Challenges remain, but UFL touting positives of 2026 season - ESPN

The United Football League had a problem earlier this month. Its Orlando Storm franchise had earned a home game in the semifinal round of the 2026 playoffs, but Inter&Co Stadium was already booked for the weekend. League officials failed to find a nearby alternative and settled on a neutral site nearly 1,000 miles away in Columbus, Ohio.

The local pushback was fierce — and UFL co-owner Mike Repole was thrilled.

«It was a great problem and a terrible problem,» said Repole, a billionaire entrepreneur who lives near Orlando, Florida, and invested in the UFL last summer. «I mean, I was the most hated guy in Orlando. I joked that I had to pull my daughter out of school. It was amazing the negativity that we got. Honestly, I didn't think people would care that much. There was an uproar and it was nuts, and that was a good thing.»

Spring football leagues have struggled to connect with fans for decades. Unintentionally, Repole believed, the Orlando stadium crisis revealed that the UFL had penetrated local markets with more intensity than the league realized. League officials made another run at Florida-area stadium operators and, six days before kickoff, they reached agreement to stage the game 50 miles away at Daytona Stadium. A crowd of 6,317 fans showed up for the Storm's 28-22 loss to the D.C. Defenders.

As the UFL approaches Saturday's United Bowl between the Defenders and Louisville Kings (3 p.m. ET, ABC), it faces many of the challenges of its upstart predecessors. Attendance dropped slightly leaguewide in 2026. Some coaches complained about a lack of control over their rosters. Merchandise stores were thinly stocked early in the season. And games that drew more than 1 million television viewers — about 20% of a typical