UFL TO RELOCATE HALF OF LEAGUE FOR 2026
As many as four teams in the United Football League can expect to be playing out of new cities next season as management looks to stem the tide of poor attendances.
According to sources, the entire USFL Division — 2025 finalists Michigan Panthers, Memphis Showboats, Houston Roughnecks and, perhaps most surprisingly given their onfield success, the Birmingham Stallions — are all believed to be on the move, as the UFL scrambles to save its product in the face of yet another spring football struggle.
“The league office is in the planning stages for next season and beyond,” has been the only response from the UFL in the midst of the rumours. “At this point, we have nothing to report on any unauthorised speculation.”
That speculation, which could be confirmed as early as this week despite the mandatory ‘no comment’ from league headquarters, ties in with a wave of redundancies that were made in the past fortnight, with the biggest cuts coming in the same locations as the teams now expected to be on the move.
UFL News Hub, amongst others, believes that the UFL is paving the way for the four USFL-derived teams to be relocated to Columbus, Boise and as yet undetermined cities in both Florida and Kentucky. Louisville is anticipated to be the target in Kentucky, while Tom Brady’s alleged interest in another former USFL team, the Bandits, has turned Florida speculation in the direction of Tampa Bay. It is unclear, however, whether the league intends to simply relocate teams and keep their current nicknames, or start over entirely. Orlando is mooted as a potential alternative to Tampa if that is the case.
With the exception of the Panthers, who actually saw an uptick in attendance but at the unsustainable cost of playing at Ford Field in Detroit, declining interest and, as a result, falling ticket sales have been blamed for the extreme measures that appear to be in place for the 2026 season, with the UFL clearly hoping that a fresh start — in locations that, with the exception of Tampa Bay, do not have embedded NFL franchises — can kickstart the venture and save it from following the same path to extinction as preceding spring leagues.
The Birmingham Stallions showed that, even with four successive title game appearances across the USFL 2.0 and the UFL, location plays an equally important part in longevity. Despite being based in the football hotbed of Alabama, the three-time champions are not immune from the axe that looks set to fall in the coming weeks — even though head coach Skip Holtz insisted that he was told that there would be no relocation (listen here).
For spring league veteran Scooby Wright, news of possible relocation came as a major shock.
“This is why spring football will never be sustainable. Too much change can’t build a fan base….I’m actually sick and disgusted by these moves,” he posted. “Birmingham Alabama will always have a special place in my heart. It was the most fun I ever had playing football…..Sharkdawg mafia forever! Thank you for embracing me….”