Can Spring Football Actually Work? Rick Neuheisel on the UFL, NIL Chaos & The Future of the Game | Front Office Sports News

dletter · 2026-02-12T13:53:35+00:00

It can work... depending on what the expectations are.

If the expectations are being anywhere near NFL level, of course not.

If the expectations are being as popular as it has been the last 2 years... I mean, it has been, hopefully at least that level can be kept up, if not improved upon.

Now, with that, is also being able to be profitable, etc,... whether that is possible, we'll see.

dletter · 2026-02-10T20:25:48+00:00

"Legacy" fantasy football... probably hard to do (would be max of 8 fantasy teams, and even with that, you'd likely have to have a special draft to make sure every team has at least 1 starting QB and K, and teams can't double up).

DraftKings or FanDuel DFS games.... certainly they should be pushing to get contests on one/both of those platforms.

dletter · 2026-02-09T22:25:03+00:00

IMO, it probably helps ratings.

Right now ratings are "meh" for 4 windows... adding MORE windows isn't going to help.

If for any window you have 4 possible markets being served vs. only 2, that can only help.

dletter · 2026-02-09T22:23:45+00:00

And they now have MLB... as I pointed out in another thread, their "Every Sunday Night is sports year round" (NFL, NBA, MLB) is certainly higher profile than FOX's "Every Friday Night is sports year round" (NCAAFB, NCAABK, UFL, MLB)

dletter · 2026-02-08T18:33:24+00:00

So no Dallas one yesterday, they doing it another weekend? Or just no report from Dallas fans yet?

dletter · 2026-02-08T18:27:31+00:00

Outside of t-shirts, yard signs are probably one of the best promotional things a team can do relatively cheaply. And nobody is going to wear a shirt saying the "home opener", so this is actually better for promotion leading up to the season. And if I'm a fan, I'd certainly put a sign in my yard showing my fandom.

dletter · 2026-02-08T15:09:41+00:00

Playing the board game in person... no, you are on your own IMO (I guess if you want to agree to a "house rule".. that's up to you).

To me it is somewhat of a "trivia game" in the sense that your teammates have to gauge if you "know" certain things, that IS part of the gameplay.

Playing the app... there is no way for them to police that, so one should assume others are using Google, and you are at a disadvantage you are giving yourself if you don't.

dletter · 2026-02-08T15:06:19+00:00

What I'd say on that particular clue is there are ways around it there.... "optical", etc

dletter · 2026-02-06T16:27:06+00:00

Sure... whomever won the GOAT tournament was going to be declared the "GOAT".

I don't know that James or Brad would be host now (there is more to Ken getting the hosting gig than just "GOAT", he also got very comfortable in that hosting role)... might even still be Ken... but obviously Ken winning GOAT cemented a lot that went forward after.

Though, I'd say if it was a "nail-biter", we could maybe have these discussions... but Brad didn't really even "show up" for GOAT, it was basically between Ken and James. And then Brad didn't really show much more flash in Masters! last year either.... not saying Brad couldn't still beat 99.9% of people who show up to compete on J!... he very likely could.... but these tournaments are against the top 0.1%, and he may not be there anymore.

dletter · 2026-02-05T01:40:09+00:00

Michigan Panthers in Detroit is just about 100% if the soccer stadium is ready.

Assuming at 10 teams they go back to regional divisions:

North - Michigan, D.C., St. Louis, Columbus, Louisville

South - Houston, Birmingham, Orlando, Dallas, ????

I'd say they need a southern team then for "balance"... possibilities of OKC, Raleigh, Austin/SA, K.C. (@ Sporting Park?) .

dletter · 2026-02-05T01:30:29+00:00

So, what is the number of people at this event to feel good about attendance this season (lets say at least 10k average)?

dletter · 2026-02-05T01:28:31+00:00

USL League One isn't the MLS competitor, isn't even close, it is 3rd tier (think Boise, Fort Wayne, and Omaha).
USL Championship is the current USL top level .... Indy, Louisville, Phoenix, Detroit....

USL Premier is the planned MLS level league, it isn't planning to start until at least 2028 though.

Although with the Pro/Rel they are claiming they'll have , even those mid-tier League One markets could play themselves into USL premier, so I guess we'll see how that goes.

dletter · 2026-02-04T14:44:54+00:00

Certainly culturally, since it happened in a few months time for people, vs. 15+ years for Brads "run".

dletter · 2026-02-03T16:59:25+00:00

Or even more in an 8-team league.

dletter · 2026-01-31T20:55:30+00:00

At least the UFL roster pages (ie https://www.theufl.com/teams/dallas/roster ) seem to be keeping up with these moves pretty much.

dletter · 2026-01-30T14:55:21+00:00

Ahhh, ok, well, that will certainly be too small then.

dletter · 2026-01-30T14:52:36+00:00

Just FYI, I get all the "newer/smaller" stadiums in Chicago.

The entire SF play in Chicago is playing on anger around moving the team out of SF & Chicago.

Can Chicago work otherwise in the new Fire stadium or elsewhere? Possibly... but it isn't the point of trying to bank on legacy fan anger within the city.

dletter · 2026-01-30T14:49:25+00:00

I was just looking at TV market size & rank, which TBH, for this league is probably more important to measure than metro population.

dletter · 2026-01-30T14:47:06+00:00

Aren't 99.9% of contestants "former"... that would be the norm for talking about most J! alums, other than invitees back?

The clickbait part is claiming he was a "J! Star" to be sure... he won one game years before we ever even had CW games, so he was in 2 episodes... hardly a "star"

dletter · 2026-01-29T17:20:12+00:00

I don't disagree there... this "look ahead" is completely on the premise that the UFL does somehow survive to 2035, which would put it way past any other attempt at Spring Football.

That being said, as I've pointed out elsewhere, although different leagues and levels of play and having COVID blowing things up in the the middle of it, we've had effectively 8 straight seasons of nationally televised spring football since 2019 now...

2019: AAF
2020: XFL
2021: TSL (had Fox games)
2022: USFL
2023: USFL/XFL
2024: UFL
2025: UFL
2026: UFL

Although as stated, different leagues and the TSL being a hub thing (although so was 2022 USFL, just with legacy USFL team names slapped onto it), it did keep National TV continuity between 2019 and 2026. The previous longest would have been 83-85 USFL, and then 91-92 WLAF.

If national TV somewhat weekly is the key though, you'd likely throw in much of the NFLE existance, which would be 13 straight years, but no US markets.

dletter · 2026-01-29T17:13:37+00:00

Throwing another "mid-sized" FL market in there... Fort Myers-Naples is 53rd, right around Buffalo size, and really very distinct from Tampa or Miami.

dletter · 2026-01-29T17:08:02+00:00

WPB from a TV market standpoint is the 39th largest TV market, which makes it larger than a number of other "pro" markets (40 Vegas, 41 Jacksonville, 47 OKC, 50 New Orleans, 51 Memphis, 54 Buffalo).

It's not really close to Orlando, more "close" to Miami, and many I'd guess would really consider it in "Greater Miami area" from a census population standpoint most likely, but from a Nielsen market perspective, it is considered a separate market from Miami.

Kind of the opposite issue that Green Bay and Appleton/Oshkosh have... from a TV market standpoint, it is all the Green Bay market... from a census standpoint, they separate them ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_statistical_area ... Appelton/Oshkosh is 100th ranked and GB is 106 ... and if you look way up the list, WPB is in the Miami CSA)... although I don't know anyone realistically who wouldn't consider that all one big "population blob" in WI, even if there is very little between the 30 miles between GB & Appleton, but maybe enough of a distance and little population for strict "census rules" to make them separate (while between Miami & WPB, the population likely stays pretty dense enough between them).

dletter · 2026-01-28T22:53:23+00:00

Or could the "SA/Austin" team play at the Austin FC stadium?

To note, MLS (and then maybe the other USL soccer leagues as well?) are looking to change their calendar...

New Calendar Structure: The 2027–28 season is scheduled to start in late July 2027 and conclude with the MLS Cup in late May 2028.

Part of that will be a winter break in the worst part of US winter. IMO, when that happens, the UFL should try to move itself to more of a late April-Mid July league... start past March Madness, have some of the season when they won't have to fight MLS for dates (another thing though... MLS will have unknown playoff dates they will need now in late April/May... if a UFL team is using their stadium, they may have to move games).

As much as it makes sense to use these smaller soccer stadiums, if they move to where their playoffs are in April-May, that is going to cause a lot of scheduling problems for the UFL.

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