Last week, the UFL announced that the league intends to add two expansion franchises for the 2026 season, and another two in 2027. This would bring the league to a total of twelve teams divided into two six-team conferences once finalized.
Only eight of the total sixteen teams were retained when the United Football League was formed following the merger of the XFL and USFL.
Three USFL teams and five XFL franchises made up the new UFL. This imbalance was due to each league possessing a franchise in Houston and elected to keep the more popular and well-established Roughnecks of the XFL.
Are Any Former XFL Or USFL Cities In The Mix?
Following the merger in late 2023, the league opted not to keep existing franchises in Memphis, New York, Orlando, Tampa, Seattle, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New Jersey.
The Seattle Sea Dragons were an XFL franchise in 2020 and 2023 and had the most ticket sales outside of the St. Louis Battlehawks. Seattle seems like the easiest market for the UFL to slide back into, and it will satisfy a large number of fans hungry for spring football to return to Washington State.
The USFL cities of New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Philadephia may be worth another go since local fans didn’t have much of a chance to adopt their teams. The USFL’s regional stadium policy was not fan-friendly and didn’t adhere to building strong attachments to the communities they represented.
The UFL features home stadiums in local markets, so Pennsylvania and Louisiana may lie on fertile ground.
New Cities The UFL Should Explore
There are already three franchises present in the state of Texas, but there are highly populated regions that could prove fruitful. Austin, Texas is a college football hotbed, and has a football stadium that can be used during the spring months.
El Paso is also a possibility, as that region of the country is almost 500 miles away from the nearest pro football team.
Ohio is the birthplace of professional football and houses the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton. There are NFL teams in Cincinnati and Cleveland, but the most populated city, Columbus, might be a decent landing spot for a UFL franchise.
Like Austin, there is a massive college football stadium in Columbus that goes unused during the spring.
The Chargers of the NFL departed San Diego and now reside in LA. San Diego Stadium was demolished when the Chargers left, and Snapdragon Stadium was constructed in 2022 for MLS games.
SD has a venue and a grouping of ticked-off fans that could provide an avenue for success in SoCal.
Sources – Sports Illustrated, Fox News