what fans have been through with these leagues..as in they’ve ALL folded sometimes mid season..it’ll take time to build the trust of fans ..and I don’t blame fans at all ..if I didn’t love these leagues..I wouldn’t care at all ..I assume the league knows this ..they have to know it honestly unless they’re idiots ..which I don’t think they are ..it’s going to take time to build the trust fans ..when it’s all been failure after failure…I just prey the league sees that and gives it at least one more year
Trust is for sure the most important thing in terms of improving attendance. We have seen so many teams in the past 5 years fold, be put on hiatus, or relocated and the best way to have a city build trust in the league by having the team in their city simply staying in the city for years and years. I am not a fan of seeing people want to have teams be relocated next season, as this season had so many issues due to how late the merger came meaning that there is a lot of hope that almost every team should increase in attendance next season just because of the league having time to actually market in the local areas.
@@ZombPhoxUFL 💯
I think something that would help would be a change of Venue. Move the under performing teams to smaller stadiums. DC has a smaller venue. So 15-16 k is almost maxed. The panthers attendance doesn't look as bad if they aren't playing at Ford Field.
I agree, having teams play in places that are 20,000 or less (aside from St. Louis obviously) would make all these games feel and look like they are doing awesome in regard to attendance.
@ZombPhoxUFL Yeah, most of the teams aren't in a place where they are gonna draw a huge crowd yet. Especially cities where they already have pro football. Michigan doesn't necessarily need to be in Detroit. They could pick a smaller stadium in the state. I just know I love that DC Vibe. STL has the big crowds, but DC has the atmosphere, and I if more teams could get that, the feel would be so much better.
They need to have Monday night football in this league. Saturdays are rough for me to catch any game anywhere.
I actually did talk about this a while ago, but getting a weekly primetime game on Thursday, Friday, or Monday would be a great thing for the league to have as long as it is every week of the regular season.
@@ZombPhoxUFL No way, they had Thursday night games and it really hurt ratings and attendance numbers. They need to start having set times for games and to not have two games run at the same time
How is eother one of these spring leagues viable or sustainable in the future?
TV deals, the TV numbers have been the best spring football has seen since the 2020 XFL.
I was a huge fan of the AAF and still cannot get over it. Not willing to get invested in another league to get burned...and this league looks well on its way to burning people. Not that I would have ever followed the XFL to begin with. Why? Because it's the XFL...a name that just yells "CHEAP" and "GIMMICK"...and who exactly were they targeting with that name in the year 2020? Had the AAF not already burning so many bridges I could have seen the USFL having some success... but merging with the XFL turned off a lot of fans who just want to see traditional pro football. And haha at keeping the Roughnecks name... give me a break..they look like a cheap Oilers knockoff which I have no doubt that was Vince's intent back in 2020.
The AAF folding is something that needs to be talked about more than it is. So many people talk about all the reasons for low attendance, but never mention the most simple one and that is people not wanting to be burned again. Of course Memphis is gonna have trust issues with the Showboats when the city has seen teams come and go from the WFL, OG USFL, CFL, OG XFL, and especially the AAF. Despite what many people online will say, people like you are not rare, many people do not want to spend money or time on a league that they don't know will be around in 5 years. If spring football is gonna last it needs to take a slow approach on expanding and getting people to come to games, the UFL (and fans) can not just expect every team to have 15,000+ fans in attendance like many AAF teams had.
@@ZombPhoxUFL Something else I miss about the AAF was the fact that they streamed the games on youtube to get their product out there. The chats were so much fun and built such camaraderie, you'd see the same group of people each week and just have a blast chatting it up and watching good ol' football. I remember yearning for a team in the DC or Norfolk area to pull for. God what a gut punch that league was.
I am interested to see what happens week 7 for the Stallions
Agreed, that game could hit a very high number with the return of AJ in Bama.
Battlehawk fans should travel & support their team for this game.
Put the Roughnecks in Tulsa, put the Showboats in Columbus and Renegades in portland,
I think you have to keep all the teams in their current cities for at least another season. The UFL had little to no local marketing and were very late on getting tickets available due to how late the merger took place. Next season will show more of what these teams can really have in terms of attendance since the UFL will be able to actually market within the cities and will have tickets available much sooner than the league did this season.
I do agree that the delays from the merger probably caused a LOT of trouble when it came to scheduling and getting tickets out... with this season under their belt, they should hopefully be able to throw more into marketing and getting the names out. A cool promotion might be announcing season tickets going on sale Black Friday, with single seats on Jan 1st. If the rumors are true, and they're looking to expand/rearrange, it will give you plenty of time to do what ya gotta do!
Another good idea could be to try and compete with the NHL/NBA/MLB for that entertainment dollar. In STL, for example, tickets for Cardinals vs Red Sox on May 19 (when STL hosts DC) start at $12. Undercut it, and offer a nosebleed at the Dome for $9.99! More often than not, people will be motivated to buy if it's a good deal.
You're also right about trust for these cities. We're basically running with 8 burned metros in one way or another. Memphis is a prime example; they've been burned by many a football league going back to the 1970s. If the city is spurned for the 2nd time in a decade? The 4th in 30 years? You basically can't come back after that. Hopefully the rumors of the CEO of FedEx wanting to buy the team has legs. That would give them the stability and funds they need to start growing.
Things do look mostly good for the league. TV is up, quality of play is up (even though we basically already know who's going to the playoffs), but no butts in seats will only take you so far.
So many people seem to forget just how bad Memphis has had it with football teams leaving them as they have had a team in the WFL, OG USFL, CFL, OG XFL, and the AAF yet people wonder why attendance isn't great. As long as the team is able to stay and build trust with the city Memphis can be a great market since that's why all those leagues decided to have a team there. Getting higher section tickets to undercut competition would definitely be a solid way of boosting attendance as well as making the teams that play in bigger stadiums look a bit better since you would have people in more areas than what they have currently like with Birmingham/Memphis only having one side of the field and Michigan only having the lower bowl with people.
Stallions fans better show up its getting sad lol
Hopefully the game against the Battlehawks in week 7 does great due to the return of McCarron to Alabama!
@@ZombPhoxUFL ya maybe they move the stallions to Idaho, I mean rain snow shine bsu games are 28k-30k on crappy stormy days we love football not the biggest population. I'd go for sure it's football.
Birmingham is the biggest bust. 2x champs, undefeated, and can't draw 20,000. Houston, Arlington, and Memphis are disasters. Move teams to Omaha, Salt Lake city, OKC. San Antonio has potential. Truck or Car giveaways might help.
Moving teams at this point would be a death wish, as why would people of the city where teams are moved to ever go and support a team is their is a very real threat of that team being moved because it didn't hit a certain number in attendance. Relocation should only be an option if a team shows no sign of improvement or decreases in attendance over the course of a couple of years. Building trust in a city that the team will last for 10+ years is crucial to building a fan base, as this is why the Stallions have not been able to match what the Birmingham Iron put up in the AAF because the people of Birmingham may be scared that they will lose their team due to the league folding. I do think doing some kinds of special giveaways would be a really solid way to build attendance. Cities like the ones you mentioned should only be viewed as potential expansion team locations IMO.
@ZombPhoxUFL guess the key is St. Louis championship game. Better be rooting for Battlehawks to be in it as well. Maybe the only saving grace.
If St. Louis makes it to the Chip I genuinely think the game will have over 60,000 people there.
@ZombPhoxUFL absolutely, you know the league is hoping for it
@@ZombPhoxUFL You're absolutely right about B-Ham we have had SO many teams pulled out from under us and it had nothing to do with attendance, indirectly we even lost the USFL Stallions after 2 seasons, yeah folks are talking about a 3-peat but realistically this is a 1 time the USFL is defunct regardless of us keeping the team under UFL even the uniforms are different albeit slightly.
The UFL has done a terrible job marketing.. the vast majority of people who are football fans that I have talked about the UFL don't even know it is going on..
They really need to step it up during the off-season.