ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Saturday marks the final game of the 2026 season for the United Football League.
The UFL’s United Bowl III kicks off at 2PM CDT Saturday on ABC.
Spring professional football’s championship game will take place in Washington, DC at Audi Stadium. The hometown DC Defenders (7-4) defend their 2025 UFL title against the upstart expansion Louisville Kings (also 7-4).
Abundant sunshine and a steamy 90 degrees will greet the players and fans at Saturday’s championship game to end the UFL’s third season.
There will likely be a good crowd of more than 15,000 in the stands (the stadium holds 20,000) and a television audience of more than 1 million watching on ABC.
At some point soon, the UFL owners will meet to review the season and make decisions about the future.
Let’s give a preview of what I think that meeting will entail.
A review of the 2026 UFL season – the OK, the “Meh”, and the downright ugly
The third year for any new business should show its owners that the venture is making positive strides. If the business is not already profitable, the annual losses should be getting smaller by the year as the business gains favor with the buying public.
For the UFL, those primary measures are home team attendance (and revenues) and national television ratings.
Let’s start with the Ugly. Home attendance dropped again in 2026
Each of the eight UFL teams played five home games in the 10-game regular season.
The St. Louis Battlehawks (playing in a 60,000 domed football stadium) drew more than 23,000 per game to lead the UFL in home attendance once again in 2026. Despite the positive attendance, the cost for the lease at the Dome at America’s Center (formerly known as the Edward Jones Dome) in St. Louis is also likely the highest paid by the UFL.
The expansion Louisville Kings came in second with more than 11,000 fans per home opener.
Another expansion franchise, the Columbus Aviators finished third with 10,362 paying customers per home game in 2026.
The other five UFL franchises failed to average 10,000 fans per game with the two Texas teams (Dallas and Houston) coming in last with 6,185 and 5,683 per game respectively.
Birmingham (which plays in UAB’s home football stadium) and St. Louis played their home games in traditional football stadiums.
The other six UFL franchises played the 2026 season in smaller soccer venues. Lease costs for these soccer stadiums are lower than the cost of most traditional football stadiums. Home television viewers are less likely to be turned-off by seeing small crowds if played in a 20,000 seat soccer stadium.
The UFL home team attendance figures have declined in each of the league’s three seasons.
The 2024 season produced an average of 12,800 fans. In 2025, the UFL dropped to 12,168 per game.
This year’s 10,500 average marked a 14% decline from 2025.
Ouch.
It means that the public (even with affordable ticket prices of $20-30 available) simply is not very excited about the UFL’s on-field product.
Now for the “Meh” – Television ratings in 2026 were relatively flat vs. 2025
I remember reading an article a few years ago which claimed that the UFL needed to draw more than one million television viewers per game in order to have a chance to turn a profit.
Well, that didn’t happen again this year, either.
The Friday night prime time game on FOX produced consistent numbers.
The ratings showed a reliable audience of 600-700,000 viewers on Friday nights during the 7PM to 10PM Central time period.
That may sound good until you know the rest of the story. The FOX Friday night audience for UFL games was mired in last place all season when compared to programming on competitors CBS, NBC, and ABC.
FOX Sports (a part-owner of the UFL) cannot be pleased with their investment after three seasons.
Ditto for Disney’s ESPN brand.
The sports giant also owns a piece of the UFL. They televised one or more weekly UFL games via ESPN and/or corporate affiliate, ABC.
The 2026 ratings for the Saturday and Sunday UFL games on ABC continue to show the highest viewership. At least four regular season games on ABC topped the one million mark during the first nine weeks of the UFL season.
That meant only 11% of the first nine weeks of UFL games in 2026 produced a television audience of one million or more.
If the league’s original goal was to reach one million viewers per televised game, the UFL continues to fall woefully short of that target.
The “OK” – the spring football league continues to innovate and try harder
UFL ownership includes the aforementioned FOX Sports and ESPN along with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, his ex-wife Dany Garcia, Redbird Capital Partners, and billionaire Mike Repole.
Repole bought his way into the UFL following the 2025 season. His ownership percentage and who he purchased it from have yet to be disclosed.
It has been new owner Mike Repole who pushed to move UFL teams into smaller soccer venues in 2026.
He also gave the green light to relocate UFL franchises away from San Antonio, Memphis, and Detroit in favor of Columbus (OH), Louisville, and Orlando for this season.
Those three non-NFL cities produced slightly improved attendance figures and saved money with significantly lower lease costs. However, none of the three teams turned a profit based on their gate receipts.
Despite his personal energy, Mike Repole’s promotional skills and tinkering with the UFL simply hasn’t paid off. League attendance went down in 2026 while television ratings were flat.
The effort is commendable.
The UFL’s massive annual losses, though, continue.
What should the UFL owners do at their next meeting following the 2026 season?
Let’s make an assumption that the UFL loses (just my guess here) $50 million in 2026. That would mark the third consecutive year of significant losses for the latest spring football experiment.
Non-corporate UFL owners such as Dwayne Johnson and his ex-wife, Dany Garcia, should be ready to exit as owners by now.
They cannot be pleased with losing millions of their own money every year. The cash losses by the UFL show no sign of abatement should the league continue into 2027. Johnson and Garcia lost big bucks with the XFL, too. They have now been losing even more money with the UFL for three seasons.
Why should they stick around?
Redbird Capital Partners might fly away at the next owner’s meeting, too.
The private equity investor claims over $10 billion in managed assets. Redbird’s website currently displays the UFL as one of 36 different major investments for the company. The UFL’s continuing annual losses are a negative. Don’t be surprised if they, too, wish to move on at the next UFL owners meeting.
FOX Sports may have a different perspective on the UFL.
The NFL on FOX could end within the next five years at the end of the network’s latest contract. FOX Sports could, perhaps, envision the UFL becoming a potential future fall competitor for the NFL. The fledgling American Football League of the 1960’s did it. However, it took ten years for the NFL to eventually gobble-up their competitor.
Let’s say that I’m wrong about FOX Sports’ long-term thinking on the UFL. They really don’t need the UFL for programming and might be ready to pull the plug at the next owners meeting.
How are ESPN and ABC feeling about the UFL right now?
Mounting annual losses by the UFL are (effectively) petty cash for Disney. The current spring positioning of the UFL season fills a major weekend programming need for ESPN and ABC. There aren’t a lot of major sports events available to fill air time on ESPN from April through June.
An important item to remember is that the NFL sold its NFL Network to ESPN earlier in 2026 in return for a 10% ownership stake in ESPN.
ESPN and ABC must now seriously consider doing whatever the NFL wants with respect to the UFL. They could vote to stick with the UFL or decide to shut it down for good this summer.
That leaves the enthusiastic billionaire UFL investor Mike Repole.
Repole jumped into the UFL dumpster fire with both feet last year. Most billionaires get rich by being very shrewd in business.
I suspect that Mike Repole (if he sticks around for another year or more) sees the UFL eventually becoming a partner with the NFL down the road. He appears to be a risk-taker willing to swing for the fences.
Should the NFL ever decide to invest in the UFL as a spring football partner, Mike Repole’s investment gamble could pay off handsomely.
Than again, the NFL has plenty of its own billionaire owners, too. Their luxury cruise liner isn’t likely to throw a life preserver to Mike Repole or any of his other UFL ownership partners anytime soon.
The UFL’s third year financial condition reminds me of a 1977 Harry Chapin song.
“The Dance Band on the Titanic” featured some rather clever lyrics and an upbeat melody. In the musical version, the ship’s band was trying to create a musical diversion just as the massive boat began to sink.
One line of the song says,“The iceberg’s on the starboard bow – Won’t you dance with me?”
This next meeting of the UFL owners is likely to be a dandy.
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