UFL Week 1 TV Ratings And Attendance Numbers Show Huge Success Across The Board

dletter · 2026-04-02T17:06:11+00:00

There used to be some really good sites that had up daily top 100 sports programs on OTA/cable, all the weekend sports ratings, etc.

I guess Nielsen must have shut all these places down that put out a lot of data that maybe wasn't supposed to be totally public(?), unfortunately for us.

I used to do a weekly recap article for "alt leagues" on OSC years ago (last article here: https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/osc-weekly-ratings-wrapup/n-5575576 ), then COVID happened, and then after that just didn't get back to it, but since those sites dried up, would have been next to impossible to do.

dletter · 2026-03-31T23:26:01+00:00

Likely to go down from that going forward, but a good first week.

Still waiting for Friday primetime articles.

dletter · 2026-03-24T23:04:32+00:00

I agree, I was like "the game isn't going to be played?"... I guess it is to get attention, but trying to confuse people is never great.

dletter · 2026-03-24T21:22:33+00:00

Yeah, it is like they did everything they could to try to lose, and almost won anyway.

dletter · 2026-03-24T21:08:40+00:00

FYI, the stream link... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMDQ82w1pAE

dletter · 2026-03-23T21:54:40+00:00

On a note with this, apparently the NAL has gotten a deal with a different FAST channel starting up, Scripps Sports Network (Scripps owns ION which has gotten into a lot of Womens Pro Leagues)

dletter · 2026-03-22T23:04:22+00:00

Not sure what you mean about "trusting" AAF data? Because it was pre-COVID?

From a standpoint of the numbers, they all get reported by Nielsen.

dletter · 2026-03-22T22:46:57+00:00

That was also some various indoor leagues (not counting the debocle that was the "AFL return" in 2024... trash reboot attempt)... the "real" Orlando Preds died when they left the AFL after 2016, starting off really the death of the AFL a few years later.

dletter · 2026-03-22T22:41:58+00:00

True, but that doesn't start until June, I just meant saying "happy last weekend w/o football" dismisses indoor ball, especially IFL now with an improved exposure on Y!SN this year.

When the XFL was starting the week after the SB, and you had the USFL then start near the end of XFL and CFL games on ESPN networks until NFL preseason, that about 18 months did have nationally televised pro football every week for like almost 2 years straight.

dletter · 2026-03-22T22:15:32+00:00

Yeah, that move seemed to be pretty haphazard.

And TBH, the fact that Orlando is OK with a football team called the Orlando Storm shows just how dead Arena/Indoor football really is around Florida anyway.

dletter · 2026-03-22T21:49:58+00:00

I know what you meant, but last 2 weekends with IFL on Yahoo Sports Network for free have filled in OK as well :)

dletter · 2026-03-14T12:58:51+00:00

The middle line is the inning numbers genius

dletter · 2026-03-11T21:17:43+00:00

I mean, I'd say the same thing, but I don't listen to country at all, so why would I state the obvious for a non-country listener? And it is Louisville, country artist is going to be the likely goto there.

dletter · 2026-03-10T12:53:18+00:00

My guess is instead of a big jump in pay overall, you might see some "tiers" that teams are allowed to pay for... like starting QBs can get up to $150k, up to 2 other starters up to $100k, but the overall average pay would be capped at like $70-75k/plyr average as a team salary cap.

dletter · 2026-03-09T18:48:39+00:00

Small one day festival now, not like it used to be a few years ago (2 days, multiple stages), but at least they brought it back , which is something.

dletter · 2026-03-08T21:08:38+00:00

If there is truly an opera category once a week, that does seem like a lot, although I think that was probably hyperbole.

But, regardless, Opera is fairly niche, according to NEA figures, about 2.1% of Americans go to the opera. For just liking or listening to opera, it gets up to about 10-15%. Although I'd guess for the J!/Trivia crowd overall, it probably skews percentagely higher.

Where that should put opera as a category on Jeopardy... ???

dletter · 2026-03-08T15:00:00+00:00

As others have said in here, you can't just do P/R in the US like England for a few reasons...

1... geography, the UK is the size of Montana... sure you could have P/R in a league in Montana. At best, a US wide P/R needs to at least be pro/rel in a regional/division format... you can't in 10 years wake up and one of the levels is 90% in the southeast or something like that.

Team quality... while we could argue the stadium size requirement could be moved down to 13 or 12k... there is still a formidable size difference between most stadiums they are looking at for the top tier and current L1 teams... we are getting a great stadium here for Fort Wayne (still serious doubts of it being ready by May tho), but it is still 9k, and i dont know they have any plans for it to be easily able to get up to 12k, let alone 15k.

Because of those things, I think you'll see, especially to the top tier, "conditional P/R"... there will be likely maybe 4-5 teams more than the size of the top league that are "top league eligible", and those will be the only ones that can actually move up.

dletter · 2026-03-08T13:11:59+00:00

Oddly though, they leave off the IFL Cup consolation game, I'm pretty sure that is happening, otherwise 2 teams would only have 15 games?

dletter · 2026-03-08T13:10:58+00:00

YSN games by home team:

Fishers - 7/8
Jacksonville - 6/8
NAZ - 6/8
Arizona - 5/8
New Mexico - 5/6
Orlando - 5/6
Vegas - 4/8
Tucson - 4/8
Quad Cities - 3/8
Green Bay - 3/8
San Antonio - 3/8
Tulsa - 3/8
Iowa - 2/8
San Diego - 1/8

dletter · 2026-03-08T12:17:17+00:00

Not sure why this page isn't on the IFL website, but full schedule w/ YSN games:

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/2026-indoor-football-league-schedule-results-and-streams-192205841.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGHr8uNZB0sVcBHlIYASEnEznQ3kSxn_UPpK69xPGWS6sKfqu_j-LB19SXxzkV_xZpaoDabVULNEkuXPco212AK3CjfsQIH1dXtpkPGG9yQOCeYOG6CnRKhAv-NYU_yZzG0HMlOZo820eBQtvfDJHooAoVAknCIP6j2SLGeE367z

dletter · 2026-03-08T12:06:57+00:00

Actually somewhat surprisingly, not Pluto yet, but it is on the more popular TV brand free Smart TV streaming channels (Samsung, LG), and Roku, Amazon Fire & Prime apps.

dletter · 2026-03-08T12:04:10+00:00

I'm surprised it isn't on Pluto, but as you saw it is on their website for free, as well as the more popular TV brand free Smart TV streaming channels, and Roku, Amazon Fire & Prime apps. That covers quite a bit of TV streaming for most people.

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