REPOLE PLANS SHAKE-UP OF UFL

The United Football League’s latest addition is wasting no time in voicing his ambitions for the organisation’s future.

Despite widerspread concerns over the viability of yet another struggling spring league, Mike Repole — who was announced as the UFL’s newest investor last week — has told ESPN that he has visions of not only stabilising the current product, but expanding it over the next 5-10 years

Having been granted full authority to handle the UFL’s business operations, Repole confirmed recent rumours of team relocations by acknowledging at least two will move to a new home in time for next season — revealing Columbus, Ohio as a definite destination — and that number could expand to the four claimed in reports over the past couple of weeks. Repole did not confirm, however, which teams would be relocated, with speculation suggesting it could involve the entire USFL division comprising Birmingham, Michigan, Houston and Memphis, but insisted that ‘venue and attendance’ were at the top of the list of matters to address.

“The vibe hasn’t been to where it should be,” he said. “You can hear a pin drop when someone runs 80 yards. That’s not so good. Nobody wants to turn on the TV and see 10,000 fans in a 65,000-seat stadium. It’s like watching a COVID game.”

Despite the obvious problems affecting the UFL since it was born from the merger of XFL 3.0 and USFL 2.0, Repole insisted that there was realistic scope for the league to double in size over the next decade.

“We’re going to be aggressive,” he said. “If, by 2035, we can’t have 16 teams, I’m going to consider it a personal failure. Other leagues didn’t have the capital that this league has, didn’t have the media giants that this league has, didn’t have the entrepreneurs that this team has…”