Professional Spring Football has never seemed to be able to stick longterm. The USFL and XFL both have been around and gone away for decades, but it seems like the current UFL may be different. With its unique rules, inside coverage, and TV network support, the UFL feels like it could potentially become the secondary watching option every weekend during the spring while other sports have their big events (Kentucky Derby, PGA Master’s etc..).
UFL Ratings Near 1 Million Average Viewership
The UFL is in the middle of their season. For most sports, this is when the viewership can tell you the most about the health and strength of a sport. Promotions and hype can get people to tune in for the first few games of the season, and the postseason is also an easy time to get even casual fans to turn on their tv’s. But the middle of the season is tough for every sport. Good luck getting a casual baseball fan to tune into game 93 of the season when a bigger sporting event is on.
Even the NFL sometimes struggles to get great viewership from their smaller market teams in the middle of the season.
For the UFL, they are actually holding up quite well. This past weekend, games averaged 983,500 viewers. When compared to last year’s USFL, that is up 81% and from the XFL it is up 56%. There isn’t a sport or industry that wouldn’t salivate over those kind of numbers.
Interest in the League is Growing
When the UFL kicked off in late March, the average viewership was at 1,048,000 viewers across the four games. It’s safe to assume that a very high majority of fans tuned in for this first game. Compared to the 983,500 that tuned in for week six, that means that either 98% of the week one fans are sticking around, or the brand is growing despite many of the week one viewers not watching during week six.
Obviously the answer is that there are more new viewers than there were before.
Even more impressive, the UFL was able to pull in those kind of numbers while having to compete with the NBA Finals, the Kentucky Derby, NASCAR, and the NHL Playoffs. In other words, there were plenty of options this weekend, and the UFL still performed very well.
What Does the UFL Need to do Next?
The UFL is doing very well, but the league will need to continue to grow if they hope to truly stick around for years and decades to come. There are three things that the UFL can do to continue to have success, and to this point were the reasons the USFL and XFL were successful enough to combine and create a new league.
- Put players in the NFL/Pull Players: The UFL can become a very attractive brand if they are able to put a handful of players into the NFL every year. Additionally, if former NFL players finish out their career in the UFL that could also draw high ratings. The issue will of course be finding players willing to take the pay that the UFL offers (about $50,000 salary).
- Keep the Game Unique From the NFL: One of the big marketing tools that the XFL used last year was that unlike the NFL there is actual hard hitting and much less penalties. Some of that has been tamed this year in the UFL, but at least defenders can sack a quarterback. Additionally, there a different rules of the game including going for 1, 2, or 3 after a touchdown, no onside kicks (4th and 12 option), and a longer kickoff. All of these things help fans to see something different than the NFL and it has been successful.
- Social Media: The final way that the UFL can continue to grow is to be ahead of the game in social media and on-the-field access. The UFL already has 390,000 followers on X, which is significantly better than what the XFL or USFL were able to do. If the UFL can get to 500K before the start of next year, they will be well on their way to being a household known account.
