The new investor in the UFL, billionaire entrepreneur Mike Repole, & his plan for the future of the spring football league is in. Every team will be playing their home games in a smaller stadium except the St. Louis BattleHawks, who have been number 1 in attendance both seasons since the USFL & XFL emerged into the UFL. The 56 year old Repole is envisioning that the smaller stadiums almost at full capacity will look better on television and the league can have more sell outs at the gates. Some of the teams already were playing in smaller venues where they will stay put. The UFL announced three new cities for the 2026 season: Orlando, Columbus, and Louisville. That means three current teams from last year are on the move.

The Michigan Panthers, Memphis Showboats, and San Antonio Brahmas will relocate to one of the new cities the UFL has slated for the 2026 season. All three teams played in bigger venues. The Panthers played at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. The Brahmas played at the Alamo dome in San Antonio. Then the Showboats played their home games at Liberty Field. All three teams could not fill their stadium’s capacity. The Showboats were one of the worst teams in the league on the field and in the stands. The stunner to me is the Panthers whose attendance increased from season one to season 2. Mike Repole has not ruled out the return of the Panthers when the league expands beyond 8 teams in future years. Nothing has been said to what new city gets which team on the move.

Everyone knew Columbus would be one of the new locations in 2026. The cat was out of the bag when the talks started about the Historical Crew stadium being a perfect place for a UFL team. The team name is the Aviators because the Wright brothers, who discovered flight, were born near Dayton, Ohio. The city of Columbus’ biggest professional team is the Bluejackets who are in the NHL. People not from Columbus could make a weekend out of of seeing the football game and then hitting Canton to see the Professional Football Hall of Fame.

The Louisville Kings logo is top notch. The Kings will play at Lynn Family stadium which is home to two professional soccer teams. One in the USL and the other in the NWSL. The Louisville Bats minor league baseball team, my guess, is the most popular team to watch besides all the local college games in the state of Kentucky including University of Louisville. The Kings have the horse or mustang or stallion, you know what I mean, on their logo. When it comes to horse racing, Kentucky is the King of that sport. You know Mike Repole, who has invested in race horses, was adopting his own team in the UFL going with the state animal.

Has the city of Orlando in Florida been done to death when it comes to spring football?

The UFL could have easily brought back a USFL team from the 1980’s bringing football back to Orlando. The Orlando Renegades played one season in the USFL as the Washington Federals moved there. After the one season, the league shut down. The Renegades were horrible. Their logo may wild up people that hate anything to do with the any Native Americans being in a sports logo. Then we have the Apollos of the AAF who were a solid team in that league in 2019. The league went bankrupt before the regular season was over. Then the Guardians played in the XFL a few years ago & the league could have brought them back from the dead. The lone season they played, they only won 1 game out of ten. The Storm will play their home games at Inter & Co Stadium. Orlando’s biggest professional sport in that town is the Magic who are in the NBA.

Houston fans and everyone who loved the Roughnecks logo, we say so long. The UFL franchise is staying in Houston, but will go back to the USFL name of the Gamblers. The Roughnecks originally were an XFL team. At one time Houston had two spring football teams. In the merger of the XFL & USFL, they took 4 teams from each league. They took Houston from the USFL who then adopted the Roughnecks as their nickname while dropping the Gamblers. Now the UFL is going to flip the script and the Gamblers are back in the fold of things.

The Houston franchise will abandon their college stadium and now play their home games in an MLS stadium called Shell Energy Stadium. Mike Repole feels the Gamblers are the better sell because Jim Kelly played for Houston in the USFL in the 1980’s before going to the NFL and playing for the Buffalo Bills.

The Renegades are ditching Arlington and the baseball stadium for greener pastures. It’s back to Dallas for the Renegades. When the XFL did its first reboot from the 2001 season, the Renegades hailed from Dallas. They will move into yet another soccer stadium in Dallas called Toyota Stadium that is home to an MLS team. Arlington will still be the headquarters of the UFL. The teams will still practice there and be housed there during training camp and regular season. The league will still travel to their respective cities a few days before gametime as they have done for the last few seasons. Certain players may head to their respective city earlier than the rest of the team to help promote the league in the towns they play in.

With all the soccer stadiums in play next year in the UFL, do soccer mothers get in free? This is a lot to digest, but at the same time for the long haul of things, this may be the best plan of spring football ever. The league for next season is ditching their conferences. I was a fan of the XFL conference and the USFL conference. The playoff format will be the top 4 teams make the post-season. The three new relocation cities are using names not from either of the USFL and XFL leagues. That leaves you wondering will they resurrect old names from the two leagues past, in the future? The USFL are down to two teams from the past – the Stallions and Gamblers. The XFL still has three teams from their past: Renegades, Defenders, and BattleHawks. Mike Repole eventually wants this league to double to 16 teams at some point. If that is the case, it’s 8 more cities with 8 names. Will they have ties to the old leagues? I’ve only been to two UFL games, both in Detroit to watch the Panthers play. That is a fan base that really deserves their Panthers back. It’s the only move I do not like from Mr. Moneybags. The UFL will make some interesting history next season in spring football. The league will be operating in its third season. Which would tie the original USFL that ran for three seasons before Donald Chump ruined the entire operation with his craziness. With smaller venues and fans packed into the seats, we may see more things like the beer snake the Defenders have in DC. Something unique & something that will put this city on your sports bucket list. Overall I like the direction of things. My team I may adopt for the time being is Louisville, which is a fun town to visit. What can go wrong with drinking bourbon & swinging a bat on a race horse.