CA: Memphis Showboats lose in sparsely attended home opener

[4th&long]

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/ ... 149803007/

>>  Memphis Showboats lose in sparsely attended home opener, UFL concedes it's concernedDaryl Johnston, the executive vice president of football operations for the United Football League, cuts right to the chase on Saturday morning.

 "They're low," he said, talking about the attendance numbers and motioning toward the handful of Showboats fans in their seats about 20 minutes before Saturday's game against the San Antonio Brahmas. "We can all take a look over there. It's not what we want it to be. We had a schedule that came out late. We had TV slots that were not preferred TV slots every weekend. We had to do the best we could with a really, really late structure created in the process. And we'll be better next year. We're already working on 2025 right now.

"The Showboats are one of eight teams in the newly formed UFL, the result of the merger between the XFL and USFL. In terms of attendance numbers, Memphis is up against it on a few levels — unlike last year, when the team lived and practiced in Memphis, the Showboats are based in Arlington, Texas and fly to Memphis only for games.

 That's made it difficult to drive more fan interest, even as this iteration of the Showboats is the first spring football team in Memphis that's lasted more than a season since the original USFL Showboats in the 1980s.<<

There's more.  Read the full article.  They never mention mkt size, but clearly that's a component.
 

[MGB01]

Face it, Memphis is a lousy football market. Even the year they had the Oilers they averaged less than 30,000 (which was lifted up by playing the Steelers in the season finale or it would have an absolutely dreadful 25K). If Moose hadn't missed most of that season with a neck injury--and thus played in the Thanksgiving Day game against them where they were walking around Texas Stadium in awe they were playing in front of an actual crowd--he would have totally reconsidered just off memory alone.

If you don't have the book Endzones and Border Wars, get it and read the Mad Dogs chapter, then ask yourself again if this is a good idea.

 

[nick1091]

There's more.  Read the full article.  They never mention mkt size, but clearly that's a component.


 

 

 

There’s like 1.4 million people in the Memphis metro area.  That should be plenty to draw from to get more of a turnout than they did.

[laxtreme56]

I like the fact that Moose isn't pulling any punches and expressed his disappointment in Memphis. If Fred Smith really wants to own the team then they should let him step in, because the Showboats are invisible in the market. I will say, the hub in Arlington may prove troublesome in the long-term. If you're trying to get a presence in the community, you can't just be there for 24 hours a week with no off-season presence 

[GregParks]

I like the fact that Moose isn't pulling any punches and expressed his disappointment in Memphis. If Fred Smith really wants to own the team then they should let him step in, because the Showboats are invisible in the market. I will say, the hub in Arlington may prove troublesome in the long-term. If you're trying to get a presence in the community, you can't just be there for 24 hours a week with no off-season presence 

After the season will be the first time the UFL has a "real" off-season. Will be interesting to see just how much of a presence they keep in those local markets. Hard to get a read at least from the XFL side based on last year since they went into merger talks pretty quickly after the season ended. That may have put some plans on hold for a stronger in-market off-season presence.

[XFL4ever]

These USFL teams do not play in hubs anymore. It’s time for them to figure out how to market themselves, or this league will be in big trouble.

[Coffeeeyes]

You have to imagine with active interest from an investor who has play money to spend on an asset like a spring football league, the UFL severely wants Memphis to exceed expectations. 1-1 is a new start record wise, but attendance needs to be upped.

I don’t know how you do that, but when I lived in San Antonio during the AAF season, they had billboards everywhere, ads on TV constantly, buses that would transport fans to the Alamodome for free. The city was in on it and that same Commanders team peaked at a 30k attended game. The teams from what I know lived in market and were present, as well as the league actively making an attempt to create inroads with the city. Maybe the UFL needs to observe what worked for XFL 2.0 and the AAF?

[FootballFan]

These USFL teams do not play in hubs anymore. It’s time for them to figure out how to market themselves, or this league will be in big trouble.

This is on the UFL. Last year the USFL hired a marking crew for the Showboats and they filled the bowl almost halfway for the home opener.

https://uflboard.com/xfl-board/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4259

Are they using the same marking crew? Probably not, judging by today's poor attendance.

[MGB01]

These USFL teams do not play in hubs anymore. It’s time for them to figure out how to market themselves, or this league will be in big trouble.

This is on the UFL. Last year the USFL hired a marking crew for the Showboats and they filled the bowl almost halfway for the home opener.

For the home opener, what about the other four games--minus the five Gambler hub games?

And no, since a lot of the USFL side is almost insulted to be in the merged league (looking at you Scooby Wright, Jace Sternberger, DeFilippo), you don't get to pick and choose when they're "all in"--especially when STL clearly doesn't have any problems.

This is going to end terribly if some people don't "get it"--starting with the guy complaining about a late start when they essentially kept the USFL timeline just bumped up a couple weeks.

[FootballFan]

These USFL teams do not play in hubs anymore. It’s time for them to figure out how to market themselves, or this league will be in big trouble.

This is on the UFL. Last year the USFL hired a marking crew for the Showboats and they filled the bowl almost halfway for the home opener.

For the home opener, what about the other four games--minus the five Gambler hub games?

And no, since a lot of the USFL side is almost insulted to be in the merged league (looking at you Scooby Wright, Jace Sternberger, DeFillippo), you don't get to pick and choose when they're "all in"--especially when STL clearly doesn't have any problems.

This is going to end terribly if some people don't "get it"--starting with the guy complaining about a late start when they essentially kept the USFL timeline just bumped up a couple weeks.

Of course this is going to end terribly. Fox isn't breaking even like they were when they were in the hub system, they're going to lose a lot of money this season and I won't be surprised if they pull the plug on this thing. And when the dust settles, we are going to have a bunch of XFL fans and USFL fans blaming each other for the latest spring football failure.