As fans get excited about UFL football returning for its second season. Behind the scenes there is anxiety and uncertainty. Unlike the 2024 season, where a new league was born with the merger of the XFL and USFL, there was a sense of endless possibilities with spring football finally heading in the right direction. That is not the case in 2025.
UFL News Hub has been hearing that behind the scenes, its players, coaches and staff are not happy at all. We have had two head coaches, out of the eight, leave a week before the season kicks off for different reasons.
But the foundation on why they left is the same. We are hearing from UFL News Hub sources that there could be more head coaches on the way out. Stay tuned for that. Like we said, no one is happy.
We break down all the head winds going into just the first game the 2025 UFL season.
Labor Dispute
ESPN had an article today quoting UFL players on the state of contract negotiations with the league. Kai Nacua older brother of Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua said the following.
“It’s been tough negotiating with them and trying to figure out where the middle ground is,” Nacua said. “And I mean, we’ve been talking for months and it just doesn’t seem like they’re budging towards the guys that are making this league happen.”
We have been hearing from sources that the league, AKA FOX Sports and specifically UFL Executive Vice President Daryl Johnston, have been approaching things with players as a take it or leave it mentality. We don’t need you, we can find more players point of view. We have heard that from multiple people.
At issue, for the players, is year long health insurance for players and their family. Also an up in pay. The players, who have been playing spring football since 2020, have not gotten a real increase since. In fact, since 2020 more has been taken away from them than added.
At issue is the fact that the United Football League is not owned by local business owners like in the IFL or AF1. The league is owned by FOX Sports, ESPN and RedBird Capital Partners. We will leave Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson out of this since we are not sure how much he owns the league anymore.
FOX or ESPN could fire one or two of their over paid commentators to cover the cost of the players pay. Fox Sports, represented by Fox Corporation’s market capitalization, stands at approximately $24.0 billion. ESPN is valued at $24 billion. RedBird Capital Partners manages approximately $12 billion in assets. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s estimated net worth is around $841 million. The combined estimated valuation of these UFL owners is approximately $60.841 billion. That is the issue.
Not ‘budging’ makes this league seem foolish. In the end, if the players walk out, in this highly charged pollical climate, it will make the league look bad. Also, with what little fan base the league has, do you think fans will go to or watch games with scab players? Will fans help promote the league to friends and build on the foundation of spring football with replacement players?
We have heard this line multiple times. ‘To FOX this is just a TV show’.
Its like Elon Musk making liberals now hate his Tesla brand. Or Bud Light and the Dylan Mulvaney sponsorship. Not a good business decision. Those brands will never recover. A walkout by UFL players could have the same effect for the United Football League and Spring football.
We are hearing from sources that players and management wont meet again until after week one games on Monday.
What They Are Selling
There are 400 players in the UFL. The league likes to sell the idea that this is their opportunity to get back in the NFL, which is somewhat true. This is why management feels like they don’t’ need to pay players. Players can’t get this game tape anywhere else and its only 4 months out the year. These are accurate points of view.
In reality at best, 5%, that is 20 players stay on NFL rosters for any period of time. That’s it. We have seen one ‘Jake Bates’ per Spring season. 80 players got looks on NFL rosters in 2024, not NFL roster paychecks.
Players train year round and put their bodies on the line for three months. Just think how many potential star football players looked at the UFL and said no thanks over the last several years due to pay and benefits, its just not worth it. With $60.841 billion combined, this should not even be an issue.
Like I say to people who penny pinch for corporations, its not your money. The millionaires behind the scenes will be fine.
Houston Ticket Sales
The first Friday Night UFL game on FOX has the St. Louis Battlehawks taking Houston Roughnecks at 8pm ET. Friday night games on FOX is the biggest get for the UFL this off season.
The UFL’s first game of the season, in that Friday Night on FOX space is critical for how casual fans will see the UFL going forward. But there are multiple problems going into this game, the main one is ticket sales.
The Houston Roughnecks return to TDECU Stadium, there home during the XFL days. The team did pretty well at this location in the XFL. However based on estimates, as low as 800-1,000 tickets have been sold. With some estimates at 2,000-5,000. The league had a full year to sell this game. There has been high turn over in the ticketing, social media and marketing over the off season. Not a good sign.
Timing is everything and it might not be all their fault.
TDECU Stadium is the home of the University of Houston. The #1 ranked Houston Cougars men’s basketball team take on the #4 Purdue Boilermakers at 10pm ET on March 28th. The same time as the the UFL game.
The forecast for game day? Rain and Thunderstorms all day. Add the Cougars baseball team play at Darryl and Lori Schroeder Park which is walking distance to TDECU Stadium at 6:30 pm. Though, that game might get rained out due to the weather. Also, the league could get people to come to the UFL game after that game.
Bad Start To Season
Between low attendance, or a player walk out, it is not the way we want to start the 2025 UFL season. There is an energy around this league that fans want to be all in and bring in new fans. It is hard to get excited about something you fear might not be there in a couple days.
Unfortunately for Spring Football fans, this happened before… multiple times. But we wait with fingers crossed for Friday to see what happens.
3 Comments
by 4th&long
The XFL never should have started after the USFL established itself. The USFL model was dirt cheap, and provided what they needed. Looking at attendance and TV ratings – low or high attendance has zero impact on the games TV viewership. That’s the reality. And TV viewership is what is needed to get to next level.
If you want higher attendance don’t price tickets (prior to fees no less) at $100 or $75 or even $60 – that Houston has done. Its ridiculous. Don’t blame the marketing. Just get real. Its either price to sell or priced high, and the league over priced.
Players are also being ridiculous. Look at CFL – avg pay $100k CAD$ is like $70k USD and that’s with QB’s pulling up the avg and an 18game reg season + preseason and camp.
NBA G League players earn a minimum salary of $40,500 for a 5-month to 6-month season.
WNBA min is $65k minimum and 40 games a season, after what 25 years?
You can’t go by 2020 XFL – that was VM money. USFL was $45k in 2022, $55k in 2023 and 2024 but 401k matches, camp and playoffs the avg is well over $60k For a very short season. And they get Stipends for housing too.
UFL players likely were offered a 3% raise (inflation) in 2025.
The players are on less than 1 year contract. Year round HCare and a union makes no sense.
They can go back to flipping burgers or working 9-5 /52 weeks a yr for 40-80k like they avg American.
While 5% may make rosters, more get in camp and get on Practice Squads for at least part of year. NFL Camps pay too, PS weekly is $12,500. Even 3 weeks and the player is at 100k total UFL/NFL for the year.
The UFPA is run by non-professionals, its “disrespect” talk is amateurish street talk. All they have is the nuclear option of a strike and I don’t see player going for it, if they try more will cross the line than don’t – many more. This is why I was against a union from get go, stay in your lane, they have player contracts and that’s enough. They signed a contract, and now they want more? Its extortion. The union has no other options – players should have retired or quit, they are only hurting their colleagues.
Any coaches leaving at this point is a d##k move, they could have bailed weeks or months ago. If its due to player discontent, get over it. You its unprofessional and screws fans and players.
Its all a big shame but nothing surprises me anymore. If the players choose suicide over playing we lose spring FB and the this time it will be on the PLAYERS. Pathetic.
by Ken Granito
I hate to put Daryl “Moose” Johnston on the spot, but I am going to. I am not really familiar with the rest of the UFL ownership group, but I know Daryl Johnston is a good man. I know he is hardworking and if ever there was going to be someone that would put himself out for the greater good, it is Moose. Funny because I am not even a Cowboys fan. As a Cowboy he understood the big picture where he paved the way for a touchdown at the end of the play.
Hell most plays don’t result in a touchdown, just small gains along the way leading the team down the field hopefully leading towards a touchdown, win in the game and hopefully a Super Bowl should all the pieces come together. I think he tried to do this with the USFL and continues to do this for the UFL. I think he knows I bought my football cards for the players, not the very cool logos or because I think these players’ cards will be worth thousands, because really they won’t. I think he thinks making a great league is the ONLY way to make it great for the players. Building a first rate league, like the new offices, first rate television programming and the Sport itself is of utmost importance. Football is football and you need players, but many things need to come together to make it happen, but most of all you need money to make it all work. The one percenters own and run this league. Like any of the American work force to Coporate America, we are merely cows or widgets. Interestingly enough corporate America doesn’t care if America is fiscally sound, but they care that their company is and that their checkbook continues to grow even though there is no way they could EVER spend every last dime. Their kids’, kids’ kids could not even spend every last dime. As a matter of fact with the way interest compounds these days they are already richer than their ancestors that currently live today and will make more money just sitting back, than the rest of us putting in a hard days work. It’s funny that such a large part of this is about healthcare. Healthcare is an issue all across America. It’s the overwhelming reason corporate America looks for Robots and Foreign workers to offset the cost, so their earnings can still grow while sales slide. So players understand that healthcare is an issue all across America. I laugh at the NFLPA. The NFLPA throws rocks at UFL owners, when they told the UFL players, sorry boys not here. They know how complicated this can get, but instead chose to throw the owners under a train. Forget a bus. They did that despite the fact, they know the NFL pays really good salaries, but they know that wasn’t the case until too long ago. Do you know how much money the NFL owners make to allow a trickle down of the amount of money that becomes the salary and even then Dak Prescott makes 60 million dollars for playing half a season while his teammate Kavontae Turpin made 785,000 last year. The NFLPA surely should not be tossing any stones.
That stated UFL owners really believe the players are unimportant at this time as compared with the overall health of the league. I can understand that as you cannot have one without the other. That is the largest problem. They want NFL hopefuls or players that have already made their nest egg such as Denzel Mims, Greg Ward Jr or Greedy Williams will play so they can again play the game that was so important to them. At this time paying a good stable salary with full-time benefits is not fiscally sound. The ownership group hopes one day the league will be so profitable that they will be happy to share this with the players. That is why the league is trying to grow. It is the reason Moose Johnston is trying to spring the UFL players with blocks by trying to allow for good things to happen. Then comes the UFLPA that sends a run-blitz right into Moose Johnston that stuffs the hole, making it even more difficult to help these players.
To recap, if I was a person that agreed to do something (agreeing to the camp invite) and furthermore going to camp you agreed to this. You agreed to this camp invite without ANY reason to believe the league would give you larger salary or increased benefits. Nothing was promised or hinted to. IF you put the league in jeopardy, at this time, it’s on you. However at season’s end , I think there needs to be a large analysis and what the league really makes this year and I am including for TV as well. If they are hiding money there, this needs to come out and although the TV marketing segment of Fox deserves to make money, most of it should be included with the league owners earnings profits and this bounty should be somewhat in play. This is where I am putting it on Daryl Johnston. I am hopeful he can get all the parties to the table and if you need a mediator give me a call.
If this does not work……while searching for places for expansion, I came up with a whole other league, complete with stadiums and locales. If I could get former and current NFL players to invest we could have a league that works. The league would be more about football and more about building something self-sustainable. It would be about taking profits when they are there and putting money aside for a rainy day and although the league may not pay so well in the beginning it would still be about the benefit of the players even after they are gone so they would always be part of the league. The player and coach would get more as they put in more. It would be about player owners giving back to the sport they love and helped them get where they are while still being part of the game they love while reaping the benefits as team owners.
I feel the UFL could be a wonderful league. I feel they have put a lot of good out there, invested in the league and where they felt it made sense the player. They could very well be doing everything they can do for the players at this time. They say they are negotiating in good faith and maybe they are, but they need to bring real numbers to the table. It is like asking someone to go without and not truly explaining why. IF it’s more important for you to hide the numbers than you truly are treating the players like cows. It’s like in Forrest Gump where they talk about “stupid is as stupid does.” I am not saying the league or players are stupid, but if you are saying you are negotiating in good faith, the real numbers better be part of it. I am not saying now. This season is too important and need to be included, but at the end of this year you should compile all the data and include the last 5 or 6 years and you will include this year. As far as the players you agreed to the camp invite need to play because they came to camp and went through camp. To do anything else, but play is you going against your word. If you knew you weren’t going to play you should have just gone home or not showed up at all. This is your word. In the real world nothing is more important. I already presume anything the 1% tells us is a lie, because they cannot see it from our point of view. They would have to face they are living a lie, so it needs to come down to the numbers. There is a reason why scripture tells us. “It is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven”.
I re-read my comments over and over and I realize I re-iterated the same stuff over and over. That stated, I don’t want to take any of it out as I feel this is so important.
by Gary Winter
While I believe the players should have the insurance to cover their families for the whole year. After all, their rights are tied to the UFL or their current team until they’re released during tryouts the following year, I assume. As for their pay? Everybody wants to make more money at their job and many (including the UFL players and coaches) of those folks are willing to take action to improve their wages. Having said that, the players knew about their insurance limits and what their pay was going to be when they signed up. While I’m all for them establishing their union and trying to get what they consider fair wages and benefits, waiting until the season begins in a fledgling league trying to establish itself isn’t the time or place. Making the league better and more exciting seems the way to go to me. The better the league, the more popular which will increase crowd size and viewership numbers is the way to get what they’re trying to build to. Yes, the owners could move in that direction as well and probably resolve these issues.
As for the very first Friday Night Game being played in Houston? Well, that still just seems very short sided(?) to me.
Considering the first Friday Game, doesn’t it make sense to play the initial game in a venue where there would almost certainly be a much larger crowd to show during the game as well as future advertisements simply to make the league look more appealing and successful? Houston is not by any means a very good draw at this point for these games and it’s known by anyone who pays any attention. St. Louis might’ve gotten anywhere from 30,000 to 45,000 in the dome rather than anything they will get in Houston. Weather is also not a factor in the dome’s attendance.
It simply seems that the league would want to show their success as much as possible. This would have provided that. Success breeds success!
In fact, it seems that the league should be using St. Louis a bit and pit them against the other teams to create some rivalry with other teams. This might give some places incentive to “Out do” St. Louis and increase attendance a little. Instead, we see Arlington, Birmingham and San Antonio more in their ads. Yes, Birmingham was the League Champion and have quite a run going but they still don’t draw and that’s what the league should be looking for, how to get the other venues to draw better crowds. So, maybe make St. Louis the bad guy, we can take it.