UFL Success: Expand the footprint of your league

[EasternOHBillsFan]

The UFL to me is really failing because their teams are limited in regional scope (3 in Texas alone!) with no teams in the southwest, northwest, or northeast. 

 

How do they expect to survive when they are leaving out huge parts of the nation? Sure it is football, but there is not one single team I could ever remotely care about following and so I guess the UFL will fold like all of the other past offseason pro leagues. It's truly a shame.

[Gregg]

While football is the #1 most popular sport in America and its not even close, I still don't see any football league working out that isn't the NFL and college. Once the Super Bowl is over sports fans go with the NBA, NHL regular seasons and especially the playoffs. You also have March Madness and baseball starts in the spring. These spring football leagues have tried going back to the USFL in the 80's and they all eventually fail. Why should this be any different.

[PromoTheRobot]

39 minutes ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

The UFL to me is really failing because their teams are limited in regional scope (3 in Texas alone!) with no teams in the southwest, northwest, or northeast. 

 

How do they expect to survive when they are leaving out huge parts of the nation? Sure it is football, but there is not one single team I could ever remotely care about following and so I guess the UFL will fold like all of the other past offseason pro leagues. It's truly a shame.

 

They can barely afford operating 8 teams. Also these 8 cities were the more successful ones from the old XFL and USFL. Just so you know, all 8 teams are based on Arlington TX. They fly out to whatever cities to play games. They won't expand until the current league gets some traction in ratings and gate. 

 

Here are the daily sports ratings. 

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/category/ratings/

 

 

Edited May 8 by PromoTheRobot

[Warcodered]

The UFL needs to find a way to survive off sponsorship of it's usefulness to the NFL. The League is obviously going to just see if it can struggle to survive because they hate spending money if they don't have to, but it does have a serious plus side for them for it to exist.

[SirAndrew]

I wanted to like this league, but quality of play is always going to be an issue outside of the NFL. Modern football is all about the passing game, and there aren’t even enough NFL QB’s to make every NFL game watchable. It only becomes worse when you create more leagues. College football has the luxury of future NFL stars being on the field. Spring leagues are essentially battles between NFL third stringers. That’s very difficult to get excited about. 

[EasternOHBillsFan]

10 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

They can barely afford operating 8 teams. Also these 8 cities were the more successful ones from the old XFL and USFL. Just so you know, all 8 teams are based on Arlington TX. They fly out to whatever cities to play games. They won't expand until the current league gets some traction in ratings and gate. 

 

Here are the daily sports ratings. 

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/category/ratings/

 

 

 

We have watched a few games and they are entertaining, but I'm not rooting for any of those teams as there is zero connection. A true shame they couldn't add one team I could care about.

[PromoTheRobot]

12 hours ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

 

We have watched a few games and they are entertaining, but I'm not rooting for any of those teams as there is zero connection. A true shame they couldn't add one team I could care about.

 

You're in Ohio. I think their "Super Bowl" is played in Canton.

 

How do you think the UFL would do in Buffalo? Cheap tickets and a chance to tailgate more?

[Gregg]

2 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

You're in Ohio. I think their "Super Bowl" is played in Canton.

 

How do you think the UFL would do in Buffalo? Cheap tickets and a chance to tailgate more?

 

It might do better than other markets since Buffalo is a football mad city, but the quality of play is generally poor. Going from watching Josh Allen to some no name scrub throwing a football isn't going to get the WNY faithful all that excited. 

[LeviF]

42 minutes ago, Gregg said:

 

It might do better than other markets since Buffalo is a football mad city, but the quality of play is generally poor. Going from watching Josh Allen to some no name scrub throwing a football isn't going to get the WNY faithful all that excited. 

 

And if you don't believe him, just ask UB.

[EasternOHBillsFan]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

You're in Ohio. I think their "Super Bowl" is played in Canton.

 

How do you think the UFL would do in Buffalo? Cheap tickets and a chance to tailgate more?

 

It doesn't have to be in Buffalo, but it could be somewhat successful if done right... I mean The Rock would be a pretty big draw in WNY hyping up the team. I don't think it would be successful if we remember the Destroyers and how that went. I think it would have to be a pretty big market to work- I don't know how big the Birmingham market is, but that's a head scratcher beyond the legacy choice from the USFL.

Edited May 9 by EasternOHBillsFan

[thenorthremembers]

Until the NFL uses a league as a feeder program it's never going to work.   When the XFL launched back up a few years ago the idea was to provide college aged kids with an alternative to college football.  They were going to recruit players who were academically ineligible or were JUCO stars similar to Overtime Elite for the NBA.  I thought that was a great idea.   Sadly, it never turned out.  They just did the same thing every Spring League does and rostered NFL dropouts and college players who were just below NFL level talent.  

 

A spring league will work when they develop 32 teams with coaching staffs who can teach the NFL teams program at farm team level.   It would be mutually beneficial to both leagues.   Until I have a vested interest like having current Buffalo Bills players on a team where I can track their development I am not going to bother watching a team from a different city, who plays poor football, I wont feel the need to watch a minute of the league. 

Edited May 9 by thenorthremembers

[PromoTheRobot]

59 minutes ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

 

It doesn't have to be in Buffalo, but it could be somewhat successful if done right... I mean The Rock would be a pretty big draw in WNY hyping up the team. I don't think it would be successful if we remember the Destroyers and how that went. I think it would have to be a pretty big market to work- I don't know how big the Birmingham market is, but that's a head scratcher beyond the legacy choice from the USFL.

 

Birmingham is a slightly larger metro than Buffalo, believe it or not. (#47 vs #50) And they were pretty successful in the USFL. I don't know why their attendance is so far off this year. They are undefeated. 🤷‍♂️

 

As for the Destroyers they were the worst Arena team ever. Hard to support a team that won one game in two years. (Plus Arena football is just stupid.)

2 minutes ago, thenorthremembers said:

Until the NFL uses a league as a feeder program it's never going to work.   When the XFL launched back up a few years ago the idea was to provide college aged kids with an alternative to college football.  They were going to recruit players who were academically ineligible or were JUCO stars similar to Overtime Elite for the NBA.  I thought that was a great idea.   Sadly, it never turned out.  They just did the same thing every Spring League does and rostered NFL dropouts and college players who were just below NFL level talent.  

 

A spring league will work when they develop 32 teams with coaching staffs who can teach the NFL teams program at farm team level.   It would be mutually beneficial to both leagues.   Until I have a vested interest like having current Buffalo Bills players on a team where I can track their development I am not going to bother watching a team from a different city, who plays poor football, I wont feel the need to watch a minute of the league. 

 

It's a good idea but the NFL doesn't want the potential liability from CTE suits from another league.