We are now less than 30 days out from most UFL teams' home openers. One of new co-owner Mike Repole's main objectives was to get more fans in the stands for gameday. Here is how that is tracking for each team's first home games of the season.
The estimated capacity is based on my painstaking counting of available sections via the Ticketmaster seat map. My eyeballs are still recovering from that endeavor. I use the term "estimated tickets distributed" because there's no way of knowing how many have been sold versus comps or giveaways. I've included a screenshot of the seating charts from the Ticketmaster website (as of Monday 3/2).
(UPDATE 3/3: I was alerted by folks on social media that the season ticket page indicated tickets held back for season ticket sales. Those seats appeared sold on the individual game page of Ticketmaster. I went back and re-ran the numbers for estimated tickets distributed. Those updated numbers are now reflected in this column.)
Home: Protective Stadium
First Home Game: Saturday, April 18 (week four)
Actual Capacity: 47,100
Estimated Capacity for UFL: 14,357
Estimated Tickets Distributed (as of 3/2): 7,345
Birmingham has the latest first home game of any UFL team this year. Protective Stadium has only opened up to about one-third of actual capacity for Stallions games. You can bet the hard camera will be facing that side of the stadium for TV. If Birmingham can hit five figures consistently, they should be in good shape. The dark blue, representing more tickets available in those areas, are a little misleading because there are so many seats in those sections. So while many behind the Stallions bench feature 100+ tickets left, that's out of between 700-900 seats. Their first home game isn't until week four, giving them extra time to sell.
Home: Historic Crew Stadium
First Home Game: Friday, April 3 (week two)
Actual Capacity: About 20,000
Estimated Capacity for UFL: 12,986
Estimated Tickets Distributed (as of 3/2): 10,392
When you dig deeper into the numbers on Ticketmaster, almost half of the remaining tickets are of the resale variety, meaning they've already been purchased and there's heavy interest in buying up tickets to put on the secondary market. That's a good indicator of demand (or expected demand), not surprising for the franchise's first home game. If Columbus ended up opening more seats for this or future games, it would be interesting to see if they'd start with the 200 sections or those 100 sections behind the end zone.
Dallas Renegades
Home: Toyota Stadium
First Home Game: Saturday, March 28 (week one)
Actual Capacity: 23,900 (less with current renovation ongoing)
Estimated Capacity for UFL: 8,465
Estimated Tickets Distributed (as of 3/2): 5,543
Dallas has just two sections that have more than 100 single game tickets available, and one of them may include resale tickets that get them over that number. The limited number of seats made available shows the new initiative under co-owner Mike Repole to make seating more intimate and a better experience for both the live fan and the television viewer. It's also an indication of ongoing renovation that will limit how much of the Stadium will be open (and will likely be the case for the next few years - it's expected to finish in 2028). Like most stadiums in the UFL, Toyota Stadium has standing room only sections (112 and 113) which could increase capacity and the ticket distributed number that wouldn't show up on the Ticketmaster seat map.
D.C. Defenders
Home: Audi Field
First Home Game: Saturday, April 11 (week three)
Actual Capacity: 20,000
Estimated Capacity for UFL: 14,482
Estimated Tickets Distributed (as of 3/2): 7,662
The map looks disappointing at first with plenty of sections featuring 100+ tickets remaining. However, this is another game where a lot of tickets are available for resale. Some of those resellers may end up taking a bath because there are still plenty of good seats remaining at regular price. The attendance figures listed above don't figure in suites, of which Audi Field has several, nor does it count standing room only sections. Nevertheless, for a team with a history of strong attendance and coming off a league championship, you'd like to see even more tickets out at this stage.
Houston Gamblers
Home: Shell Energy Stadium
First Home Game: Sunday, April 5 (week two)
Actual Capacity: 20,656
Estimated Capacity for UFL: 15,342
Estimated Tickets Distributed (as of 3/2): 9,951
There's a huge caveat to the estimated tickets distributed number here. For the second level, 200 sections, many of the empty seats are in the first several rows. That makes me think they didn't open the entire section. If that's the case, the estimated capacity (which seems rather large for a historically lukewarm spring football market) would decrease by a few thousand, as would the estimated tickets distributed. It's just not possible to tell by simply looking at the seating chart. It also looks like it's they may have recently opened some sections.
Louisville Kings
Home: Lynn Family Stadium
First Home Game: Friday, March 27 (week one)
Actual Capacity: 15,304
Estimated Capacity for UFL: 9,589
Estimated Tickets Distributed (as of 3/2): 7,909
The team with the most buzz in terms of attendance leading up to week one (thanks in part to a post from Lynn Bowden on Twitter/X about the Kings nearing a sellout), there are fewer than 1,000 tickets left for the Friday night league opener, and maybe around 500 when taking into account those being resold. There are club seats, Supporters standing room only and Waterfront general admission seats that don't factor into that capacity or tickets distributed number. With those, they may be able to get over 10,000 in the building.
Orlando Storm
Home: Inter&Co Stadium
First Home Game: Sunday, March 29 (week one)
Actual Capacity: 25,500
Estimated Capacity for UFL: 15,907
Estimated Tickets Distributed (as of 3/2): 11,679
Without many tickets on the secondary market through Ticketmaster, it appears as if Orlando has about 4,000 tickets still outstanding for their week one home debut. No section has more than 100 single-game tickets remaining, so it's interesting that the resale market is relatively light. The stadium has 20 suites that are either sold out or were not put on sale. Most of the stadium does appear open, aside from the 100 sections in one end zone and some corner sections.
St. Louis Battlehawks
Home: The Dome at America's Center
First Home Game: Saturday, March 28 (week one)
Actual Capacity: 67,277
Estimated Capacity for UFL: 31,609
Estimated Tickets Distributed (as of 3/2): 20,126
This is the first time in the team's five-year existence that the Battlehawks have had the opportunity to play week one at home. The size of the stadium, the largest in the UFL, has allowed the team to open up more sections based on demand in the past. Right now, the team has three levels opened up, and the third level is only on one side of the stadium behind the St. Louis bench. While 40,000 might not be attainable this year given the excitement and newness that wears off year over year, 30,000 is a reasonable number to shoot for. If you fall short to around 25,000, that should still be acceptable for what has become the gold standard in fan support for modern spring football.