I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty hung over from the long NFL season.
I'd much rather watch the UFL than all the nonsense going on with the NFL right now with free agency, contract negotiations, let alone the painfully slow draft. In fact, having watched the last two years, I'd often rather watch the now UFL than even the NFL. Yes, I'm being honest, and I'm not the only one. Having said that, I'm well aware the NFL draft ratings will dwarf even the biggest UFL game.
You may not know many players, but just like in the NFL every year, fans start to learn names of players and their styles and personalities as they watch games. Will that happen with the UFL? With dedicated fans, yes. With casual fans? I agree there that they may not perceive such a thing in the same way as they do the NFL.
Ideally I think the UFL needs to start the week after the Super Bowl. That's when the XFL started last season, and I think future seasons will start (presuming they get there), but the merger took longer than expected.
If you look at the NBA G league - which is basically the NBA minor-league farm system that is financially supported by the NBA franchises...
There are issues with this. For one, the NFL doesn't own the UFL. The NFL doesn't seem to want to own it. It already has it's feeder system (for now) - the NCAA. So there's little partnership. I'm not sure the UFL wants to be owned or managed by the NFL, a league with mostly short tempered, impatient owners of teams.
As to ratings, I think it needs to be not compared to the NFL, at all, or NCAA, at all, none, zero. But instead compared to what it's costs are, and compared to other sports and their ratings and support. Put another way, ratings in the XFL and USFL the last few years were similar to MLS, the USTA, Indycar, and some NHL, MLB and even a few NBA games. Not just mid-week games, but even a couple playoff games the ratings were not far off. The crowds in some XFL games were about that of an average MLB mid-week game between two non-contending teams (say, the Pirates at the Padres), but UFL players make much less money, and charge much less for ticket prices. Sustaining this with consistency however will be key, as the UFL only has a 10 week season, and two weeks of playoffs. There's not a lot of wiggle room to have a weak month.
I also think the NCAA is going to turn into a jumbled house of cards, mostly football and basketball. The sports and games will find a way to still exist, but in a myriad of semi-professional games, leagues, conferences, between lawsuits, union negotiations, protests, legal hearings, and investigations. The lid has come off the bottle, and the genie of money and greed is now out. Not just players, NIL, and of course coaches, staff, chancellors and trustees, but predators who see this as a golden goose and are ready with their knives ready to take advantage of it all.
While I agree the marketing is going to have to be way better than the XFL did, and the USFL did what I'd call a so-so job in 2023. But I call total BS on this being "the last hope" for another football league. That's just negative naysaying from a presumptive, negative perspective of pessimism. It might be if it fails the last...for a few years, until someone else with some deep pockets comes along and tries again, maybe in early winter. Also, the USFL actually made money in 2022, about $16m, and an undisclosed slight profit in 2023. The XFL lost a chunk in 2023, but it was their stated intention all along to have 2023 to be a loss leader of sorts. They were still planning on a 2024 season when the merger just made more sense for both leagues. But the XFL paid players, coaches, and others better than the USFL, especially bonuses. The UFL has tightened that belt quite a bit. The mean earnings will be about what the USFL was, but they greatly curbed a lot of the bonuses both the USFL and XFL had. The UFL is well aware there cannot be just a bunch of hype, and the league must be financially viable, and are running a tight ship. Will it work? I guess we'll find out!
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram