Why the UFL Is Facing a Decline in Fan Interest in 2025

In Late 2023, the XFL and USFL were merged to form a new professional spring football league known as the UFL. The United Football League had a successful first-year campaign in 2024, drawing millions of fans.

Organizers were hoping to build on this success and expand attendance for the sophomore season. Unfortunately, the ongoing 2025 season has been disappointing compared to the previous year.

Physical attendance, as well as TV viewership, have declined significantly, raising concerns about the future of the new league. In this article, we will explore some of the reasons why the UFL is currently facing a decline in fan interest, as well as the efforts being made to correct this issue.

(Photo: The Dome/Facebook)

Data Showing Decline of Game Attendance and Viewing Numbers

According to the Sports Business Journal, the UFL’s overall attendance has declined by up to 5% in 2025. Up to seven out of the eight home markets for this league have witnessed a drop in average attendance.

The only exception is the Michigan Panthers, which has had a 30.4% increase in attendance compared to the previous year. But Michigan is only an outlier. In fact, in four markets (Arlington, Birmingham, Memphis and Houston), the average attendance per game was fewer than 10,000 fans.

TV Viewership

The league has experienced a decline in TV viewership as well, starting right from the opening night. The list below shows how TV viewership has declined for the UFL compared to the previous year.

• The opening night in 2024 had up to 1.81 million viewers watching on Fox.
• The opening night in 2025 had just 690,000 viewers on the same channel. That’s a massive 62% drop.
• Subsequent games had a range of about 584,000–395,000 viewers. That’s far below the 1.349 million–703,000 range that was recorded the previous year.
• The average viewership across all games played so far in 2025 is about 645,000, compared to 812,000 last year.
• In 2024, six games crossed the 1 million viewers mark. This year, no game has crossed this threshold.

The table below shows average UFL viewership figures for 2025 across different TV channels:

Channel	Average number of viewers
ABC	802,000
FOX	639,000
ESPN	489,000
FS1	519,000

Factors Behind the Decline in Fan Interest

The Spring League is still in its infancy. But when you compare current stats with data from last year or even the individual data for the leagues that were merged to form the UFL in 2024, it’s easy to see that there’s a decline in fan interest. This can be attributed to multiple factors. Some of the likely reasons include:

Scheduling Issues

In 2024, the league opener aired on a Saturday afternoon on Fox. The slot allowed the league to capitalize on the post-NFL withdrawal. In 2025, the organizers decided to air the opener on a Friday. This meant it had to compete with family entertainment and high school sports, and as the data shows, it didn’t fare well.

The 2025 opener also happened to clash with other events on the sports calendar. The league opened on the same day as the NCAA basketball March Madness. It also coincided with the MLB’s opening week. This scheduling clash fragmented sports audiences, causing a decline in viewership for the less-established UFL.

Marketing and Branding Issues

When viewership drops for any event, the bulk of the blame often falls on marketing. This is particularly true for a league that’s just starting to gain recognition like the UFL. The league failed to generate sufficient buzz with fans because organizers didn’t promote its star players or push interesting narratives enough.

For instance, when the XFL was being rebooted in 2020, organizers used aggressive social media campaigns and player mic-ups to promote the league and its players. The UFL followed a quieter approach, which may have limited its visibility. According to UFL’s president Russ Brandon, the 2024 merger, which was concluded just two months ahead of the start of the new season, prevented the UFL from focusing its resources on marketing.

For the first season, the focus was on getting things up and running operationally. The UFL did try to fix its marketing challenges in 2025. It spent some resources on advertising in each of its home markets, while also trying to create some connectivity between them. But the results suggest that more needs to be done on this front.

(Photo: Freepik)

Quality and Perception Issues

Another reason why fans appear to be losing interest in the UFL is due to their overall perception of the league’s quality. Critics have blamed the NFL’s viewership woes on inconsistent gameplay and lower-tier talent (compared to more established leagues like the NFL). This has caused interest to drop, especially for casual fans.

Many fans also consider the UFL to be a minor league. It doesn’t have unique rules that set it apart, and is yet to win major NFL partnerships. This stigma, as well as the UFL’s failure to truly differentiate itself hurts viewership.

What Can Be Done to Revive Viewership?

When site visits and engagement drop in online casinos, promotions such as a reload bonus are used to get the attention of punters. In the same way, organizers can employ different strategies to address the viewership drop in the UFL by offering fans a reason to watch. While they can’t literally offer free offers or bonuses, there are other tricks that might be helpful. Some of these strategies are highlighted below:

Getting Serious About Marketing Especially on Digital Platforms

UFL organizers can raise viewership by getting more aggressive with marketing and advertising. They can partner with digital platforms like Tiktok or Twitch to appeal to a younger audience. These platforms can be used to stream games and highlight the personalities of individual players. They can also borrow marketing strategies from the XFL, such as mic’d-up players and coaches. These tricks will help humanize the league and raise its profile.

Optimize Scheduling

Since scheduling is one of the main reasons behind the viewership decline, fixing it will go a long way in winning back some fans. Organizers can schedule matches to coincide with post-Super Bowl weekends in February. This will help avoid overlaps with March Madness and MLB schedules. Also, to minimize competition with other TV entertainment on the weekends, they can experiment with weekday games and see how fans respond.

Leverage Partnerships

The UFL can raise its status by pursuing a formal partnership with the NFL. Some of the ways this can be done include:

• Negotiating player loans
• Practice squad integrations
• Showcasing some of its players that are potential NFL prospects

These strategies will not only attract scouts and draft enthusiasts, it may also get the attention of fans and get them more interested in what the UFL has to offer.

Focus on Local Marketing

To raise stadium attendance, the UFL needs to invest more in community outreach and local marketing events. This helps build grassroots loyalty and boosts the popularity of the league with local fans. Teams can also offer discounted tickets, family packages and other perks to attract fans.

Conclusion

Despite the decline in fan interest, the UFL is still doing better compared to other leagues like the MLS, rugby, and women’s soccer. The numbers are down right now but the prognosis isn’t entirely bad. By fixing scheduling and marketing issues, while also securing strategic partnerships, the UFL can differentiate itself, win back some old fans and get more people interested in its spring football showcase.