Last August, Military.com published a scathing report regarding the U.S. Army’s partnership with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and the United Football League (UFL), which the pro wrestling and Hollywood star co-owns. The $11 million investment was intended to provide an uptick in enlistments via the placement of logos on uniforms as well as other prominent branding opportunities.
Not only did the marketing deal fail to do that, it somehow reportedly ended up harming the Army’s reputation.
“The UFL deal was so catastrophic, it led to a projected loss of 38 enlistments, an internal review of the plan shows,” wrote Military.com’s Steve Beynon. “Army planners use various metrics to judge whether time and money could be better spent in other efforts, and the effort and resources spent on the UFL were seen by the service as a net negative for recruiting.”
The report also noted that Johnson, who has hundreds of millions of followers on social media, only followed through with two of five required posts via the deal. Benyon noted that internal documents showed the Army was trying to recoup $6 million from the UFL.
It now appears that the outstanding issues have been settled.
“We have great relationships still with the Army, you know, General George and Colonel Butler and that whole team,” UFL president Russ Brandon told Front Office Sports EIC Dan Roberts recently. “I think we worked through all that and I think we’re all in a good place.”
Roberts asked whether the situation between the Army and UFL was “settled,” and Brandon answered, “Yes.”
Army marketing spokesperson Laura DeFrancisco also spoke with Front Office Sports, saying that the Army was not trying to recoup any money from the deal, though her explanation seemed to imply that some money included in the agreement was simply never paid.
“The Army was not ever trying to get money back from the UFL,” she told FOS. “This was a contract—an entity is paid for services rendered upon completion of a contract, not before.”
DeFrancisco also said that the Army and UFL came to an agreement with a fair market value for the promotion and insisted that the partnership did not have a negative impact on the service and enlistment, contrary to the Military.com report.
While the Army has no plans for a marketing or promotional deal with the UFL this season, it sounds as though there is still a positive relationship between the two sides.
“In terms of The Rock, it’s unfortunate he was pulled away at a time when we expected him to be present with us to create content for his social media channels,” a spokesperson for Gen. George, Col. Dave Butler, said to Military.com last summer. “But we’re working with the UFL to rebalance the contract. The Rock remains a good partner to the Army.”