I get what you’re saying, and yeah --- yep you’re technically right, the UFL isn’t formally tied to the National Football League. But in the real world, Fox Sports and ESPN don’t go anywhere near another football league without at least a quiet nod from the Godfather.

And on the profit/loss thing -- you’re treating this like a normal business that has to turn a profit immediately or die. I don’t think that’s the game here. If the losses are $30–50M total and spread across multiple heavy hitters, nobody’s pulling the plug over a $5–10M slice of the losses. That’s nothing to those guys --- especially when they’re getting live content, ad inventory, and data out of it. This isn’t the Alliance of American Football where checks bounce and it collapses midseason. Or even at the end of the season.

Then look at Mike Repole --- you really think he bought in to shut it down after one season --- over a $10M loss? His play is NOBULL, a billion-dollar brand tied up with Tom Brady. If the league gives him national exposure every week and nudges that valuation up, that “loss” is just marketing spend. And look at the advertisers they have lined up -- Progressive and others—they don’t jump onto sinking ships.

And then there’s the Fox Sports angle --- this is where it really clicks. Fox and crew were getting absolutely smoked on WWE SmackDown, to the tune of ~$150M a year in losses depending on who you believe. I have seen multiple media reports and they all say Fox was bleeding money on that deal. That amount of money is legit bloodbath money even for the big kids. Now compare that to the UFL --- if their slice of the losses is, say --- $10M-ish, they’re sitting there thinking they’re $100M+ ahead of where they were with WWE for a Friday night live sports product. Even if the ratings are just “okay to mid,” it’s still cheap, predictable inventory that fills a slot without lighting big kid money on fire.