The United Football league released a statement to UFL insider Mike Mitchell regarding our exclusive article we wrote last night about potential location changes in the UFL. The league told Mitchell the following.
The league office is in the planning stages for next season and beyond. At this point, we have nothing to report on any unauthorized speculation.
Like Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk said, this is a classic non‑denial denial. The UFL waves off the rumor as “unauthorized” without saying it’s wrong, hinting relocation talks are active but unfinished. Fans should read it as “sit tight”—leases, sponsors, and politics are still being inked, and the league will only confirm once it can control the rollout.
It is also important to note that Cody Gougler, the Deputy Athletic Director at Boise State said the following.
Is it still a fluid situation and might not happen in 2026, which would be very bad for the league. As those cities on the chopping block would be lame ducks. Something needs to change for the future of the league, getting rid of poor performing franchises would bring new life to the league.
If spending a specific amount of money on local marketing would be the cure all, they would do it. The issue is if the juice for spring football is not those locations, move on to places that will have it to squeeze.
Birmingham head coach Skip Holtz was told that the Stallions were going no where.
Whatever the outcome, something needs to change if the league expects to survive. You can always come back to any of these locations once the league is on solid ground. Per Mike Mitchell, it is a fluid situation so stay tuned to UFL News Hub for any breaking news.
7 Comments
by Jasper
If not Boise, then San Diego! Playing pro football at Snapdragon Stadium in front of fans abandoned by the NFL just like the ones in St. Louis…
by Ken Granito
It has long been known that the UFL goes where it is wanted. They do this as this is a business first. If it goes where a market wants them, maybe they can get more favorable pricing. If you felt there was ANY doubt in this, you may want to note that Arlington was not among the teams let go. You can also see this in the Showboats replaced the Bandits after the 2022 season. The league is NOT about greatness. It is about owning a league of 8 teams, wholly to the league. They feel owning a football league shows their riches and how strong they are, but their shortsightedness shows their lacking. If any league went and moved half of their teams, that league would be judged negatively, but the UFL is not looked at as being part of Americana. There is little nostalgia. It’s simple as this. Very few care, because the UFL is corporate. It’s not the United States Football League (except for the division that is being wiped out), nor is it the National Football League where NFL owners go the suite of their teams games each week. When a NFL owner goes to a game and sees their fans behind them there is something there that UFL ownership will truly never understand. NFL owners see the empty seats as missed opportunities regarding the dollar, but the earnings are so great that they look at it a little more personally. The UFL purely looks at empty seats in a monetary way and it is in this way they are lost. They really have no idea that football is more about heart than money. It’s why the UFL management is a complete and utter mess. I have said this before. FOX looks worse, not better being part of the ownership. If they ran the league and had actual owners, where former players or members of the community owned the teams, FOX would be looked at as people that brought all this together. Right now, they appear to be clowns. There is absolutely no way around the way the look know. They look like clowns and they should be considered as such up to this moment.
To be honest, I lost love for the league and have started to wonder about building a league of team owners, where players felt cared for. The great thing about having a league of 8 teams is that there are plenty of locales where another league can grasp hold of. A league where football is the number 1 ingredient. Fans, owners, players and coaches will come for that. The owners will love to come to the games, because it’s their baby. Do you think the UFL EVER looks at the UFL or any of it’s teams as its baby. You know the answer to that as they just killed 4 of their teams, so its about the money and they don’t feel a kinship to the teams.
The UFL is a corporation. There is no player 54, which is a joke, because as I have said it time and time again, there are 66 players on a NFL team come the regular season. The owners of the UFL don’t even realize their own hypocrisy. The league is managed so poorly that they went into the last season without the pay of their players locked in. Did they win, sure. However, they really don’t get football. They are a corporation and a business, now knowing what they are I am going to talk about the moves they have made and how as a business they can thrive with the model that has been reported by both the Pro Football Newsroom and the UFL News Hub.
First, I wanted the New Jersey Generals to be team that would be signed. This team, not only had a great following previously, but also had strong coaches in its latest life and could become the strongest team in the league. I thought they would be second to the Battlehawks, but right now, based on what Anthony Becht has done in St. Louis, I think they have a strong chance to be the top especially under a coach like Mike Riley. As high as I feel about the Generals, I rated one market higher on the list for its sure fit. That team is the Columbus Bulls.
The Columbus Bulls. Provided the Florida team is not the Jacksonville Bulls, the Columbus Bulls make great sense. As I had mentioned in previous commentary Columbus is the best candidate for this league. It has a stadium whereby they would become the #1 tenant and a population ranked 15th in the country at 915,000. This would also allow a USFL trademarked team to help endear fans to the move.
Louisville Stallions. The Stallions would be moved to Louisville and move to Lynn Stadium. This will allow the Stallions to stay intact, save money on new logos. Louisville is the 27th most populated city and no professional teams. When you think of the horse racing heritage, the Stallions seem the perfect match. It even helps keep the red tradition. As stated in one of the articles I read, it would be a shame for Birmingham to lose the Stallions. The fanbase is hearty for Stallions football and I am happy to read in that latest article the Stallions are going nowhere, but what does that mean?
Florida UFL: I have heard there being talk of both Tampa Bay and Orlando. I wonder if you could throw Jacksonville in the mix. Jacksonville had a USFL team, the Bulls. That team once had 72,000+ plus attend a game between the Bulls and the Generals. Of course that was before the Jaguars came into existence. However, Jacksonville is the 11th largest populated city with over 1,000,000 citizens and no major league babeball, basketball or hockey teams. To be honest, as the Jaguars don’t regularly sell out, this could be the closest the UFL can get to a Bandits vs Buccaneers rivalry that existed in the original USFL.
Orlando; Orlando is a good place. You mentioned about there being some savings on the stadium. If that is so this is a strong candidate. I really like he Renegades in the USFL, however we know that is one of the team names we know that it can’t be. To me, this is solely determined by the stadium deal.
Tampa Bay Bandits: It would be great to see the Bandits back, however we will see how it all plays out. I think the Bandits would have to have some night games later in the season or move season to start earlier something I hope does not happen. Another and completely crazy thought. The Michigan Panthers have the best home uniforms in all of sports, maybe they can become the Florida team and become the Florida Panthers. Does that seem familiar. It should. The NHL have a strong team in the Florida Panthers.
Boise Dragons: As James Larsen’s article mentioned not liking the grey field at Eastern Michigan, I would have to think most teams would clash in Boise. To me, there is only one team that fits the bill. The Dragons color scheme would work although maybe you tweak or downplay the amount of green in the home uniforms. Another option is the Idaho Gold which would work for the Treasure Valley.
Michigan Panthers: In the article I read, there is an issue with Ford Field in Michigan. I heard the Panthers pay 500,000 per game to play at Ford Field. That does seem like steep price when you hear it upfront. However, is it really all that costly? If the Panthers average 12,500 fans, which is really all that much out of the question and each seat costs an average of $40 that will be the 500,000 the cost of the stadium. To be honest, if you make your money on the TV doesn’t it make sense that if you are able to almost make ends meet at the stadium location you should be pretty close to making ends meet. Please also compare the last UFL game played in St. Louis vs the last UFL game played in Michigan. Michigan outdrew St. Louis by over 1,000 fans. I understand that may not be the norm and it was aided by Jake Bates bobblehead, but the St. Louis game was aided by the UFL Championship game. IF you feel the Jake Bates bobble is the bigger draw than your own Championship game you really need to change your take on how you represent football before anything else, because that tells me that one player is worth more than your whole league. Michigan is on the rise. It also, will be the last bit of nostalgia among the USFL brands. You might want to think about replacing it before you do.
To me the league would have been much better as a 10 team league with:
USFL Division
New Jersey Generals
Columbus Bulls
Michigan Panthers
Louisville Stallions
Oakland Invaders/Tampa Bay Bandits
XFL Division
St. Louis Battlehawks
DC Defenders
Arlington Renegades
San Antonio Brahmas
San Diego Squadron/Boise Dragons
This would be a real strong UFL.
If things didn’t work out you would have the Florida team to fall back on. Either way I hope the league realizes what it can be. You have been financially smart in some ways, but dubious in others. Please realize that football is the most important part of your game. Really focus on football and bring in even 10% of regular football fans onboard. That would more double the amount of fans you currently have. To steal some words from the Mandolorian, “This is the way.”
by shimmy
The team Orlando Panthers did exist, in the late 60’s early 70’s in the Continental football league. I actually seen them play as a visiting team.
by Johnny the Angry Fuzzball
All I will say is that James Larsen has been wrong before, and likely will be wrong again, especially when it comes to the league’s composition. Remember when he claimed it would be 12 teams in 6 hubs in 2024 but all the USFL teams stayed?
I mean, even Larsen himself claimed it was Raleigh on the list in his previous report. Lexington? BOISE??? How gullible does this guy have to be to believe whatever sources he’s getting?
by 4th&long
Johnny
You from UFL Board?
James didn’t break the story. UFLNewshub’s Mark Perry did. Though they hear alot of the same info.
Mark said Boise first.
by Johnny the Angry Fuzzball
One and the same. Not many angry fuzzballs perusing football forums out here, LOL
by Gary Winter
Playing my form of fantasy football, I would like to see both Michigan and Birmingham stay awhile and hopefully Michigan can work things out with Ford Field or preferably another venue. Birmingham needs PR help and honestly with their recent successes, it seems like that would be fairly easy.
Move Memphis and Houston out to Columbus, OH and Oklahoma City, OK those seem like places that could develop some pretty good rivalries (Columbus/Michigan and Oklahoma City/Arlington). This would require the UFL to think beyond their noses and set these teams in the same divisions. Both Oklahoma City and Columbus should probably be in different divisions but either would be a natural rival with St. Louis. Birmingham and DC being the latest Champions could also develop into a nice rivalry and they aren’t terribly far apart. Arlington and San Antonio seems to be a gimme also.
With all of that logic(?) the divisions would look like this:
DIVISION 1 – St. Louis, Michigan, Columbus (Houston), San Antonio
DIVISION 2 – DC, Arlington, Birmingham, Oklahoma City (Memphis)
Well, the logic didn’t completely work out but it does promote some natural rivalries and has potential to create some more.
Expansion the following year (2027) might then bring us Louisville to Division 1 (It’s midway between St. Louis and Columbus) and New Jersey to Division 2 (Not a terrible drive from DC). This will bring another non-NFL city into the mix and 1 very large area when considering both TV Market and potential spectators.
In 2027, when the 9th and 10th teams enter the league, the schedule should also expand by 2 games to 12. If expansion happens again in 2028, (Say Seattle and Boise) then you have much the same with 1 more NFL city and 1 non-NFL city. This would then be a good time to expand the playoffs to 2 rounds and a final.
However, none of this works without promoting and pushing the rivalries along the way. Something that it feels like the UFL has not done well.