For its inaugural season, the UFL did very well on TV. At the box office, not so much.
The eight-team league averaged 12,828 fans for the 40 regular-season games played over 10 weekends, via Sports Business Journal.
The St. Louis Battlehawks led the way with 34,365 per game. Without those numbers, the league would have averaged 8,532 per game.
Second on the list was the D.C. Defenders at 14,143, more than 20,000 per game behind St. Louis. Bringing up the rear were the Memphis Showboats, where only 6,893 showed up per game.
The goal for the UFL should be to put teams where fans are. Seattle has done well with the XFL. Spurned NFL markets (San Diego and Oakland, for example) could work.
Having three teams in Texas could be a bit much; the NFL has only two. And it would make sense to have at least one team in the vicinity of Ohio/Pennsylvania/New York.
While it looks like the UFL has done enough to survive, the challenge will be to thrive. To get there, the UFL needs more markets like St. Louis.
