Johnston Blames UFL for Attendance Woes, No Market Changes In 2025

Key Points:

• The St. Louis Battlehawks are the only UFL team consistently drawing large crowds, averaging 34,362 fans per home game.
• The other seven UFL teams combined average just 9,834 fans per game, with some teams drawing less than 7,000 in recent weeks.
• UFL executive Daryl “Moose” Johnston attributes the attendance issues to the delayed XFL-USFL merger and limited time for marketing and ticket sales.

The inaugural season of the United Football League (UFL) has been met with mixed results in terms of fan support and attendance. The TV ratings have been great, local support has been the issue the league looks to improve on.

While the St. Louis Battlehawks have consistently drawn large crowds, averaging an impressive 34,362 fans per home game, the remaining seven teams have struggled to attract fans.

The D.C. Defenders and San Antonio Brahmas seem to be the tier two UFL teams. With the Defenders averaging 14,408 fans per game and the Brahmas averaging 11,887 per game.

The combined average attendance for all 7 teams is a mere 9,834 per game, with some teams, such as the Houston Roughnecks and Memphis Showboats, recently announcing crowds of less than 7,000.

Daryl “Moose” Johnston, the UFL’s Executive Vice President of Football Operations, acknowledged the league’s responsibility for the attendance issues in an interview with Action News 5 in Memphis.

“I think there’s responsibility on our side with us not getting the (XFL-USFL) merger done as quickly as we had hoped to,” Johnston told Action News 5 in Memphis. He explained that the league’s short existence, combined with the delayed merger, left little time for teams to establish their marketing and ticket sales strategies.

Johnston says going into the 2025 season there will be no changes to markets, something we have been reporting on UFL News Hub.

“I don’t see any changes in the markets. There was talk, an ongoing talk still about expansion. We’re going to have a decision on that soon. That would be the only thing that would have changed. It would be great for us, in a lot of people’s opinions, to be able to stay status quo and get our feet underneath us and have a really strong season 2.”

Moving forward, Johnston and the UFL remain committed to improving the league’s overall performance and fan engagement.

I think that that was one of the most important things for us in the USFL, was as quickly as we came together and made it through Season 1, we all knew that there were areas where we could be a lot better. I think in Season 2, we were in those areas. I would love to to see us have the opportunity to do that in the UFL going into Season Two and just be better in all those areas that we put ourselves in a tough spot just because of the timing of the merger being a little bit later than we had all hoped for.

As the UFL enters its final week of the regular season, four teams – the Battlehawks, Birmingham Stallions, San Antonio Brahmas, and Michigan Panthers – have clinched playoff berths. The UFL Championship is scheduled for June 16 at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, where the Battlehawks’ fanbase is expected to show up in force if their team makes it to the final.

Mark Perry Editor

Mark Perry, a devoted sports journalist and founder of UFL News Hub, has been a key figure in XFL, USFL and UFL coverage since 2018.

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