How did we get here? Analyzing what may have led to the eight cities being selected to join the UFL

On an episode of The Markcast discussing the UFL, host Reid Johnson remarked that no start-up league would ever choose to put their teams in the combination of cities in which the UFL began its existence last season.

Three teams in Texas? No representation in two of the largest states by population, California and New York? Only three teams in the top 10 U.S. television markets for what is ostensibly a television product? It must be confusing to non-fans or even casuals to see the coverage map occasionally shown during games and on social media that pinpoints UFL cities, leaving large swaths of the country uncovered and therefore, potentially uninterested.

I’m sure if UFL leadership could start from scratch, without restrictions, these wouldn’t be the eight cities they’d choose, either. The reality is that the UFL is a Frankenstein’s monster of spring football, combining parts from XFL 2020, XFL 2023, and the USFL.

Given the timeline of the merger of the two leagues, there was no way franchises could be relocated or added for 2024. It may be part of the reason the UFL has already announced expansion plans: To get into the markets they’d prefer to be in and ones that would increase the odds of the league’s staying power.

As the UFL approaches its second season – and the fourth consecutive season of spring football – these eight markets seem set for the foreseeable future. It might be a good time, then, to brush up on why these cities were originally selected by their respective leagues and why they survived the merger when others were not so lucky.

Arlington 

The name change says it all: Initially the Dallas Renegades in XFL 2020, the switch coincided with Arlington becoming the location of the league hub upon return to action in 2023. Dallas-Ft. Worth is considered the same media market as Arlington (the fifth-largest overall), as Arlington is in the middle of those two cities, less than a half hour from the center of Dallas. There’s the idea that referring to the team as “Arlington” instead of “Dallas,” though more accurate, has hurt the perception of the team nationally and locally, though there isn’t significant evidence to support that theory.

Though never outright stated, it seemed clear that the name change was part of the deal to have the hub in Arlington. The city has used the UFL’s template to attract other sports and entertainment entities, such as All Elite Wrestling. AEW hosted a summer series of events, running six television tapings at the Esports Stadium this summer. Their partnership culminates with a major pay-per view event next July, All In, which will be held at the home of the Renegades, Globe Life Field.

Arlington was a no-brainer to keep for the UFL once it was decided to utilize the XFL hub model instead of that of the USFL. The cache of having Bob Stoops as a head coach in the league, as well as bringing over the XFL 2023 champions, were nice perks, but they pale in comparison to the financial component and likely tax breaks the UFL got for making Arlington their home.

Birmingham

The USFL used the hub model slightly differently than the XFL: They held games in the hub instead of just training camp. In 2022, Birmingham was that hub. It was the league headquarters and all regular season games were played at Protective Stadium. Birmingham chipped in a fair amount financially to attract the USFL to make Birmingham its home. It’s likely there were other discounts on hotels and stadium rent as part of the agreement.

In 2023, Birmingham was again a hub, this time one of four. The Stallions and New Orleans Breakers both called Protective Stadium home for that season. In addition to the potential financial incentives the USFL received from Birmingham that would carry over to the UFL, it wouldn’t be a great look if the hands-down best team in spring football two years running was left out of the action. Proximity may have played a role with Birmingham being close to the hub in Arlington, saving on travel expenses.

The Stallions were the only USFL to play in its home city in both 2022 and 2023, meaning they had more of a built-in fan base that, in theory, could turn out with the UFL playing all its games in home markets. They didn’t draw exceptionally well this past season, perhaps due to oversaturation from the previous two years, but it was still more than other franchises in the league had done. And in 2024, Birmingham was the top-ranked market in the country when it came to UFL TV ratings. It’s reasonable to assume those numbers would’ve ranked highly among USFL fanbases as well during those seasons.

Like all legacy USFL clubs, the existence of the Stallions dates back to the original USFL. The team played from 1983-1985, covering all three years the USFL did business in that era. The team played at Legion Field, later the home of XFL 2001’s Birmingham Thunderbolts and the Alliance of American Football’s Birmingham Iron. The history of spring football attendance in Birmingham has been spotty at best. It’s not a large media market (46th), but does not have an NFL team and has a strong college football following that spring football teams would desperately like to tap into.

D.C.

For the XFL 2020 leadership, placing a team in Washington, D.C. was a case of right place, right time. Though an NFL market, fans of the Washington NFL team had long been disgruntled with owner Dan Snyder and the way he operated the team.

Enter the Defenders. Whether it was to thumb their nose at Snyder by supporting a new football team without all the baggage of their NFL counterpart, or because the Redskins/Football Team/Commanders had been so bad for so long, fans flocked to watch the Defenders. They drew well in their three home games in 2020 (capped by their stadium, Audi Field, which had a more limited capacity than others), and in 2023 they finished second in the league in drawing fans, stemming the kind of drop-off that many other teams experienced from 2020 to 2023.

For a league that would need to work hard to cultivate support in local markets, ditching D.C. would not have made a lot of sense, even as the use of Audi Field has significant drawbacks (likely high rent, limited dates/times due to sharing the field with the MLS’s United among those).

While keeping the teams that were best on the field may not have been a huge priority, D.C. was the class of the XFL in 2023, achieving a 9-1 regular season record before getting upset by Arlington in the championship game. Now that the Commanders are under new ownership and showing promise with rookie QB Jayden Daniels, we’ll see if support for the Defenders wanes at all.

Houston

The desire to make the UFL a “partnership of equals” between the USFL and XFL required ownership to think outside the box. Houston was the only city in which both leagues had a team, but for the USFL, it was in name only: In two years, the Gamblers never actually played in Houston. Playing two season in the original USFL, the Gamblers played a big role in pro football history by introducing the run-and-shoot offense to a wider audience.

From the perspective of presence in the market, it made sense to keep the Roughnecks branding. People in Houston likely had more of a connection with that nickname as for two years, they’d actually been able to attend games for that team. The controversy arose when decision-makers transplanted the Gamblers players and staff onto the Roughnecks. Awkward. Again, this was in the name of keeping things as a “partnership of equals.”

That meant keeping Curtis Johnson as head coach over Wade Phillips, the NFL legend who would’ve been out of a job had it not been for Hines Ward deciding to step away from the San Antonio Brahmas prior to the UFL season. These moves also may have been to satisfy the USFL Player’s Association, which could’ve been a thorn in ownership’s side had it not been a 50/50 player split, potentially slowing down the merger process.

Another potential fly in the ointment was the fact that TDECU Stadium, home of the Roughnecks, would be undergoing renovations during the season, requiring an alternate home for the team in 2024. Luckily, this was hashed out before the merger, and Rice Stadium provided an adequate one-year fill-in.

Houston was likely attractive due to it being the number six media market in the country, its proximity to the Arlington hub, and the fact that it was an XFL 2020 city, meaning there was more time for the brand to take hold in the market.

Memphis

An expansion franchise of the original USFL, in its second season, 1984, and playing for two seasons, the Showboats were resurrected in late 2022 to replace the Tampa Bay Bandits. Therefore, they played one season in legacy USFL. The key to their survival was a deal with Simmons Liberty Bank Stadium, which acted as one of four hubs for the league in 2023.

The city of Memphis was happy to have the Showboats, as they used the team’s presence to try to get state funds to upgrade their sports facilities, including the stadium in which the Showboats would play. Having an active stadium lease and a list of ticket buyers in the city, as Memphis had, seemed to be emphasized in deciding what markets remained intact for the UFL.

It certainly wasn’t the size of the market: Memphis ranks 50th in the country, the smallest market in the UFL, though it does have an NBA team. It’s also yet another city relatively close to Texas for travel purposes. Perhaps most importantly, there have long been rumors of FedEx chairman Fred Smith perhaps having interest in buying the team.

The UFL has made public its intentions to sell off franchises at some point in the future. It’s how the investors can make significant money from this project. If they believe they have someone in-market that, if things to according to plan, is willing to pay to own a team like the Showboats, that’s a pretty compelling reason to keep that team in business.

Michigan

As with all legacy USFL franchises, the Michigan Panthers team name was taken from the ’80s version of that league. They were a charter member of the original USFL, playing the 1983 and 1984 seasons before merging with the Oakland Invaders and taking on that team’s moniker for the 1985, and final, season.

Fast forward to 2022 and the relaunch of the USFL – and the Panthers. It would seem odd to include a team that was eventually absorbed into another as a founding member of the rebooted league, but options were limited if only franchises previously existing under the USFL banner were considered, which was obviously the case.

Ford Field in Detroit was used as a season two hub in 2023. For the UFL, it gives them a presence in the Midwest they’d otherwise be lacking in that region. While some fans enjoy watching games in the elements, playing outdoors in March or even April in Michigan is not exactly a recipe to draw fans. Therefore, the ability to play in a dome, cavernous as it may be at times, is a positive.

The Panthers are the only team representing an entire state rather than a specific city. Though they play in the 14th-largest media market in the country, that effect may be stunted a bit by the name that encompasses the entirety of Michigan rather than specifically Detroit.

San Antonio

The only XFL teams not originating in 2020 to make the cut, San Antonio was one of three new cities for the 2023 version of the league. Its advancement to this stage would seem to be predicated, in large part, on it being the third Texas team. As real estate brokers will often say: Location, location, location.

Beyond that, San Antonio has shown a history of supporting minor league sports. The Commanders were far-and-away the most well-attended AAF team back in 2019. Like the Brahmas, they also played at the Alamodome. While the sudden closure of the league and general distrust about the long-term viability of spring football cratered attendance for the Brahmas just four years later, the team was still able to draw the third-most fans in the league to their home games as the 31st-ranked media market by size.

Like Ford Field in Detroit, the Alamodome staunches any inclement weather that might visit Texas in the spring (as well as the suffocating heat brought on by summer’s arrival). Though it’s a big stadium, playing at the Alamodome helps give an air of legitimacy to the league given the arena’s long history of hosting major sports.

Ancillary to all these reasons, though maybe not wholly irrelevant, is the personal connection a few of the higher-ups in the UFL have with the team. Executive Vice President of Football Operations Daryl Johnston was the general manager of the Commanders in 2019, so having a franchise in that city likely holds a special place for him.

And the “Brahmas” nickname is directly tied to co-owner Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who might see it as a blow to his ego if the team named after him only lasted one season. Were these tipping points in San Antonio surviving the merger? Likely not, but they may have been at least points of discussion when weighing the options.

St. Louis

The model franchises in the spring football realm since 2020, the reason for the success in St. Louis is clear: Spurned by owner Stan Kroenke moving the Rams to Los Angeles following the 2015 NFL season, fans in the Lou were eager to show the sports world they were deserving of a major league football team.

Immediately, they came out in droves to support the Battlehawks. The Dome at America’s Center wasn’t just full of butts in seats, but many of the torsos attached to those butts were clad in Battlehawks regalia. They were all-in.

The positive reception both versions of the XFL received in St. Louis was helpful in several ways: From a public relations standpoint, even if other teams weren’t seeing attendance success, the league could stem the “failure” tag by pointing to the St. Louis market, which was sure to make news among the Pro Football Talks of the world for the sheer number of fans attending; the success then gave league leadership a template to try in other markets in terms of outreach; and of course, most importantly, the financial impact of drawing 30,000-plus paying customers to each game.

Really, the argument to keep St. Louis around could begin and end there. Every other piece of the puzzle is small potatoes in comparison to the attendance factor. It’s why the first UFL Championship game was held in St. Louis in 2024, and why the team will be getting an extra home game, when it was decided San Antonio could only hold four this coming season.

The hunger and passion shown by St. Louis fans over losing their NFL team could be something UFL brass looks at when eyeing expansion cities, potentially putting places like Oakland and San Diego on the table (depending on stadium availability in those markets). The 24th market by size, St. Louis also usually drew well when it came to TV viewership.

When Vince McMahon created the XFL in 2001, he wanted outdoor stadiums only, to match the gritty, throwback feel of the league – force teams to be tough and play in the environments decided on by Mother Nature. That doesn’t always make for quality football, though, especially in the late winter and early spring months. The Battlehawks are one of three domed teams in the UFL, insulated by the weather and providing a more offensive-friendly on-field product.

Conclusion

There very well could be other reasons not publicly disclosed that led to the decisions to include these eight teams in the UFL. Given what we know, these reasons seem to be the most likely. Some of these same reasons will help to determine future expansion locations – as well as whether some of the existing teams may need to be relocated.

So while no other new pro sports league of this size and caliber would choose to place its teams in this array of cities, this is the hand the UFL leadership has been dealt (or rather, has dealt itself). It’s their job, with their years of experience in this field, to find a way to make it work.