Spring football is, well, spring footballing.
The UFL, in its second year following a merger between the XFL and USFL, took a pretty substantial ratings hit for the regular season. In its sophomore year, the league averaged 645,000 viewers per telecast across the Fox and ESPN-affiliated networks on which it aired, down 20% from an average of 812,000 viewers last season, per Sports Business Journal.
UFL never really found its footing in Year 2, as it started its season against established viewership draws like March Madness and the Masters. Only five of the league’s 40 contests averaged an audience of more than 900,000 viewers. Its most-watched game, 1.35 million for the D.C. Defenders and Houston Roughnecks, came courtesy of a strong Indianapolis 500 lead-in on Fox.
Speaking of Fox, UFL became a key player in its new Friday night strategy this season. Since Fox lost WWE’s SmackDown franchise last year, the network has often used football to fill its primetime lineup on Fridays. During the traditional football season, that window is filled with college games. In the springtime, Fox decided to place UFL games into the time slot. The strategy hasn’t panned out so far.
Per SBJ, Fox averaged just 608,000 viewers across 10 primetime Friday UFL windows, “well below the WWE numbers Fox had on those windows in past years.”
Not a single Friday night game cracked 700,000 viewers.
There is a silver lining for UFL, however. When compared to other upstart leagues, UFL has the strongest viewership. The league’s Year 2 average beat out Unrivaled’s debut season by quite a bit (186,000 viewers on average), and also beat TGL’s first season (513,000 viewers). Now, UFL benefited from several broadcast network windows that those leagues did not have, but it still shows there is some baseline audience for spring football.
As with any upstart league, sustainability becomes the primary question.