The United Football League once again is moving two of their current teams to different markets. Last year the league gave the keys to the water king, Mike Repole, who is the new business investor to conduct a new business plan. One of his big ideas was seeing all teams play in smaller venues. Instead of those huge professional or college football stadiums that look half empty on game days. With smaller stadiums, they look better on television. It also gives home teams a home field advantage with crowd noise with fans together rather than spread far apart. Right before the 2025 season, Repole moved the San Antonio Brahmas, Michigan Panthers, and Memphis Showboats to three new markets after year one of the XFL & USFL merger. Memphis and San Antonio were not drawing good numbers. Michigan played their home games at Ford Field, which is home to the Detroit Lions. The Panthers were the third highest teams in attendance. The St.Louis BattleHawks were first in attendance after the first season concluded in the UFL. Those new markets featured Louisville, Orlando, and Columbus. This season Repole is moving two more of the original USFL teams. Birmingham Stallions and Houston Gamblers will now head to the states of Colorado and Rhode Island. The names will all change. Then in 2028, Repole has plans to expand the league from 8 teams to 10 teams. The two states getting a new team will be Utah and Oklahoma.
Rhode Island is not known for any of the 4 major professional sports in the United States. Providence University’s sports is where you invest your time. Many people from Rhode Island probably lean to all of the professional sports in Boston such as the Celtics, Red Sox, Bruins, and the Patriots. They have the Red Sox Triple A team in Rhode Island. The Providence Reds played some semi-pro hockey from 1926-1977. If you take the hot tub time machine way back to the 1800’s, they had a MLB team. The Providence Grays who played in the NL from 1878-85. Let’s not forget about the Providence Steam Rollers that won a NFL championship in 1928. They played in the NFL from 1916-33. This Rhode Island team will play their home games at Centreville Bank Stadium which is host of a professional soccer team in a facility that seats 10, 500 fannies. Rhode Island is an interesting market because it really has not been tapped when it comes to major sports. The UFL in springtime is probably equal to the Red Sox Triple A team. The city of Pawtucket and the smallest state in the U.S., could get a nice fan following of spring football. This could be a savvy move by Repole because you’re not competing with an NFL team in the same city. Plus it’s another venue with a soccer stadium that will draw the amount of fans the UFL wants.
The other new venue would be in Colorado springs in yet another stadium that hosts a professional soccer team. When I looked up Weidner Field, which seats 8,000 fannies, I noticed they have a brew fest coming at the end of this month. It’s called Dead Man’s Brew Fest which sounds very intriguing. Colorado Springs is about 70 miles away from the city of Denver, which has plenty of professional sports such as the Broncos in the NFL, Nuggets (NBA), Rockies (MLB), and Avalanche in the NHL. Back in the 1980’s the USFL had the Denver Gold playing in the original spring league. Something is telling me the Gold nickname will not be used for this new franchise in Colorado Springs. Having a franchise in Colorado makes sense map-wise with two new expansion teams coming into the UFL in 2028 in states like Oklahoma and Utah. Repole wants the right market for this UFL league. Which has to be the right sized venue. Must have the passionate fan base. Not sure how he gets his information on which towns will be that passionate fan base.
If you go by the numbers, the worst attendance in the UFL last year was the Houston Gamblers who averaged 5,683 people in the stands each game. The second worst is the Dallas Renegades who averaged 6,649 fans each game. Why is Dallas not on the chopping block? The Stallions averaged 8,248 fans each game which is good for 6th in the UFL. We all know St.Louis will be the king of the UFL in attendance as they averaged 23,239 people each game. Repole’s new markets paid off as Louisville Kings were number two overall in attendance followed by Columbus and Orlando. The Stallions won three championships in a row dating back to the USFL reboot and the very first that the UFL had in their opening season. Repole has said he may bring back some of these old cities like Birmingham and Michigan if they could find a venue appropriate for the UFL standards. His plan is to add two more markets by 2030. His grand scheme is to have 16 teams by 2034.
In the first season of the UFL after the merger of the USFL and XFL, they had conferences named after the old leagues. Like the NFL did the NFC and AFC. When the AFL and the NFL emerged, they had two conferences. The XFL conference had San Antonio Brahmas, Arlington Renegades, DC Defenders and St.Louis BattleHawks. The USFL conference featured a Houston franchise with an old XFL name, the Roughnecks. They also had the Michigan Panthers, Memphis Showboats, and the Birmingham Stallions. The Roughnecks nickname was axed before the 2026 season started and they went with the old Gamblers name which is what the Houston team were called from the USFL. Now all the USFL teams are gone. Repole could have used an old USFL name for the Orlando franchise. He did not go with the Renegades, instead he named them the Storm. All three new markets entering the 2026 season changed their names to something new and not affiliated with either the XFL or USFL. Louisville and Columbus were cities never affiliated with the USFL or XFL. I like what Repole has done since taking over. The League has traction and has planted itself for years to come instead of the usual spring football leagues shutting down operations after one or two seasons. My grievance is seeing some of past that came back from the dead now perish back into the graveyard of spring football cities and nicknames that may never come back. Knowing that some old names and cities were never resurrected.
