Spring football is here to stay, but the Seattle Sea Dragons won’t be coming back any time soon.
Following the completion of its inaugural season, the United Football League, which merged the USFL and XFL together, will return the 2025 season. A report from FOX Sports’ Eric Williams indicates that, “While there was talk of expansion, Year 2 will feature all eight teams returning to their home markets as the league works to refine things during the offseason and build a better product in 2025.”
In other words, if you wanted Seattle to get back into the spring leagues, it’s not happening. The UFL consisted exclusively of teams in the Central and Eastern Time Zones, including three Texas-based teams in San Antonio, Arlington, and Houston.
Television viewership for the UFL was higher than both the USFL and XFL in 2023, although attendance was heavily skewed by the presence of the St. Louis Battlehawks, who averaged over 34,000 fans in their home games.
In an interview with Williams, UFL head of football operations Daryl Johnston had this to say about building home markets:
“With our home markets, we’ve got to build that trust there — that we’re not going to leave or [that] the league isn’t going to fold,” Johnston said. “We’ve got a couple cities that historically have been a part of spring football, they’ve committed to a team and that team has left. … We’ve still got some trust to build in our home markets. …
“I think we were selling tickets for the home opener in Houston seven days out and in Michigan seven days out. Last year was getting the merger completed, getting everything in place and then putting the season together. This year, we’ve already been planning for season two of the UFL nine months out.”
While no one is going to confuse the UFL with the NFL in terms of product quality (particularly offensive line and quarterback play), it is a place where players can still play the game they love at a professional level. As of June 21, a total of 12 UFL players have signed or are reportedly have signed contracts with NFL teams.
